[irjustin]

Thanks to Troy for HIBP and the story here.

It may be because he cannot speak towards the specifics of the deal, but I truly hope there was a breakup clause.

For those un-aware, M&A deals eventually go exclusive which, as this post points out, is very very time consuming, which means expensive. Those who are involved in the deal itself, very little work gets done that runs the business.

So to protect against the downside for the company getting purchased, a break up clause to give them cash if the purchasing company does not follow through.

Only companies with in great negotiating positions can command these things, but sounds like Troy was in a great position when looking at the initial 43 buyers.

[tptacek]

Does anyone here have a story about a startup operating at Troy Hunt's (tiny) scale actually getting a breakup fee? I've been through a couple acquisitions now and I've never even heard of someone getting a credible binding breakup clause.

[dd36]

I negotiated the acquirer paying all legal fees and for our time. We were tiny. It worked out. Like others said, spent a lot of time drafting superfluous policy docs in response to requests for copies...

[illumin8]

Yeah, all I can say is "ouch." I went through a very similar courtship process with a large tech unicorn and luckily my outcome was good, but halfway through the process I basically had to ask them to give me 5 figures in legal fees because I was paying a huge bill to attorneys and the power dynamics between single person startup and unicorn are huge. They were spending 6 figures on attorney fees and I was spending a smaller multiple, but as a single person startup.

I hope he got good advice, because this sounds really bad. HIBP is an amazing resource, and should easily command an 8-9 figure exit for the founder. It's disappointing to learn that the one suitor he settled on ended up being a dud.

[armitron]

It’s a database with public data. Let’s not get carried away.

[pgodzin]

> I kid you not, was in a meeting at [big tech company] HQ in [HQ location] and a comment was made to the effect that "there is only one service they trust as a white hat (Troy and HIBP) and I'm like "fuck how does one guy corner the market on trust?"

That's invaluable

[pbhjpbhj]

But also, much of that value is potentially lost the moment the sale goes through.

[manigandham]

Right up until someone needs to put a price on it.