[wil421]

> Small company rises to produce quality software, it sells, responds to bugs, listens to users, adds features etc.

I would say:

Small company invests time and money into creating a decent enough product. They listen to customers to build their roadmap and respond to most bugs in a reasonable time. Small company could grow to a medium or large and still hold true to their roots.

Large company buys a mediocre to decent company instead of doing R&D. New company is integrated into large companies suite of products.

Large company fixes only enough to keep the product running or shuts it down completely. Support loses its personal touch and is transferred to the cheapest FTE location. Large company’s corporate politics causes infighting between departments with similar products.

Large company merges with equally large company to reduce competition. Execs cash out and leave ASAP. That’s where I work now.

[tomxor]

Sorry I edited away your quote since it was implicit in parent.

Your elaboration sounds more accurate i agree, but I think the end result is the same (a dead product with buried source code and wasted investment from it's users).