[thomasahle]

> This goes hand-in-hand with an over-heated sales team pushing hockey-stick growth

This seems like just another argument for limiting startup acquires. Perhaps if a big exit wasn't the goal, the company would focus on more long term viability.

Anyway, I don't think they big companies care as much about whether they destroy value, as long as they destroy a potential competitor.

[jahewson]

I see competition often being less about the startup and more about which other competing big tech company could buy the startup to consolidate an existing market strategy. I’d more charitably call it “revenue protection” to preemptively acquire them.

Startup acquisitions, in the absence of astoundingly deep due-diligence should probably be placed in portfolios where a 5:1 failure rate can be tolerated. I’m not sure how such an acquisition would be compensated.

[rtkwe]

It's not just the company internally that want (needs?) those big exits, the whole VC architecture is built around shot gunning out money for the occasional huge pay off.