[goatforce5]

Worked for a start up that was in an extremely long period of due diligence with a big company you've heard of. The big company was giving our company money to meet payroll, so they knew our piggy bank was empty.

Big company says thanks but no thanks. We all get laid off by the start up at lunch time. That afternoon our company lets it be known that they'll be filing a law suit asking for damages of a billion dollars (a similar company had recently sold for several hundred million and it was the dotcom boom days - a billion sounded not entirely insane).

Big company has a change of heart late that night and decides to buy us for tens of millions of dollars. People called and told to come in to the office in the morning - the day had been saved!

The next morning everyone was fired by big company and the little startup was shut down. Ooops.

[hga]

Errr, where's the oops?

Sounds like the big company really didn't want to buy and that was the definitive end of the startup, but after the threat of the lawsuit either someone got paid 8 figures presumably to avoid the lawsuit or the big company reneged on the payment, at which point no one is any worse off.