[jmathai]

I'm curious about these acquisitions. If DailyBooth raised $7M then how is an acqui-hire approached?

Is there contention with the investors or at this point is the business a lost cause anyway? Or do the two companies share investors and it works out as "shuffling" talent?

[colinsidoti]

There have been a number of articles about this. For some reason what pops to mind is: VC's dont really like it, Conway thinks it's good for entrepreneurs. (Who knows though, maybes there's a pretty good chance Conway is invested in both the acquirer and the acquired.)

From what I've heard, despite not liking it, VCs haven't done anything to protect themselves in the event of an acqui-hire. A lot of times the cash in an acqui-hire doesn't go to the company, but rather to the salaries of those being hired. So while a VC may have negotiated preference on the cash that results from on acquisition, they never see the cash from acqui-hire situations.

That said, I suspect it's hard for an entrepreneur to take a deal that screws their investors in good conscience, and they would make an effort to get their investors at least paid back (which still kinda screws them, but might keep things more amicable).

Edit: Regards to sharing investors, in this case they seem to share Sequoia, Conway (SV Angel), and YC, but there are a ton of others including Ignition (which led DailyBooth's A round) that aren't also invested in AirBNB.

[brianbreslin]

Is this an exchange of stock primarily? i.e. airbnb gives the original investors $20M in stock or something, and cashes the founders a bit of $? I'm curious how this would work as well.

[jimboyoungblood]

typically the original investors get their cash back (no more, no less). there's no reason an acquiring company would want their stock in the hands of random investors they have no prior relationship with.