[zafriedman]

Investors shouldn't like acqui-hires unless it is an agreed upon goal in the first place. In fact, I guess that investors wouldn't appreciate any misunderstanding of goals on any level, and it seems to be an oft-cited reason for entrepreneurs losing their jobs at the behest of venture capitalists. But if I had $1 million to invest into a business, and from my experience I had a reasonable expectation that a company I'm investing in could be acqui-hired for $50 million, and we agreed upon that from the outset, then I could see myself making that deal and being happy when the result came to fruition.

[Retric]

A lot of Acqui-hires are a choice between 98% chance of total failure vs. x% of their initial investment back. It's not a goal it's simply a way to cut their losses when the company is on their last legs.

[tptacek]

This is true, but as has been pointed out repeatedly, even if a company faces a 98% chance of total failure, many investors would prefer they chase the 2% chance of success rather than recovery of X% of their investments. VC investments either win or they don't; salvage isn't interesting to them.