[goatforce5]

The original owner could have added the right to buy the domain back from the new owners at a fixed cost should they wish to sell it in the future (or right of first refusal, etc) if he was worried about that.

I worked for a start-up that acquired a smaller company (complete with an awesome name) for cash/shares. Smaller company supposedly had a clause in their contract saying they could buy the company back for £1 should the new owner run out of money. Fast forward 2 years: parent company failed and smaller company carried on...

[lauradhamilton]

Wow, that seems like a dangerous perverse incentive to me, if the founders kept working for the parent company after the acquisition.

[goatforce5]

Yes, the smaller guys never really integrated themselves with the rest of the team and were pretty smug about the whole situation all when the parent company started to go down.