> [Uri Levine] decided not to join the ranks of his famous acquirer
I think that means he was not acqui-hired. He didn't work for Google after the sale. He just took his money and moved on. Lots of employees of acquired companies don't join their acquirer for one reason or another. I suppose that can work for founders too. I've read of a few founders that were disappointed once they were acqui-hired because they lost control of something they had built... but still have to work on it.
Uri wasn't full-time at Waze for a while now.. he co-founded Feex almost 2 years ago, and he's also not full time there. He does a lot of angel investments. I don't think that him joining Google was every a possibility.
It depends. I think acqui-hires have kind of impacted that impression. For larger startups that are acquired many times it's assume that the founder/entrepreneur will not go over with the acquisition. All parties understand they just won't be interested/do well inside a bigger corp. So the COO/CFO/Head of Sales often is the new "number 1" that stays and ensures a smoother transition.
It's hard for me to undertsand if that's what happened here: "After selling map-software provider Waze to Google for $1.1 billion last June, the 49-year-old Israeli decided not to join the ranks of his famous acquirer."
that would seem to read like he never went over at all.
It really depends. If Waze was large enough the founder may have been hands off from the engineering side at that point so he wouldn't have much value to Google at that point. Golden handcuffs are usually attached to the employees that have essential technical knowledge.
I think that means he was not acqui-hired. He didn't work for Google after the sale. He just took his money and moved on. Lots of employees of acquired companies don't join their acquirer for one reason or another. I suppose that can work for founders too. I've read of a few founders that were disappointed once they were acqui-hired because they lost control of something they had built... but still have to work on it.