[magicalist]

Just going off the ones I recognize from this list[1], older than "a couple years" but since, say, 2009: On2, reCAPTCHA, AdMob, ITA, Widevine, Motorola (though arguably it had no awesome product to maintain), Waze.

But more than half the companies in that range I don't recognize, so maybe their product is still around (or is fully functional, but only within Google Docs or something).

You're also ignoring the fact that many acquisitions wouldn't have survived without being acquired and their products would have shut down (or "pivoted" until they were unrecognizable). Tesla obviously wasn't in that category, but that actually makes it harder to compare to historical data, as few companies really parallel it well.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisition...

[mikeash]

Waze is a great example. They've basically gone full-on vampire on that one, sucking out all the delicious (user-generated!) data and presumably headed for leaving Waze itself as a desiccated husk.

[magicalist]

A great example of what? It hasn't been quite two years (June 11, 2013), but it's still around.

Presumably you mean if it's shut down it will be a great example, but right now it's actually a great example of the opposite: improving the products of the acquiring company while keeping the acquired product going. You could put up more walls between the two, but at some point that becomes just investing, not acquisition.

[mikeash]

I think it's a great example right now. I don't see any benefits from the Google acquisition, and the product is slowly stagnating. The iOS app doesn't even have native iPhone 6+ support yet! Meanwhile Google is making great use of Waze data in Google Maps. The current state of things is great if you're a Maps user, less great if you're a Waze user, and I don't see any indication that's going to change.

Put the Waze acquisition onto Tesla. Google buys Tesla just as the Model S is coming out, and starts using the technology to benefit their own products. Which products it would benefit I'm not sure, but maybe they improve the batteries for Android phones, or start using the Model S as the testbed for their self-driving cars, or something. Meanwhile the Model S stays as it was in 2013, with some minor improvements. This would be a terrible outcome!

[magicalist]

Waze does need to update for the iPhone 6 even (not just the plus), but there are many non-Google apps that need to do the same, and it does still get updates. Supposedly they're working on a UI refresh[1], but that's what everyone who hasn't updated yet says.

I'm not arguing that a Tesla acquisition would have been better than the outcome we got, there's almost no way it would have been, but I would argue that that would be true for any company doing the acquiring. Acquisitions are just really tough for the identity of a product by their very nature.

[1] https://twitter.com/waze/status/584435142040690688

[mikeash]

"I would argue that that would be true for any company doing the acquiring."

Well then, we agree. I'm not saying, "Thank goodness Google didn't acquire them." I'm saying, "Thank goodness they weren't acquired" and it just happens to be in the context of a story about Google doing the acquiring.

I can't think of any company that could have acquired Tesla where the outcome would have been favorable for the things I personally want. There were rumors going around a while ago about Apple buying them, and my reaction was the same there.