These are a few tips that executives in charge of acquisitions at the companies told the tech community in Seattle at the TechNW conference on Monday. Despite the struggling economy, they are all continuing to make strategic acquisitions.
One of the worst transgressions, most of the executives agreed, is lying to a potential acquirer about your company. Some "come in and tell insanely wild stores about the deal they were about to sign," said Rob Adams, senior director of corporate development at Cisco. The number of people who do that is surprising, he said. But it's an instant deal breaker.
"When I ask if you have open-source software in your product don't say no if you do," said Marc Brown, Microsoft's managing director of corporate development. He expects a bit of exaggeration from startups, but there's a fine line between overselling your company and lying, he said.
Other tips from the executives included advising startups to be mindful of the kinds of contracts they sign. Facebook's Mike Brown, manager of corporate development, has seen plenty of contracts between companies he's interested in and their customers that are perpetual. Facebook often wants to "gracefully wind down" customer deals after making an acquisition, and such contracts make that very challenging, he said.
He's also seen contracts that may stretch the intent of terms-of-service deals with providers. Sometimes small companies can get away with that. "But when Facebook considers acquiring the company that puts us in a precarious position. We have a target on our chest for litigation," he said. Read the rest here
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