Acq-Hire

Definition

When a company acquires another company not for its product but for its talent, basically paying to dissolve a startup and recycle its employees.

Example Usage

We're being acquired by Google as an acq-hire, which means our product gets shut down in 6 months but we get stock options and bay area salaries.

Origin

Blending of 'acquisition' and 'hire'; popularized in tech industry circa 2010s

Fun Fact

Acq-hires are typically valued at $500K-$2M per engineer, making them a way for startups to raise funding disguised as a company sale

Source: Modern tech acquisition terminology

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