An app developer named Dalton Caldwell has written an acerbic open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The letter is about how Caldwell was called into Facebook to meet with a group of executives, and how these executives told Caldwell that his startup was competitve with a Facebook product, and that he should therefore sell it to Facebook or face destruction.
Caldwell says he rejected the offer. "I was not interested in an acqui-hire."
"I said that if Facebook wanted to have a serious conversation about acquiring my team and product, I would entertain the idea. Otherwise, I had zero interest in seeing my product shut down and joining Facebook. I told your team I would rather reboot my company than go down that route."
Caldwell goes on to claim that this sort of M&A strategy is common at Facebook. He writes: "Several other startup founders & Facebook employees have told me that what I experienced was part of a systematic M&A “formula”. Your team doesn’t seem to understand that being “good negotiators” vs implying that you will destroy someone’s business built on your “open platform” are not the same thing."
Facebook Told Me To Sell My Business To Them Or Be Destroyed, And I Said Stuff It - Business Insider
The letter is about how Caldwell was called into Facebook to meet with a group of executives, and how these executives told Caldwell that his startup was competitve with a Facebook product, and that he should therefore sell it to Facebook or face destruction.
Caldwell says he rejected the offer. "I was not interested in an acqui-hire."
"I said that if Facebook wanted to have a serious conversation about acquiring my team and product, I would entertain the idea. Otherwise, I had zero interest in seeing my product shut down and joining Facebook. I told your team I would rather reboot my company than go down that route."
Caldwell goes on to claim that this sort of M&A strategy is common at Facebook. He writes: "Several other startup founders & Facebook employees have told me that what I experienced was part of a systematic M&A “formula”. Your team doesn’t seem to understand that being “good negotiators” vs implying that you will destroy someone’s business built on your “open platform” are not the same thing."
Facebook Told Me To Sell My Business To Them Or Be Destroyed, And I Said Stuff It - Business Insider
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