Yahoo acquires Ptch(blog.ptch.com)
blog.ptch.com
Yahoo acquires Ptch
http://blog.ptch.com/post/68919650988/ptch-joins-yahoo
25 comments
I am so tired of the upbeat acquihire 'hey, users, this is good for you!' spin.
If it is an acqui-hire, then think of the scenario. A team that's probably burned out. The passion probably died a while back and along with it went the mission.
What type of announcement do you expect?
What type of announcement do you expect?
We appreciate that you signed up for and used our product.
Things haven't gone as well as we had hoped and we're
exhausted. The truth is we'd be shutting down the site
in due time anyway but this is a better option for us and
doesn't make any real difference for you, our user.
Ideally an honest one.
Edit: here's a thought.
Thanks again for your support of Product since our launch. It means the world to us, and it's been a terrific ride for us. Unfortunately, we haven't seen the broad usage of our service necessary to sustain it and we'll be shutting it down in X months. Luckily, BigCo is acquiring our team, which means that we'll have jobs making their quasi-similar product even better.
Here's how you get your data: (blah)
Here are some similar services you may want to consider moving to: (blah)
Edit: here's a thought.
Thanks again for your support of Product since our launch. It means the world to us, and it's been a terrific ride for us. Unfortunately, we haven't seen the broad usage of our service necessary to sustain it and we'll be shutting it down in X months. Luckily, BigCo is acquiring our team, which means that we'll have jobs making their quasi-similar product even better.
Here's how you get your data: (blah)
Here are some similar services you may want to consider moving to: (blah)
You want honesty?
How about:
"Thanks again for your support of Product since our launch. It means we're now in a position to get acquired by Yahoo. In other words, your support means we get money. We could gush about how much you mean to us, but really, we're running a business here, with the explicit goal of making money. We've done that now, so, thanks!"
How about:
"Thanks again for your support of Product since our launch. It means we're now in a position to get acquired by Yahoo. In other words, your support means we get money. We could gush about how much you mean to us, but really, we're running a business here, with the explicit goal of making money. We've done that now, so, thanks!"
After the liquidation preference the founders
(probably 1-3 people) are likely to get 90%
of the remaining proceeds and the staff –
those engineers that the acquiring company
so desperately wants – would ordinarily
receive a very small proportion.
Hopefully Ptch employees were making market wages, because an acquihire certainly won't net them much of anything.
Valid.
I wonder if the founders feel any pressure from the acquiring company to spin the acquisition as purely positive without revealing the more than likely disappointing outcome.
I wonder if the founders feel any pressure from the acquiring company to spin the acquisition as purely positive without revealing the more than likely disappointing outcome.
One of the online services I used most, Meebo, gave a similar goodbye message upon being acquired by google. Something like "We're excited for this! It's going to be great! By the way, we will be gone soon, bye!"
And then they were gone. I use Pidgin now, but I prefer just having it in the browser to use on any machine any time.
And then they were gone. I use Pidgin now, but I prefer just having it in the browser to use on any machine any time.
Its a bit of a joke delivering bad news go the users with a positive spin... There is nothing good about this as far as the user is concerned.
Ptch was incubated at Dreamworks and was a pretty high-profile project internally there. As another commenter noted, it was something along the lines of an instagram video type of app, with very notable enhancements (think the equivalent of instagram filters, powered by dreamworks technology and content).
It was publicly available in the iOS App Store but didn't get much traction. I'm not sure what's left of the team, as I believe all of the original mobile engineers were already poached.
It was publicly available in the iOS App Store but didn't get much traction. I'm not sure what's left of the team, as I believe all of the original mobile engineers were already poached.
Rule 1 when announcing your imminent acqui-hiredness: tell us what your company did when making your announcement, otherwise it is just gloating.
Can anyone tell me what ptch actually did?
Can anyone tell me what ptch actually did?
How do you pronounce the name of this company? Patch? Pitch?
Their homepage says
"Make a ptch (pronounced "pitch") by combining the photos and videos on your phone, or using media from your social networks, like Facebook or Instagram.
Personalize it by easily adding captions, music, and effects."
"Make a ptch (pronounced "pitch") by combining the photos and videos on your phone, or using media from your social networks, like Facebook or Instagram.
Personalize it by easily adding captions, music, and effects."
Putsch. It's actually a revolutionary online e-government service.
/jk
/jk
Yahoo(whimsy)!
Does anyone have any idea how this fits into Yahoo's overall strategy?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/11/26..., Marissa Mayer has made several statements about not having enough clip inventory for all of the ad inventory they have. User generated content is cheap... I have no idea if it's that, technology, acqui-hired, or what, though.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing
The only strategy is pumping and dumping the stock.