"If you are selling a company, get a stock deal from the buying company and save a ton on taxes."
Another factor: consider the current stock price of the acquirer and how it relates to the company's intrinsic valuation (if you don't know enough to estimate intrinsic valuation, learn enough finance until you do). People who sold dot-coms in late '99 with a one-year lockup got screwed: their payout wasn't worth anything by the time they could sell, and oftentimes the acquirer was bankrupt by then. People who sold dot-coms in early '98 (Bo Peabody, and I think PG may be in this boat) made out handsomely. People who sold dot-coms in 2002 to strong, growing companies - assuming they could find any buyers - would have become filthy rich. If Friendster had taken Google's $30M offer back then, it would be worth close to $1B now.
"[...] the YouTube founders are now set for life and count it as personal wealth."
Well, unless Google stock crashes. As anyone who has ever been to a casino knows, it's not your money until you've cashed in your chips -- at any time before that, it could all disappear.
Another factor: consider the current stock price of the acquirer and how it relates to the company's intrinsic valuation (if you don't know enough to estimate intrinsic valuation, learn enough finance until you do). People who sold dot-coms in late '99 with a one-year lockup got screwed: their payout wasn't worth anything by the time they could sell, and oftentimes the acquirer was bankrupt by then. People who sold dot-coms in early '98 (Bo Peabody, and I think PG may be in this boat) made out handsomely. People who sold dot-coms in 2002 to strong, growing companies - assuming they could find any buyers - would have become filthy rich. If Friendster had taken Google's $30M offer back then, it would be worth close to $1B now.