The article doesn't make it clear; Do they get their code also? Presumably the original acquisition was of the "product" but the article REPEATEDLY points out the original founders have gained the rights to the trademark and the domain.
What good is the domain without the code? They could rewrite the code from scratch. Though, that maks me wonder... If I single handedly write a piece of SW that does "X" and sell it to Yahoo. Can I then make a new site / app that dose "X"? Is it copyright infringement (a la the android / oracle Tim Sort) since anything I write that is an identical app is likely to have very similar, if not identical, code?
How much of what is in my head is mine and how much is covered by copyright if I've written it before?
If I single handedly write a piece of SW that does "X" and sell it to Yahoo. Can I then make a new site / app that dose "X"?
One example that comes to mind is Miller Puckette, who wrote Max, and then a few years later wrote its main open-source competitor, Pure Data. It seems quite possible to write a clone of your own software without literally writing the same thing, especially if it's been a few years and you have some new ideas about how to do it now. My guess is that doing so would most often be sunk, if it is, by software patents or explicit clauses in the sale terms, rather than copyright.
"If I single handedly write a piece of SW that does "X" and sell it to Yahoo. Can I then make a new site / app that dose "X"?"
Quite often part of the purchase agreement is that you won't build a competitor to X for a certain number of years. Sometimes they go as far as not competing with the acquirer at all for that duration.
And if you use code that was included as part of the purchase, you're playing with fire.
The company I work for was recently acquired. A part of the agreement for the founders, aside from having to stay with the company for 2 years, is they can't have more than 1% ownership of a competing company for that duration and up to a year after employment termination.
a rockstar team ... successfully exited the company to Yahoo
I assume this is trying to invoke the jargon use of "an exit", but in this context it has a garden-path reading implying that the team succeeded in quitting the company. I probably would've just said "successfully sold the company".
A somewhat more subtle example of what my friend refers to as "vouns" (ie. nouns used as verbs) - regularly "gifted" to the English speaking peoples of the world by the Americans.
Although exit is of course a verb, it's use in this sentence is pretty confusing given the fact that they're undoubtedly referering to "an exit".
How weird. Does anyone know if this is indeed connected to Marissa Mayer? If so, looks like she's off to a pretty good start when it comes to mending Yahoo!'s broken image.
I just hope that MM values inside talent and does not go on a startup shopping spree. Yahoo has great undervalued, underutilized assets, and with Yahoo's distribution and reach it can do great things without overpaying for "frothy" startups with dubious value/products.
Flickr, Yahoo as a portal (5th most visited site in the U.S.), International presence and distribution, Yahoo Finance, Games and Mail.
On top of that, Yahoo ain't financially dead a la Nokia and RIM. Yahoo is very profitable, with billions of revenues and net income. I wouldn't write off Yahoo just yet.
The next time I'm involved in an acquisition as a founder, I'm going to negotiate clauses to reverse the acquisition based on milestones by the acquiring company. While I would like to think that this should only happen under severe circumstances that one would not usually predict, shit happens. I wasn't prepared or experienced enough to protect myself.
Talent acqhires needs to be clear and not overpromise and under deliver. There's nothing I respect more than transparency, and there's nothing I despise more than koolaid. Koolaid works for some, necessary evil for uniting a company during hard times, but not for the guys (and gals) who've been in the trenches and understand the game. Maybe this is part of the game, but who wants to go through the legal headaches to make an acquisitions and then go back to HR to find human capital replacements 1-2 years in because they got frustrated and left?...
What good is the domain without the code? They could rewrite the code from scratch. Though, that maks me wonder... If I single handedly write a piece of SW that does "X" and sell it to Yahoo. Can I then make a new site / app that dose "X"? Is it copyright infringement (a la the android / oracle Tim Sort) since anything I write that is an identical app is likely to have very similar, if not identical, code?
How much of what is in my head is mine and how much is covered by copyright if I've written it before?