acquihire

present singular third person acquihires · participle present acquihiring · participle past acquihired · past acquihired · alternative acqhire · alternative acq-hire · alternative acquhire · alternative acqu-hire · alternative acqui-hire

1. slangtransitivebusinessTo acquire a company, in particular a small startup, to recruit its employees, rather than for its products or services.

   “Tarek was an acquihired founder like you. He turned out to be so awesome, I made him co-head of one of Phluttr's biggest projects! But that's rare. I usually look to guys like you and him to start something new. You're entrepreneurs, after all![…]”

   2017, Rob Reid, After On, Del Rey, →ISBN

plural acquihires · alternative acqhire · alternative acq-hire · alternative acquhire · alternative acqu-hire · alternative acqui-hire

1. slangbusinessAn acquisition of a company to recruit its employees, rather than for its products or services.

   There are a lot of really excellent founders pursuing consumer ideas that just never work -- that's why companies like Yahoo and Google and others can do so many acquihires.

   2013 October 11, Marc Andreessen (as pmarca), “Weary of ‘Fruit Fly’ Consumer Startups, Andreessen Horowitz Raises Series A Bar”, in Hacker News, comment

   1 more example

   Then, in August, they bought Push Pop press, which was seen as an acquihire of designers Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas, who designed several of key pieces of the iPhone interface.

   2013 May 2, Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Facebook Designs the 'Perfect Empty Vessel' for Your Mind”, in The Atlantic