The Series A was $8.14M and they were acquired for $3.5M. If the team tried to get a chunk of that then I doubt they'll be getting funding again.
Remember that the acquiring company is shelling out several million and they really don't give a rat's behind about the liquidity preference.
It's not as simple as that. Both SimpleGeo and UrbanAirship are Foundry Group companies[1][2].
This was clearly a firesale, and Joe Stump appears to care for his team somewhat: Cofounder Joe Stump used to be Digg’s chief architect. According to TechCrunch, three of the new hires were laid off by Digg in March and the fourth one decided to leave. Now, SimpleGeo is bringing in the new guns but also familiar people, which seems to really solidify the team that stands now at 17 employees.[1]
It might be as simple as making sure everyone got a new job, and maybe the non-Foundry Group investors got some money back.
> If the team tried to get a chunk of that then I doubt they'll be getting funding again.
Again, it is in the interest of the acquiring company to have the liquidity prefs waived. They want the money to go to the team and have no interest in enriching the VCs.
One exception: Sometimes there is a conflict of interest, where the acquirer has someone in a key position who is also a limited in the VC fund. This is often the reason for some really dumb prices being paid in various deals.
The Series A was $8.14M and they were acquired for $3.5M. If the team tried to get a chunk of that then I doubt they'll be getting funding again.
Remember that the acquiring company is shelling out several million and they really don't give a rat's behind about the liquidity preference.
It's not as simple as that. Both SimpleGeo and UrbanAirship are Foundry Group companies[1][2].
This was clearly a firesale, and Joe Stump appears to care for his team somewhat: Cofounder Joe Stump used to be Digg’s chief architect. According to TechCrunch, three of the new hires were laid off by Digg in March and the fourth one decided to leave. Now, SimpleGeo is bringing in the new guns but also familiar people, which seems to really solidify the team that stands now at 17 employees.[1]
It might be as simple as making sure everyone got a new job, and maybe the non-Foundry Group investors got some money back.
[1] http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/18/simplegeo-second-funding/
[2] http://www.prweb.com/releases/UrbanAirshipFunding/SeriesB201...