Pretty disappointed that I was downvoted, given that it was a genuine question. No need to be cryptic or condescending.
I'm asking because this is shop that makes a lot of iOS apps with a hope that one hits. They don't have a singular product that they sell. So what is Zynga buying?
Has there ever even been a "talent acquisition" in the (say) mid-8 digits? Since, say, 2006? Definition of a talent acquisition: you buy a company, and none of its offerings are available 18 months later under any brand.
(The true definition would be "and all the members of the team are reassigned to a different project", but that's hard to know from the outside).
I don't think THIS was a talent acquisition so much as a super successful game, so successful Zynga couldn't rip it off and kill it, but there are definitely large talent acquisitions in recent history:
I defer to your superior knowledge of the situation. (I'm not sure if the $50mm was low or high; as reported in the press, it included 2/3 in stock, which is probably worth 10x what it was back then at least, so congrats!)
The impressive thing is that the powerset guy actually used ("we can do a talent acq for $1-3mm per engineer" if we fail) in his recruiting pitch to hire people (and, presumably in his fundraising).
There's probably a good business model in being an "academy startup" which both shoots for the moon AND is a great place to work, builds skills, and can do a talent sale (or tech sale, maybe) if the product is unsuccessful, building that into the company from the start. That's probably what I'd do, especially if it were based outside the bay area and maybe strongly allied with a great school but lacking other good local employers (Waterloo, CMU, etc.)
I don't know. I'm not particularly educated or well-versed in these matters.
200MM for a talent acquisition seems high which is why I also wondered whether it was to capture future revenues from Draw Something. It was an innocent question.
