Yes you can, but you have to do it right. Apple bought SoundJam and turned it into iTunes. Google bought YouTube, and that seems to be working alright thus far. Amazon bought Zappos, and they haven't been relegated to the dust bin.
"As soon as [the talent has] to deal with three layers of reporting, quarterly budget cycles, and swing-door managers, they turn off the creativity and head for the exit."
True, but here is a novel idea: don't make your prized acquisition deal with that crap. Yeah it'll require significant work to get it to be a good relationship, but if both parties can pull it off, it can be hugely beneficial for everyone.
Look, I know 37s really likes to paint acquisitions as black and white, but they just aren't.
I invite you to try to not make your acquisition deal with the crap - especially when you're acquired and haven't yet reached self-sustaining profitability. I've worked in that situation, and the problem is that while the acquirer/upper-management may think you are your own nice business entity - they still cut the IT guys, marketing, and sales staff, and upper management you had as a startup as they're seen as overhead.
They tend to only purchase the talent expecting them to do just fine on their own, but you end up dealing with the same crap you had to do back at a startup in terms of dealing with training new folks - but under a pretense that you're just another acquisition. Instead of continuing executing, you spend time repeating yourself.
I wish 37s was insightful enough to articulate the deceptively good scenarios that occur post-acquisition, instead of coming-off as linkbait.
I don't know about SoundJam, but I'd argue that Google and Amazon bought the brand names YouTube and Zappos. Google wanted the 'eyeballs' attached to YouTube to sell more advertising. Amazon certainly has a big enough retail infrastructure that they could have just started selling clothes on the main site.
"As soon as [the talent has] to deal with three layers of reporting, quarterly budget cycles, and swing-door managers, they turn off the creativity and head for the exit."
True, but here is a novel idea: don't make your prized acquisition deal with that crap. Yeah it'll require significant work to get it to be a good relationship, but if both parties can pull it off, it can be hugely beneficial for everyone.
Look, I know 37s really likes to paint acquisitions as black and white, but they just aren't.