Amy Hood ·Microsoft ·26 JUN 2023
Buy Your Way Off a Shrinking Island
When your platform is losing relevance, don't defend it — buy the assets that live on the platforms that are winning.
Topic
Acquisitions
Buy-versus-build calls and the correspondence around them.
7 letters · most recent first
Mark Zuckerberg ·Meta Platforms, Inc. ·11 FEB 2012
When Your Original Thesis Is Wrong, Pay To Fix It Fast
If a small competitor has already won the use case your future depends on, the cheapest option is usually to buy them — before the market figures out how valuable they are.
David Drummond ·Google ·23 MAR 2007
When a Rival Bids, Your Build Plan Becomes a Buy Decision
A build-it-yourself plan is only valid until a competitor's checkbook makes the timeline irrelevant.
Neal Mohan ·Google LLC ·23 MAR 2009
Don't Bleed an Acquisition to Death by a Thousand Cuts
An acquired business is worth more than its P&L — cut it like a standalone and you destroy the very reason you bought it.
Neal Mohan ·Google LLC ·11 OCT 2010
Buy the Competitor to Buy Yourself Time
Sometimes you acquire a rival not to use what they built, but to stop the clock while you fix what you have.
Mark Zuckerberg ·Facebook, Inc. ·28 FEB 2012
"It is better to buy than compete." The 60-Word Email That Cost Meta Billions in Discovery
Eight years later, this paragraph would be sitting in front of a House subcommittee, a federal judge, and the Federal Trade Commission.
Satya Nadella ·Microsoft ·13 OCT 2023
Nadella's Activision Memo Was Written for an Audience of One: the Press
Read this memo as a brief to Microsoft employees and it is bland. Read it as a brief to regulators, courts, and reporters and it is meticulous.