Ouch. Here's an anonymous story from a founder who got screwed during an acquisition. Killer quote:
He tells me, "I'm sorry, but the CEO changed his mind. We're not moving forward with you guys." What? I was furious and trying not to panic. "Why not?" He gave me several reasons, including uncertainty about how our product would integrate into their suite of offerings (shouldn't that decision have been made back in October?) and disagreement on the roadmap we presented (remember that chaotic three hours on the second day of due diligence? Also, he's the CEO, if he wants it, he gets it, right?). The one that stuck with me the most was "Our engineers looked at what you showed us during due diligence and told our CEO ‘It doesn't look so hard, we can build it ourselves.'" Information that we had shared under NDA.
If you're getting serious about selling your company, read this first. It will save you from these kinds of mistakes - mistakes which are not only costly, but also infuriating.
