and now I think it's probably beneficial for all parties, but not as big of a deal as a full acquisition (by a mile).
Love to see Ark pursuing other verticals though!
Facebook did not acquire any Carsabi assets according to the linked TC story, it simply offered the founders jobs.
Back in the day, we called that getting "hired."
Is there a distinction here (e.g. perhaps some sort of payback to investors or something) that I'm missing?
If Carsabi never raised money (I'm not sure), then they had no investors to return money to. And since FB didn't want it, perhaps it was okay to just sell it separately.
If they were just offered jobs, then it's not an acquihire. It's just a dead startup and some jobs.
I used them to find my car. It was great. Especially the graph that tells you whether a car is overpriced or underpriced compared to all of the other listings. I used it to negotiate $1,000 off of a $6,000 car at a used car dealer, making them sell it to me for the average private party price.
Kelly Blue Book purports to offer a similar price guide, but it is terrible and dealers know it. If you try to cite it to them, they say its wrong - but if it benefits them they try to use it to their advantage. However an actual database of actual private party sales going on right now is very powerful.
