And sometimes, despite a complete lack of interest in being acquired, people spend time having such discussions simply because they don't understand what the conversation is about.<p>I was contacted by someone I highly respected a couple of years ago, who spent half an hour half an hour telling me that he thought I was doing great things with Tarsnap, and everybody at his office thought I was amazing and wished they could work more closely with me... and it was only after hanging up the phone that I realized that he was probably trying to find out if I was interested in selling the company.
Beware too that some advances, while looking like possible acquisition discussions, are nothing more than intelligence gathering. Another reason to heed PG's advice to keep looking ahead while ignoring the hand wavers.
I remember reading a blog post about balancing the relationship between investors and founders. Much like this article, it reminds me of the testing requirements in the US education system. The government wants this data to monitor the progress and state of students. The problem with this need and lack of trust, is that it forces teachers and schools to focus less on learning and teaching, and focus on testing and teaching how to test. The part about CH's acquisition speaks the most to this forced shift away from what worked at the start up, to what the acquirer needs. I think this is inpart due to a lack of trust and ego.
jaquesm also wrote an amazing and comprehensive article on this topic: <i>How to Sell Your Company</i>[1]<p>[1] <a href="http://www.jacquesmattheij.com/How+To+Sell+Your+Company" rel="nofollow">http://www.jacquesmattheij.com/How+To+Sell+Your+Company</a>