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Pirate Wires @PirateWires on x 131.5K followers
Created: 2025-07-28 14:40:32 UTC
NEW: Antitrust crackdowns are nuking the traditional startup exit.
Last week for Pirate Wires, @JustJake argued that the partial acquisitions happening in Silicon Valley right now (Windsurf, Scale, Character AI) threaten an important social contract in tech: the idea that, when you work in a startup, everyone’s supposed to share risk and reward.
Jake urged founders and VCs to publicly declare “All or none”: if their companies are acquired, it’s everyone or no one.
Today, M&A veteran (Google, Slack) @JordanSVIC, responds: partial acquisitions aren’t great, he says, but in a hostile regulatory environment like the one we’re in now? They’re often the only option.
After all, Democrats and Republicans are mounting a full-court press against the market power of large tech companies:
• The Federal Trade Commission is suing Meta over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
• Courts have sided with the Department of Justice in two cases declaring Google a monopoly in search and ad-tech.
• The government derailed or pressured Nvidia’s attempt to buy semiconductor company Arm, Amazon’s bid for iRobot, and Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Regulatory scrutiny is the real reason startups are splintering right now, Jordan argues.
If the market were free(er), maybe all of Windsurf would’ve been acquired, and we wouldn’t be having this conversion.
TLDR: When the DOJ and FTC crack down on tech, they’re not just punishing incumbents. They’re kneecapping the exit path for startups everywhere and drying up soft landings for employees.
Founders are doing their best; the rules of the game are just very uncertain right now. Full piece from Jordan threaded below👇
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