acquihire

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Coined by Rex Hammock in 2005 as acqhire, blend of acquire +‎ hire,[1] in reference to acquisition of Dodgeball.com by Google. Hammock subsequently worked to popularize the word.[1] Spelling inconsistent, particularly to difficulty in pronunciation (/ak-hire/), leading to longer variants.

Verb

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acquihire (third-person singular simple present acquihires, present participle acquihiring, simple past and past participle acquihired)

  1. (business slang) To acquire a company, in particular a small startup, to recruit its employees, rather than for its products or services.
    • 2017, Rob Reid, After On[2], Del Rey, →ISBN:
      “Tarek was an acquihired founder like you. He turned out to be so awesome, I made him co-head of one of Phluttr's biggest projects! But that's rare. I usually look to guys like you and him to start something new. You're entrepreneurs, after all! []

Noun

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acquihire (plural acquihires)

  1. (business slang) An acquisition of a company to recruit its employees, rather than for its products or services.
    • 2013 May 2, Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Facebook Designs the 'Perfect Empty Vessel' for Your Mind”, in The Atlantic[3]:
      Then, in August, they bought Push Pop press, which was seen as an acquihire of designers Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas, who designed several of key pieces of the iPhone interface.
    • 2013 October 11, Marc Andreessen (as pmarca), “Weary of ‘Fruit Fly’ Consumer Startups, Andreessen Horowitz Raises Series A Bar”, in Hacker News[4], comment:
      There are a lot of really excellent founders pursuing consumer ideas that just never work -- that's why companies like Yahoo and Google and others can do so many acquihires.

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Ben Zimmer (2010 September 28) “Buzzword Watch: "Acq-hire"”, in Word Routes: Exploring the Pathways of our Lexicon[1]