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Skype Execs Purged On Eve of MS Takeover
jfruhlinger writes "You might think that the executive team that engineered a lucrative buyout for their company would be rewarded. But eight execs from Skype instead found themselves fired just before their company was formally taken over by Microsoft. It appears that this move isn't meddling from Redmond; rather, the private equity firm that owns a 70 percent stake in Skype wanted to cut back on the payout to company execs that would normally accompany this kind of transaction."
Ordinarily, even pathetic, abject failure verging on negligence isn't enough to get the People Who Matter sacked. These private equity guys must have some epic level suits on staff, if they are able to rightsize executives as though they were mere peons...
IMHO, the only thing worse than execs of of a corp getting paid off at the expense of employees during a take over, is when a nameless venture cap org does.
We don't know the whole story, but if venture cap nuked execs (that might possibly have been instrumental in making the company successful) to increase their own take, that is *WORSE*.
What matter is whether they were the whole team, half the team. or deadwood statues of the team.
It's hard for outsiders to recognize the deadwood, and it's hard for insiders to fire their friends. Sometimes takeover time is a good time for insiders to let the outsiders clean house. Is this what happened or was the whole team let go?? This is something that an outside observer can figure just by visiting the parking lot.
Who cares if the were laid off. They are out in either case. Unless they turned into contractors.
If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest