Cognition (Devin AI) to Acquire Windsurf

I was a bit confused as to what "Cognition" was, but they're the makers of Devin (edit: that just got added to the title, for reference), so that makes sense. Just buying the competition, the only surprise is they had more money to spend than the big ones.

As far as I recall they were first to market with the "AI software engineer" promise.

Well Google did also just pay $2.5B to license Windsurf in perpetuity. Cognition is probably spending a lot less than that for just whatever it left after that type of a deal. Remaining team members, etc.

“Had more money to spend” => it could be a little money and a large amount of stock.

> The acquisition includes Windsurf’s IP, product, trademark and brand, and strong business.

So, Google will be paying $2.5B to Devin guys?

Had it been the reverse, they would have announced the purchase price.

> Google did also just pay $2.5B to license Windsurf in perpetuity

Could there have been a clause that made this invalid in case of acquisition?

No, as some portion of the $2.5b goes to Windsurf investors.

Basically, Google bought the top talent from the company. This cash was used (according to articles I read this morning) in part to pay directly out to shareholders, and in exchange Google got the top talent from the company and a license for the software (probably mostly so their new talent didn't have to worry about NDA, non-compete, and patent challenges).

Since this money went to shareholders, not to the company bank, and since top talent fleeing the company reduces the value of the company the overall value of Windsurf likely went down as part of the Google deal. This in turn likely made it cheap enough for the remainder to be purchased by Cognition.

kind of funny that no one seems to know them by name, only by the infamously panned reception of their main product

One benefit of separating your brands from your company is you can try again without the stigma of your failures :)

This looks to me like the smoking gun on a type of acquisition that circumvents regulatory oversight, primarily driven by the "need for speed":

https://medium.com/@villispeaks/the-blitzhire-acquisition-e3...

which I first saw here

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44553257

> the only surprise is they had more money to spend than the big ones

The sale price for Windsurf was likely significantly lower than the original acquisition plans.

It didn't go to $0 like some predicted, but it was never going to be as valuable as it was before the executives bailed on it.

IANAL but you'd have to be pretty dumb to include that clause.

Can the new buyers revoke that license?

Circumvents regulatory oversight and also shafts 99% of the employees. Seems to be a backdoor way to acquire the key founders/leaders and IP (via a perpetual license) while leaving behind a desiccated husk of rank and file employees, customers, and obligations.

it's super shitty by management to flee, but given that most startups fail, this startup maybe not-failing really isn't a "shafting".