Cognition (Devin AI) to Acquire Windsurf

Let this be a learning lesson in judging these deals based on partial information. Kudos to the Google, Windsurf, and Cognition teams for keeping all of these deals under wraps until announcement (OpenAI could learn something...), but even so it's likely that we the public will never learn every detail of what transpired. I've seen a lot of harsh, misguided takes over the past few days, like that the Windsurf founders screwed over their employees, or that OpenAI reneged on the deal. In this case, this seems like a happy ending for all parties involved: congrats to the Windsurf team!

> I've seen a lot of harsh, misguided takes over the past few days, like that the Windsurf founders screwed over their employees [...] In this case, this seems like a happy ending for all parties involved

There is no evidence at all in the announcement that is the case. It just says "100% of Windsurf employees will participate financially in this deal". What "participate financially" looks like is not elaborated upon.

It is possible you're right. It's also equally possible that the founders have still screwed over their employees, we just don't know. Nothing in this post supports either position.

If my understanding is correct, this is still a much worse deal for employees than if Windsurf's exec team had negotiated a "standard" "accelerated vesting, common conversion" acquisition with Google.

Presumably the "payout" from Cognition is at a lower nominal value and in illiquid (and IMO overvalued) shares in Cognition rather than cash.

> OpenAI could learn something...

Did OpenAI ever actually announce anything publicly regarding a potential windsurf acquisition?

AFAICT most of the reporting was based on rumors or leaks. But they never actually announced an acquisition. Seems like Bloomberg may have made an oopsie here.

>It is possible you're right. It's also equally possible that the founders have still screwed over their employees, we just don't know. Nothing in this post supports either position.

In the lack of evidence, its okay to assume the most likely scenario, which is the executives & shareholders will make out like bandits and everyone else is likely to at best, get pennies.

You're talking like the founders orchestrated this deal to cognition all along.

that's absolutely not the case. they ejected and the remaining executive team dealt with the sale over the weekend.

> Kudos to the Google, Windsurf, and Cognition teams for keeping all of these deals under wraps until announcement

Geez is the cognitive distortion field active again? Even Grok could figure this one out.

pizza party

I can't imagine this deal was done over just the weekend. It takes time to set this up, check the financials etc.

The cognition deal was made literally over a weekend

https://x.com/jeffwsurf/status/1946376139959841084