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Cognition (Devin AI) to Acquire Windsurf

(cognition.ai)
502 points alazsengul | 1 comments | 14 Jul 25 18:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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makin ◴[14 Jul 25 18:21 UTC] No.44563488[source]▶
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.
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brentm ◴[14 Jul 25 18:24 UTC] No.44563540[source]▶
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.
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mkagenius ◴[14 Jul 25 18:26 UTC] No.44563558[source]▶
> The acquisition includes Windsurf’s IP, product, trademark and brand, and strong business.

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

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1. tedivm ◴[14 Jul 25 18:54 UTC] No.44563930[source]▶
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.