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.
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.
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
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.