What are the terms in valuation?

How are the terms and valuation determined in a talent acquisition?

• Recently Zynga acquired Conduit Labs as a talent acquisition. With Conduit Labs and its previous talent acquisition, Zynga has been quick to discontinue the products that the acquired companies had produced. With this in mind, how are the terms and valuation determined when the acquiring company is not using the acquired company's expected future free cash flow to determine value? This is a follow-up question to .

• Answer:

  IMO, talent acquisitions have no set valuation method. Some companies have internal yardstick of how much they pay per engineer but this range depends on the quality of engineers/talent in each case. In the end if the acquirer really wants the deal for the talent, it depends on how much will it take to get the deal done - investors and founders often have a return in their mind.