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Tom Yeung here with your Sunday Digest.
In the 2010s, getting acquired was the ultimate startup status symbol.
Waze… Nest… DeepMind… Fitbit…
One by one, the most promising companies in tech got swallowed by giants like Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) and Meta Platforms Inc. (META), turning their founders and early employees into multimillionaires. America’s top five tech firms made at least 616 purchases between $1 million and $50 million alone that decade, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Hundreds more happened outside that narrow window.
