Foursquare co-founder says equity holders saw no returns from the company’s acquisition
- ID
- 37878
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 21 Oct 2026, 10:03 PM
- Fetched
- 21 Oct 2026, 10:46 PM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/foursquare-co-founder-says-equity-holders-saw-no-returns-from-the-companys-acquisition/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 6.0
- Created
- 21 Oct 2026, 10:46 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_startup_foundersdevelopers
What happened
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare's co-founder and former CEO, wrote a blog post saying investors received no returns from Infillion's acquisition of the location-data platform last month at an undisclosed price, citing an angel investor's post to infer that neither preferred nor common stockholders got value. Foursquare had raised over $411 million per PitchBook, ran consecutive years above $100 million in revenue after pivoting to enterprise, brought in a private equity firm in 2019, and installed the banker who led that raise as CEO in 2021; the consumer app shut down in 2024. Crowley blamed the outcome on that management transition and apologized to roughly 1,600 former employees over 17 years.
Why it matters
This is a concrete case of an acquisition that reportedly paid nothing to equity holders even after a business hit $100M+ revenue years, which is the scenario anyone accepting startup options should model: ask for the liquidation preference stack and run the payout waterfall at a low exit price, not just the headline valuation. If you are hiring or being hired in Malaysia or elsewhere with equity as part of comp, treat 'acquired' as meaningless until you know where common stock sits behind preferred and any PE liquidation preference.
Discussion angle
Walk through a simple liquidation waterfall: at what exit price does common stock start getting paid once preferred and PE preferences are stacked, and what three questions should you ask before counting options as part of a job offer?