Epic Games is acquiring music platform Bandcamp
I was (and still am) saddened by this news. I had always considered Bandcamp as one of those few companies that were committed to staying independent. They were profitable, as far as I know. They’d spent their first few years officing out of a public library (I can’t find a reference to this anymore, but I have a distinct memory of this part of their story). I considered it a safe and principled place on which to host my music. I’d even recently (while job-hunting in November and December) applied to be a product manager there; at that moment it was my dream job.
Our Incredible Journey already exists but it logs every industry acquisition. I decided to start logging only the most disappointing acquisitions: Yet Another Incredible Journey on Notion. I made it editable by anyone, so feel free to add to the list. There are some I skipped on purpose, notably YouTube, where it feels like the acquisition was a net positive for everyone. But my criteria was basically:
- could the company have continued without being acquired and
- have there been negative consequences (even just the further centralization of capital)