Vator just posted a great piece on acquihires. Too many startups fail to consider an acquihire as a viable strategy until it’s too late to have much leverage in the process.
We’ve seen many interesting startup outcomes where acquihires played a role. In some cases we’ve advised on situations where startups were even split apart and the team acquihired by one group and the technology/platform/IP acquired by another – in a few of these cases for some respectable numbers.
Digging down a bit deeper, it's typically the case that "hirers" are looking to bring on product and engineering talent, so you'll find acquihire interest will often lean towards those team members. They will also typically lean towards startups who have raised less capital as things are generally easier with a lower historical financing hurdle.
The take-away is that as an entrepreneur, particularly in earlier stage startups, you want to explore every possible avenue for a positive outcome for your venture, be creative!
Vator has also launched a service whereby startups can receive (confidential) inbound acquihire interest: Vator Teams