A guide to GitLab’s soft landing acquisitions

A few months ago we published our acquisitions handbook. A first of its kind, it provides a clear view on how we approach and carry out acquisitions at GitLab. We believe this handbook is the basis for effective communication and expectation setting.

Our unique approach to acquisition is suited for companies which have built great technologies but were unable to reach the desired distribution and are nearing the end of their runway. For companies in this state we are offering an opportunity for soft landing in GitLab through acquisition, finding the team a new home, releasing the technology you developed to the greater GitLab user base, and continuing to build awesome products you love.

Is this relevant for your company?

If you’re a technology company:

1. Operating in the expanded DevOps space
2. With a team of 10 employees or fewer
3. At the end of your runway and/or thinking about winding down
4. Open to a soft-landing acquisition and ready to move through the process quickly

... then your company is potentially a great fit for our soft-landing acquisition process.

What GitLab has to offer

1. Assets will be purchased for up to $1M total, all cash. GitLab stock will not be offered as part of the deal for the assets sold.
2. We believe talent follows leadership they trust. In addition to the purchase price, GitLab will offer cash bonuses for founders and engineers to help in the transition, conditional on employee interviews and offer acceptance:
   • Each founder with more than 10% ownership of the company will receive $250,000 paid as follows: $50,000 on closing and $200,000 as a retention bonus
   • Each engineer will receive $60,000 paid as follows: $12,000 on closing and $48,000 as a retention bonus
3. Triple our normal stock option grants for founders, normal stock option grants for non-founders

We invite you to take a closer look at our acquisitions handbook page and reach out to myself, the acquisitions lead, eliran@gitlab.com, to start a discussion.

It's important to add that we're open to other types of acquisitions, aside from the soft-landing type. We've felt it's beneficiary to all sides of a soft-landing acquisition to have a streamlined, fast process, which is why we've created ours at GitLab. If you'd like to engage us in an acquisition conversation, again, feel free to reach out to me at eliran@gitlab.com.

You can also read about one startup's experience of being acquired by GitLab.

Cover image by Pascal Meier on Unsplash