Recently, Pinterest acquired a startup Hike Labs, which only consisted of two people They also bought another startup Kosei which employed seven people. Both of Twitter’s notable acquisitions, Periscope and Vine, were made prior to their product launch. With the Twitter network as a launchpad, the three-person Vine and 10-person Periscope teams found success for ideas others had tried before. Amazon Has Acquired or Invested in at Least 128 start-ups in the last 20 years.

 Why do big companies acquire start-ups? At the same time, why would a start-up sell its venture?