A topic for discussion: say you have a pre-ICO company that plans to do legitimate business using blockchain with its own token/coin, and at some point after the ICO the company is acquired? What affect would that have on the token/coin? Would it be like a stock whereby the stock of the acquired company shoots up on the news?
I would think so since if a big company purchased it would give a lot of credibility to the business and its future/backing. Usually when a company is acquired by a larger one, it continues to operate as it normally did, often even retaining its name and most employees, so while an acquisition often does not change the business, it certainly gives huge credibility and media/industry exposure to the business when a start-up or small company is acquired by a large, established one.
As crypto investors we should be thinking about what happens to the coins when companies merge etc. and incorporate that into investment strategies, especially since many new startups will be looking to use the blockchain and have an ICO, we should be thinking of companies with fundamental/technical promise that are also good acquisition targets. Traditionally in the stock market, the IPO was the hot ticket, but a company has to go a long way to get to IPO, and an ICO is much easier (too easy in fact, i.e. shit-coins) and would come long before an IPO (and most companies never get to the IPO stage). But if the company has a token/coin, it represents a way to invest in an otherwise private (non publicly-traded) company, and potentially benefit from an acquisition, hence the purpose of this discussion topic.
For example, what if Facebook acquired Steemit? Would the STEEM coin rocket up?
I can see large tech companies like Google, Facebook, Apple etc. being interested in start-ups with sold business using the blockchain, but wonder what happens to the coin when that happens. I suppose there is a chance certain coins could go to zero if the company is acquired but the coin is abandoned?...or would there always be some type of conversion possible? Thoughts?