Not all was lost when Apple bought Quattro
By Scott Kirsner GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MARCH 18, 2012
Just before Christmas in 2009, Andy Miller gathered the employees of his Waltham mobile advertising start-up in an open bullpen area. The employees figured it was probably the year-end review of the company's numbers. But then Miller showed a video of Steve Jobs introducing the original iPhone.
He talked about how much he admired Jobs and Apple's obsession with building great products. Then, he told the assembled troops that he was selling the three-year-old company, Quattro Wireless, to Apple Inc. The price: $275 million.
"There was cheering and hugging for probably 10 minutes,'' Miller recalls. "There had been a rumor that we were selling to RIM,'' the maker of BlackBerry devices, "and people were glad that wasn't true.''
Today, there are no Quattro or Apple employees in Waltham. What has transpired in the two years since the acquisition is a case study of what happens when out-of-state companies buy Massachusetts firms, but decide not to establish a presence here. There are positive and not-so-positive elements.
...