I agree that this is a possible reason. Meta wants to move fast and m&a is too slow for their tastes. I make the case in the article though that the actual acquisition doesn't really make sense for metas core business, but I agree it's possible.
I disagree that this is a win/win. Scale stock is still illiquid, and people who remain at scale or have scale stock are now stuck with shares that are actually less valuable -- even though the market price has ostensibly gone up, the people who made the stock valuable are gone
Shareholders retain their stock, but also received a dividend equivalent to selling all their shares at a premium to the previous valuation. It is actually an incredible deal for them. (Source: I'm one of them.)
O shit really? That's a massive update and possibly invalidates a lot of this article. It's also the first I've heard of this -- can you tell me more? Are you saying everyone essentially got bought out? (if you want to dm me in case its still pseudo-private, feel free to at theahura at gmail)
ETA: there's now an update header on the article based on this information
I disagree that this is a win/win. Scale stock is still illiquid, and people who remain at scale or have scale stock are now stuck with shares that are actually less valuable -- even though the market price has ostensibly gone up, the people who made the stock valuable are gone