I had the same thought when I started reading, but didn't see any overt references to this. I am quite curious: has anyone around here experienced a case where it seemed like the objective wasn't to acquire/hire at all but to derail, tar-pit, or gather intel? I can imagine this happening if the approaching company is a direct competitor or is thinking of entering the space.
Intel gathering happens all the time. Corp dev people go on lots of fishing expeditions under the ostensible guise of acquisition talks. Sometimes they don't even need to mention an acquisition; they know that most startups will hear "BigCo wants to talk to you," and will leap at the chance to take the meeting. Bingo bango, they get free market intelligence, and all it cost them was a few hours of their time.
Things get messier when you talk about intentionally "derailing" companies. I'm sure this has happened before, but this is legally murky water. BigCo doesn't want to be perceived as anticompetitive, or as acting in bad faith. (Of course, it's very hard to show that they are acting in bad faith. Keep that in mind if you smell anything fishy.)
I imagine that corp dev would probably get enough info to determine if the company would be better off building or buying to get in whatever space they want to enter. What happens after that I suppose depends on the company.
The other side is if you could get enough information about customer acquisition or some of the metrics that govern the business, you could likely jump ahead of where you would be if you build from scratch without having to learn from time and experience.
