Darlin --
In 1980 I went back to college to get an Electrical Engineering and Technology Bachelor's degree, graduated in 1984 from Brigham Young University. I met the people I would later join for a startup company at my first job, Signetics. When it shut down the group of us went to work for a startup company, and in 1990 I began my Master's degree at the University of Utah, graduating in 1994. That year we spun our own company, and named it K2. We had been together for ten years by then. We took it from concept to a successful corporation over the next nine years, and were offered a cash buy-out when the time was right.
That sale was three years ago, with the terms and conditions lasting three years. Now the company that acquired us has decided to exit the field we specialized in, and made it worth our while to do so.
http://www.cadence.com/company/newsroom/press_releases/pr.aspx?xml=050703_k2
Cheers.
Well, good, then. It wasn't a surprise and the deal was a good one. :)