Just saw that Blackdove is abandoning its acquisition of Foundation, the NFT platform known for curating high-quality digital art. Apparently they announced the deal back in January but only did their due diligence after taking over operations - which is kind of backwards lol. Turns out they realized building their own platform from scratch was actually the better move, so they abandoned the whole thing and handed Foundation back to founder Kayvon Tehranian and the team.

It's interesting because Foundation had some solid backing from a16z, 1kx, and major venture firms. The platform built a pretty solid reputation for being selective about artists and emphasizing quality over volume. So now they're independent again after this brief acquisition attempt.

Wonder if this means Blackdove is shifting strategy entirely or if they just realized the integration was too complicated. Either way, Foundation gets to stay independent, which probably isn't the worst outcome for a platform focused on creator empowerment and artistic integrity.