4 posts and columns on exit

News Byte

This Way to the Egress

in News on January 3, 2011 at 10:07 am PT

After being cooped up for a couple of years by the raging economic storm, a growing number of venture-backed companies found an exit last year. According to industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource, 514 companies achieved liquidity in 2010, netting $39.3 billion. That’s a 25 percent increase over 2009′s paltry numbers, but still well short of the 613 exits and $69.1 billion netted in 2007.

Thanks, but No Thanks: Did Groupon Just Pull a Facebook?

in News on December 3, 2010 at 6:47 pm PT

There is a precedent for social buying site Groupon walking away from a $6 billion offer from Google, if that’s exactly what happened. Let’s call it: The Zuckerberg Gambit. That would be in reference to the famous series of no’s that that the then flip-flopped co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, gave to a series of suitors who came calling with big bags of dough to buy the social networking site.

Yahoo's M&A Head Andrew Siegel Is Departing the Company

in News on December 2, 2010 at 8:36 am PT

Andrew Siegel–Yahoo’s head of corporate development, who is in charge of its mergers and acquisitions strategy–is leaving the company, according to sources. The move comes after Siegel–who has made some very prescient calls about game-changing acquisition targets for the company–has become increasingly frustrated in getting them completed. Siegel’s exit is part of a long line of departures of top talent under the leadership of CEO Carol Bartz. Yahoo has no replacement for him as yet.

Accel Partners Feels Like a Billion Dollars Today…No, Really!

in News on November 9, 2009 at 12:24 pm PT

Who said the venture capital industry is sucking wind lately? Well, it is–but not today and, especially, not Accel Partners, which sold two of its portfolio start-ups to large public companies for a total of $1.5 billion. That would be the sale of AdMob to search behemoth Google for $750 million in stock, and the acquisition of Playfish by gaming giant Electronic Arts for about $300 million. While Accel is not getting all that dough, it’s not a bad haul for the day.
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