Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Insights and Opinions: Exit Strategies in 2010
For today's Insights and Opinions section, we have a piece from Megan Jones, an investment banker from Hadley Partners Incorporated:
As I often say, I grew up in and out of Silicon Valley with a dad in high-tech. So, early on I knew what venture capital is (along with "chips", "boxes", "burn rate" and other valley lingo). The valley has changed; most of the orchards are gone and Tully Road is lined with company headquarters not the stables I visited in my teens.
Some things haven't changed: Steve Jobs, Stanford University and the dead (cell) zone between Sand Hill and Page Mill Roads on 280.
But I've been surprised recently by the number of VCs saying – publicly and on panels – that any company looking for funding needs to have an exit strategy based around likely corporate buyers. Basically, a company sale instead of an IPO. The basis? The practical reality is that VC backed IPOs (no, wait, all IPOs) have gotten fewer and harder to complete. (More...)
Read more of Megan's article on changing Exit Strategies for 2010.