科技行业并购火爆之谜

    科技行业大大小小的并购在速度和规模上都有所提升。今年上半年，全球科技行业并购规模同比增长了50%，达到2000年以来的最高点。

    出现收购热潮的部分原因是科技公司手中积累了大量现金。同时出现了为获得人才而收购的趋势——在这种趋势下，以低成本创立的科技公司轻松获得种子资金，然后倒闭，接下来就“转让”给雅虎（Yahoo）、Facebook和谷歌（Google）——但后者想要的只是所收购公司的员工。

    但这还不是全部。摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）副董事长吉米•李在并购领域一直处于前列。他推动摩根大通越来越多地参与到了科技公司的资本运作，其中最引人注意的就是中国电子商务巨擘阿里巴巴（Alibaba）备受期待的首发上市。

    周一，吉米•李在阿斯彭举行的财富头脑风暴技术会议（Brainstorm Tech Conference）上登台发言。他提出了科技行业出现并购热潮的另一条佐证，那就是最近几年，就并购事项发布公告后上市科技公司的股价没有下跌，反而节节攀升。传统上，收购方的价值会下降，因为收购会产生费用，而且收购能否带来收益存在不确定性。

    吉米•李说：“买方会这么说，我们买的是成长性，因此溢价收购没问题。在很多情况下，这是一个有关成长的挑战。现在的企业都想追逐这样的挑战，全力出击。”

    吉米•李引述了两个通过收购成功实现增长的例子，一是Facebook斥资10亿美元收购图片和短视频分享网站Instagram（最新一期《财富》杂志对此进行了探讨），二是八年前谷歌（Google）收购YouTube。

    吉米•李指出，各家公司一直在囤积现金，而资本成本“实际上为零”。资产负债规模巨大的科技公司纷纷崛起，导致风险投资领域出现了一个有意思的现象。除了四处收购，风投资金还在相互竞争。谷歌的风投业务已经令人望而生畏，而包括康卡斯特（Comcast）和时代华纳（Time Warner）在内的大型传媒公司也在提升对初创公司的投资规模。

    股票投资机构Breyer Capital首席执行官吉米•布雷耶指出，以前人们总是认为这些公司的风投部门并不是真正的风投市场参与者，但现在它们“正在非常有效地展开竞争”。这给风险投资者带来了更大的竞争风险。同时，竞争已经全球化，阿里巴巴、百度（Baidu）和腾讯（Tencent）等亚洲多元化集团都已经加入了这个行列。

    估值方面的情况是——没错，估值水平已经上升。风投机构First Round Capital合伙人乔什•科佩尔曼说，近年来种子阶段投资的价格已经提高了20%-30%。他说：“我们一直在努力保持对价格的敏感性。但作为风投机构，我们放弃了对Twitter的投资……原因就是价格。”他表示，等到移动支付服务供应商Square来到自己面前时，他决定不重蹈覆辙。

    对于估值，布雷耶的理念跟科佩尔曼类似：如果创始团队足够出色，他就乐于拿出资金。他完成的最出色投资价格都高得足以让一些投资者裹足不前——其中包括对Facebook的投资，当时的融资前估值为7800万美元。科佩尔曼说：“如果（回报率）达到50倍甚至100倍，我就不会考虑价格。”（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    The speed and volume of mergers and acquisitions large and small in the technology industry has ramped up. Global tech M&A volume in the first half of this year was up 55% over last year, reaching its highest level since 2000.

    Part of the reason for the buying spree is because tech companies have massive cash piles on their balance sheets. There’s also the acqui-hire trend, where tech companies are created cheaply, raise seed funding easily, fail, and then “sell” to Yahoo YHOO 0.76% , Facebook FB 2.35% , or Google GOOG 0.98% – which merely want the employees.

    But that’s not all. As vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, Jimmy Lee has a front-row seat to the deal action. And he’s been increasingly pushing the firm into tech deals, most notably, the much-anticipated initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

    Speaking on stage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen on Monday, Lee pointed to another sign of a tech M&A boom: Shares of publicly traded tech companies going up, not down when they announced acquisitions in recent years. Traditionally, companies that acquire another lose value because of the expense along with the uncertainty about making the deal pay off.

    “So the buy side is saying, we’re going to pay for growth, and it’s okay if we pay a premium,” Lee said. “A lot of it is a growth challenge that companies now want to go after, and attack it hard.”

    See a video of the discussion here.

    Lee cited Facebook’s success with its $1 billion Instagram acquisition (recently outlined in the latest issue of Fortune magazine) and Google’s success with buying YouTube eight years ago as examples of successful growth by acquisition.

    Companies have been hoarding cash, Lee said, and the cost of capital “is virtually zero.” The rise of tech companies with massive balance sheets has created another interesting wrinkle for venture capital world. Aside from buying up portfolio companies, they’re also competing. Google built up has a formidable venture capital practice, and large media companies from Comcast to Time Warner have also ramped up their startup investing.

    Jim Breyer, CEO of Breyer Capital, noted that these corporate venture arms, which weren’t always viewed as serious players in the VC game, are now “competing very effectively.” That has increased the competitive risks to venture investors, Breyer added. The competition is global, too, with Asian conglomerates from Alibaba and Baidu to Tencent bidding up deals.

    And about those valuations: Yes, they’ve gone up. Josh Kopelman, a partner at First Round Capital, says seed deals have increased in price by around 20% to 30% in recent years, which makes his job difficult. “We have tried to maintain price sensitivity,” he said. “But you’re also talking to a VC who passed on Twitter … because of price.” He noted that he decided not to do the same thing when Square knocked on his door.

    Breyer had a similar philosophy around valuations: If the founding team is good enough, he’s happy to pay up. All of his best deals, including Facebook, which he invested in at a $78 million pre-money valuation, have come at prices high enough to give some investors pause. “If it’s a 50x or 100x [return], I caved on price,” he said.