马克•安德森：近来科技界并购量之少令人震惊

    Twitter会被收购吗？马克•安德森不会就此妄下论断。但在上周三旧金山的《财富》科技头脑风暴晚宴上，安德森对最近科技行业并购案过少、公司估值、人才多元化以及科技行业泡沫论等问题都给出了自己的看法。

    “近五年来，科技界的并购量之少令我震惊。”他向《财富》高级编辑丹•普利马克说道：“目前的市场极度厌恶风险，投资者的现金回报令人担心。按照以往情况，并购案应该不只现在这么点。”

    他认为，对缺乏足够保护机制的上市公司来说，现在面临的风险极高。也就是说，公司要选在此时上市必须考虑清楚。安德森警告说：“如果在这种环境下还决定上市，只能祈求上帝保佑。”

    当被问到安德森霍罗威茨——即安德森的风投公司是否故意推高科技公司估值时，他回答说，如果某家公司估值过高，他们一般会选择退出。

    尽管多数人一致认为科技公司的晚期估值正如火箭般飙涨，但安德森说，估值方面的话题没什么好讨论的，最应该关注的是公司的实质。

    近来另一位硅谷风投家比尔•格利一直在警告科技行业存在泡沫，安德森却没那么担心。在他看来，科技领域的总投资规模约为500亿美元，而标普500公司带来的回报约为1万亿美元。也就是说，科技投资只占美国股市总回报的二十分之一，数目也并不高。他说，从这些数字看，市场上并没有泡沫。

    安德森表示，在创新条件已经成熟的软件科技领域，其公司在寻找投资目标时会更深入一些，打算从教育和医疗保健方面着手。为了做好垂直领域的投资，该公司最近还专门招聘了相关人才。不过垂直领域的创新面临着不少障碍，比如监管方面的压力。安德森说，只有专门领域的创始人才能解决这些障碍。

    同时，鉴于最近凯鹏华盈被指存在性别歧视，安德森透露了其公司的员工多元化数据。在公司全部107名员工中，女性占52%，而且女员工在绩效考核中的表现要优于男员工。他补充说，员工中有20%是黑人或拉丁裔。

    不过，安德森霍罗威茨还没有任命过女性投资合伙人。安德森说，他跟搭档本•霍罗威茨成立公司后，就诚邀过一位女士加盟，但被拒绝了。他们并未放弃，后来又邀请了她五次，但都无功而返。

    他解释说：“一个问题是从事这个行业的女性太少，我们必须努力帮助有潜力的人稳步上升。”为了改变现状，安德森和谢莉尔•桑德伯格联合推出了一项培训，为处于事业上升期的女性领导者提供帮助。安德森的公司也经常积极组织活动，鼓励少数族裔、女性和业内资深人士多多交流，公司今后会投入更多资源推进员工多元化和包容性。

    他说：“这些事总得有人来做，我们只是开了个头。”（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    审校：夏林

    Will someone take over Twitter? Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen wouldn’t say, but at a Fortune Brainstorm Tech dinner in San Francisco on Wednesday night, he weighed in on the latest (or lack of) acquisitions, valuations, diversity, and bubble talk with regard to the technology industry.

    “I have been shocked in the last five years how little tech M&A there has been,” he told Fortune senior editor Dan Primack. “We’re in this environment of extreme risk aversion, and people are worried about returning cash to investors. Historically, there would have been more combinations.”

    There has never been a more dangerous time to be an unprotected public company, Andreessen said. Which means companies must take the process of making an initial public offering quite seriously. “If you go public in this environment,” he warned, “God help you.”

    Is Andreessen’s venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, to blame for driving up valuations of private tech companies? He said that his firm routinely walks away from deals over valuations.

    Although most would agree that the valuations of late-stage tech companies are skyrocketing, Andreessen said he doesn’t think valuations should be the main topic of discussion. It should be the substance of the company that’s the main topic of conversation.

    Investor Bill Gurley has been sounding the tech bubble alarm for quite some time, but Andreessen wasn’t as concerned. In his view, the total amount of tech investing is around $50 billion dollars, and the S&P 500 will give back around $1 trillion. Tech only represents 1/20th of total dividends, which is still a small amount of money. And that doesn’t seem that high, he said, indicating we aren’t in a bubble.

    In terms of areas ripe for innovation in software technology, Andreessen said that the firm is going to be looking deeper into making investments in education and health care, recently bringing on new talent to explore these verticals for the firm. But there are obstacles to the necessary innovations, including regulatory hurdles. It takes special founders to tackle these hurdles, he says.

    And in light of the recent gender discrimination allegations against Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen shared diversity numbers at his firm. Of 107 employees, 52% are women, and women outperform male employees in reviews. He adds that 20% of employees are black or latino.

    But the fact is that Andreessen Horowitz still has yet to appoint a female general investment partners. Andreessen says that after he and his partner Ben Horowitz established the firm, his next offer was to a woman, who declined. They’ve persisted in recruiting her, and she’s turned them down each of the five times they’ve made an offer.

    “Part of the problem is that there are so few women, and we have to get more people rising up the ranks,” he explains. One the ways he’s hoping to change this is through an education program that he’s partnering with Sheryl Sandberg for, that trains rising female leaders to be on boards. Andreessen Horowitz is actively holding networking events for minorities, women and veterans, and will be putting more resources into diversity and inclusion.

    “We’re just scratching the surface of what needs to happen,” he said.