创业公司：知晓你的出路在何方

    你得让我知道

    我该留该走？

    -- “The Clash”乐队

    要把你引向一个重大的问题••••••

    唉，不要问，"那是什么？"

    让我们快点去看一下。

    - T.S. 艾略特, 《J.阿尔弗雷德•普罗弗洛克的情歌》

    这是探讨战略性业务开发重要性的系列文章之一（前三部分参见 I, II and III）。

    So you got to let me know

    Should I stay or should I go?

    -- The Clash

    To lead you to an overwhelming question…

    Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"

    Let us go and make our visit.

    - T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

    This is a series of posts dealing with the importance of strategic business development (Here are Parts I, II and III).

    2007年7月23日，惠普宣布以16亿美元现金收购Opsware。不管怎么看，这对Opsware股东来说都是一笔好交易。每股14.25美元的收购价，相对过去六个月的平均股价，溢价高达74%，而对于在2002年10月Opsware的历史低点押注于公司的人士，回报则是令人咋舌的40倍，要知道当时我们力挽投资者关系才避免了被纳斯达克摘牌的厄运。仅仅五年之后，Opsware16倍历史营收的收购乘数就在10亿美元以上的企业软件收购记录中笑傲群雄。

    数以百计的员工的勤奋工作帮助我们取得了飞速发展，成长为引人注目的市场领导者，而企业软件也终于成为软件业的重要类别。但我们所获得的惊人收购溢价也来自于实施多年的战略性业务开发努力，其目的就是实现从好公司到卓越公司的蜕变。如果你也在打造你的公司，请参考我们的业务发展五原则：

    1.一定要知晓你的出路：要花时间去和潜在的收购者建立联系。你无法预知什么时候将需要他们的帮助。

    2.停止争吵，偶尔思考：每过12-18个月，和董事会一起审视公司的战略位置，从定量和定性的角度严密地考察其它备选方案。

    On July 23, 2007, HP announcedit was buying Opsware for $1.6 billion in cash. By any measure, it was a very attractive deal for Opsware shareholders. The acquisition price of $14.25 a share represented a 74% premium over the prior six-month average, and a forty-fold return for anyone who had bet on us at our low point in October 2002, when only an intensive investor relations effort had saved us from NASDAQ delisting. Almost five years later, the acquisition multiple of almost 16 times trailing revenue still far exceeds that of any other billion dollar-plus enterprise software acquisition—ever.

    The hard work of hundreds of employees contributed to making us the clear high-growth market leader in what was finally an important enterprise software category, but the significant premium we achieved was also the result of a multi-year, strategic business development effort designed to turn a merely good outcome into a truly exceptional one. That business development effort was built around five key principles that you, too, should consider as you build your company:

    1. Always know where the exits are: Take the time to build relationships with potential acquirers. You never know when you may need them.

    2. Step back from the fray occasionally: Review the company's strategic situation with the board every 12-18 months and evaluate the alternatives with quantitative and qualitative rigor.