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Forget IPOs--Sell out instead

Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas.
Michael Kanellos
The initial public offering, that cultural landmark of the late 90s, is clearly not the way to go these days.

In the first quarter of 2005, seventy nine venture backed companies got scooped up by public companies for $7 billion, stated George Bell, managing director for Goldman Sachs, at the VentureOne Summit taking place in San Francisco.

By contrast, only eight IPOs took place. These brought in $350 million.

The best time to be bought, noted Morgan Stanley managing director Paul Chamberlin, is between when the registration is filed and the IPO is supposed to take place. It worked for Brightmail, bought last year by Symantec.