Microsoft’s acquisition proves tech start-ups are still hot. Want to be next? Learn from what David Sacks did right.
Microsoft is buying Yammer, a company that provides business-oriented social networking tools, for a reported $1.2 billion. That’s quite a jump from Yammer’s Q1 valuation of between $500 million and $600 million after an $85 million Series E round of funding led by DFJ Growth and Social+Capital Partnership.
Double your money in just a few months–not bad if you can get it. The question is whether more tech companies might attract that sort of folding green attention. After the Facebook IPO implosion, when the stock price fell by as much as 35% and the company and investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs lost more face than a skateboarder taking a tumble on a sandpaper track, some wondered whether high tech was down for the count–or at least for the summer–in the eyes of investors.
But the Microsoft acquisition at such a premium gives the markets exactly they need more doses of: money-backed confidence on the part of smart giants who know which side of their future is buttered. Tech start-ups, even in the Internet space, aren’t a wash-out. But, as Sacks shows, you’ve got to be smart in what you do and how you do it if you want to attract potential acquirers. Inc. magazine profiled Yammer’s CEO in late 2011. Here are some of his best business-building moves straight from Sacks himself.
…to read this article in full, visit leading US small business resource, Inc.