Surely the whole tech bubble is a much bigger factor in this? Although correlation is not causation... :) Here's my thinking: In the bubble, IPOs abounded and

Surely the whole tech bubble is a much bigger factor in this? Although correlation is not causation... :) Here's my thinking: In the bubble, IPOs abounded and investors were buying whatever shit they could lap up if it had "e" in the name. Post-bubble, tech companies that survived have been successful (by definition) and have sought to absorb smaller companies both to gain technologies and to kill off competitors; whereas investors have been wary of new tech stocks. This alone could explain the shift from IPO to acquisition. Also, a small, nimble, well-leveraged tech start-up surely doesn't want or need an IPO anyway. An IPO doesn't make sense if you don't need the cash (unless you VC would rather have an "exit" than profits†). It is hard for investors to evaluate the potential of a small tech company; acquisition makes much more sense. † VCs demanding an exit in a fixed time frame might make an IPO impossible -- is this something that happens? Do any VCs accept dividends instead of a buyout?