The cynic in me would say that the valuations were driven more from the cash-supply side, which allowed a lot of people to play "VC investor" or "VP with a sexy

The cynic in me would say that the valuations were driven more from the cash-supply side, which allowed a lot of people to play "VC investor" or "VP with a sexy R&D portfolio." No one really leads with a low-level analyst's DCF model in real life, it's backfitted to justify an investment that feels right at the multiple that has comps. I think this is going to be less about the academic economics, and more of a baseball card bubble bursting around software products that promised free growth at 100% unit margins. The cash is still there, and still wants to be invested, but everyone's a little timid and doesn't want to look irresponsible.