You're certainly correct in that neither Facebook or Google were acquired and it's not the cash from smaller acquisitions which make the real jobs and the real

You're certainly correct in that neither Facebook or Google were acquired and it's not the cash from smaller acquisitions which make the real jobs and the real revenues. However it was the fast sale of Paypal which put enough money in Peter Thiel's pocket to put $500k straight into a young and green Mark Zuckerberg's pocket. It was also the acquisition of Granite Systems after only a year which put $132M in Andy Bechtolsheim's pocket such that he was happy to write a $100k cheque to the Google founders on his doorstep. Acquisitions are like occasional rainfall in deserts. It may take plants which are focussed on arid survival to make it and you need to be a tough survivor. Without the occasional life-bringing rainfall though everything dies. There is a growing number of high quality entrepreneurs and engineers starting to bed in in London (and the real ones are not the noisy ones you read about in the UK press) and given the right conditions they can create some substantial, revenue generating companies. This is a pretty special opportunity. For what is comparatively very little funding indeed, there is the chance to get the brilliant engineers who would otherwise go into banks and getting the money that would otherwise go into property and creating some really interesting high quality new companies and job-creators. While I think the odds are probably stacked against it happening, one essential ingredient either way is some acquisitions. Bring enough of those and the giants will follow.