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The MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) Presents:
Acquisitions: Achieving Success in the Likely Liquidity Path for Startups Tuesday, February 17, 2004 Bishop Auditorium, Stanford Business School Sponsored by: MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) <http://www.vlab.org/>
Moderator:
Neil Weintraut Co-founder and Partner, Palo Alto Venture Partners
Speaker:
Bryan Plug, President, CEO of Kontiki and previously CEO of Kintana, an enterprise software company acquired by Mercury Interactive
Panelists:
John Cromwell, Managing Director, Alliant Partners
Paul DiNardo, VP of Corporate Development, Veritas Software Greg Grove, Corporate and Securities Attorney, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati
Time:
6:00 PM: Networking and Reception in Arbuckle Lounge
7:00 PM: Presentation and Discussion in Bishop Auditorium, Stanford Business School
Registration: <http://www.vlab.org/401.cfm>
$30.00 Thru Tue, February 10
$35.00 Wed, February 11 - Fri, February 13
$40.00 Day of the event Walk-ins at the door $40 (*space permitting). NO RESERVATIONS ACCEPTED AFTER February 13, 2004 NO REFUNDS AFTER February 10, 2004.
Synopsis:
Although the elusive path to the IPO may be the most-coveted liquidity strategy for a startup company, acquisitions in fact are more pertinent to most startups, their founders, employees and backers. Far more startups were acquired than floated on public markets: for example, VentureWire calculates that during 2003, while 30 or so startups went public, 539 were acquired. Furthermore, it turns out that many acquisitions turn out better for the startup, founders and investors than if they become a publicly-held company. Case in point is Kintana, an enterprise software company operating as a standalone business that was acquired by Mercury Interactive for $225 million via an unsolicited acquisition overture.
Our presenter, Bryan Plug, will explore not only the facts and circumstances surrounding acquisitions, but more importantly the acquisitions distinction of becoming "an offer too good to refuse" based on the synergies of the combined entities, rather than an outcome forced by lack of alternatives.
The featured presentation details the acquisition of Kintana, but more importantly, the operational mindset and circumstances that led Kintana to transform from being a standalone business to an unsolicited $225 million acquisition target by Mercury Interactive in June of this past year. The panel gives the perspectives of the buyer of the startup, the investment banker who is tasked with everything from selling businesses that do not have markets to managing an acquisition with many buyers, plus the corporate and securities attorneys who negotiate acquisitions to closure.
This presentation and panel will attempt to address the following questions and topics of importance to every startup entrepreneur and employee:
> What are the different categories of acquisitions?
> How do entrepreneurs and employees tend to fare in an acquisition?
> What leads a "successful" acquisition to result in an acquisition
> where the
entrepreneurs and employees actually succeed and profit?
> Who acquires what and why?
> What becomes of the startup after it is acquired? What becomes of the
acquiring company?
Join us as we collectively examine the importance and issues surrounding the achievement of success in the 'other' -- and more likely -- liquidity path for startups: Acquisitions.