探討近來科技行業併購火爆之謎
The speed and volume of mergers and acquisitions large and small in the technology industry has ramped up. Global tech M&A volume in the first half of this year was up 55% over last year, reaching its highest level since 2000.
科技行業大大小小的併購在速度和規模上都有所提升。今年上半年，全球科技行業併購規模同比增長了50%，達到2000年以來的最高點。Part of the reason for the buying spree is because tech companies have massive cash piles on their balance sheets. There’s also the acqui-hire trend, where tech companies are created cheaply, raise seed funding easily, fail, and then “sell” to Yahoo YHOO 0.76% , Facebook FB 2.35% , or Google GOOG 0.98% – which merely want the employees.
出現收購熱潮的部分原因是科技公司手中積累了大量現金。同時出現了爲獲得人才而收購的趨勢——在這種趨勢下，以低成本創立的科技公司輕鬆獲得種子資金，然後倒閉，接下來就“轉讓”給雅虎（Yahoo）、Facebook和谷歌（Google）——但後者想要的只是所收購公司的員工。But that’s not all. As vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, Jimmy Lee has a front-row seat to the deal action. And he’s been increasingly pushing the firm into tech deals, most notably, the much-anticipated initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
但這還不是全部。摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）副董事長吉米o李在併購領域一直處於前列。他推動摩根大通越來越多地參與到了科技公司的資本運作，其中最引人注意的就是中國電子商務巨擘阿里巴巴（Alibaba）備受期待的首發上市。
Speaking on stage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen on Monday, Lee pointed to another sign of a tech M&A boom: Shares of publicly traded tech companies going up, not down when they announced acquisitions in recent years. Traditionally, companies that acquire another lose value because of the expense along with the uncertainty about making the deal pay off.
週一，吉米o李在阿斯彭舉行的財富頭腦風暴技術會議（Brainstorm Tech Conference）上登臺發言。他提出了科技行業出現併購熱潮的另一條佐證，那就是最近幾年，就併購事項發佈公告後上市科技公司的股價沒有下跌，反而節節攀升。傳統上，收購方的價值會下降，因爲收購會產生費用，而且收購能否帶來收益存在不確定性。“So the buy side is saying, we’re going to pay for growth, and it’s okay if we pay a premium,” Lee said. “A lot of it is a growth challenge that companies now want to go after, and attack it hard.”
吉米o李說：“買方會這麼說，我們買的是成長性，因此溢價收購沒問題。在很多情況下，這是一個有關成長的挑戰。現在的企業都想追逐這樣的挑戰，全力出擊。”See a video of the discussion here.
吉米o李引述了兩個通過收購成功實現增長的例子，一是Facebook斥資10億美元收購圖片和短視頻分享網站Instagram（最新一期《財富》雜誌對此進行了探討），二是八年前谷歌（Google）收購YouTube。Lee cited Facebook’s success with its $1 billion Instagram acquisition (recently outlined in the latest issue of Fortune magazine) and Google’s success with buying YouTube eight years ago as examples of successful growth by acquisition.
吉米o李指出，各家公司一直在囤積現金，而資本成本“實際上爲零”。資產負債規模巨大的科技公司紛紛崛起，導致風險投資領域出現了一個有意思的現象。除了四處收購，風投資金還在相互競爭。谷歌的風投業務已經令人望而生畏，而包括康卡斯特（Comcast）和時代華納（Time Warner）在內的大型傳媒公司也在提升對初創公司的投資規模。Companies have been hoarding cash, Lee said, and the cost of capital “is virtually zero.” The rise of tech companies with massive balance sheets has created another interesting wrinkle for venture capital world. Aside from buying up portfolio companies, they’re also competing. Google built up has a formidable venture capital practice, and large media companies from Comcast to Time Warner have also ramped up their startup investing.
股票投資機構Breyer Capital首席執行官吉米o佈雷耶指出，以前人們總是認爲這些公司的風投部門並不是真正的風投市場參與者，但現在它們“正在非常有效地展開競爭”。這給風險投資者帶來了更大的競爭風險。同時，競爭已經全球化，阿里巴巴、百度（Baidu）和騰訊（Tencent）等亞洲多元化集團都已經加入了這個行列。Jim Breyer, CEO of Breyer Capital, noted that these corporate venture arms, which weren’t always viewed as serious players in the VC game, are now “competing very effectively.” That has increased the competitive risks to venture investors, Breyer added. The competition is global, too, with Asian conglomerates from Alibaba and Baidu to Tencent bidding up deals.
估值方面的情況是——沒錯，估值水平已經上升。風投機構First Round Capital合夥人喬什o科佩爾曼說，近年來種子階段投資的價格已經提高了20%-30%。他說：“我們一直在努力保持對價格的敏感性。但作爲風投機構，我們放棄了對Twitter的投資……原因就是價格。”他表示，等到移動支付服務供應商Square來到自己面前時，他決定不重蹈覆轍。And about those valuations: Yes, they’ve gone up. Josh Kopelman, a partner at First Round Capital, says seed deals have increased in price by around 20% to 30% in recent years, which makes his job difficult. “We have tried to maintain price sensitivity,” he said. “But you’re also talking to a VC who passed on Twitter … because of price.” He noted that he decided not to do the same thing when Square knocked on his door.
對於估值，佈雷耶的理念跟科佩爾曼類似：如果創始團隊足夠出色，他就樂於拿出資金。他完成的最出色投資價格都高得足以讓一些投資者裹足不前——其中包括對Facebook的投資，當時的融資前估值爲7800萬美元。科佩爾曼說：“如果（回報率）達到50倍甚至100倍，我就不會考慮價格。”
