Earlier this week, I attended the TechNW 2011 conference organized by the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA). The conference was very informative and full of interesting presenters and topics. The corporate development panel discussion moderated by Tom Huseby (General Partner and founder of SeaPoint Ventures) was particularly interesting for startups (and relevant to my practice). The panelists were Neeraj Arora (Principal, Corporate Development at Google), Ryan Aytay (VP of Corporate Development at Salesforce.com), Ryan Cooper (Corporate Development Director at Microsoft), and Amin Zoufonoun (Director of Corporate Development at Facebook), all companies that have grown a great deal through partnerships as well as acquisitions of other companies. The general discussion surrounded merger and acquisition activities and drivers from the perspectives of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.com.

Two specific questions relating to the value of investment bankers in the M&A context and timing of the M&A process stuck out because they are questions that frequently come up with early stage companies.Continue Reading Perspectives on M&A from Corp Dev Execs at Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Salesforce.com