Tech M&A -- Where’s the Growth Investment?

a16z Podcast

• Episode: Tech M&A -- Where’s the Growth Investment?
• Website: a16z Podcast
• Feed URL: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:62921190/sounds.rss
• Duration: 00:16:55
• Published: 2015-04-27 07:17

Technology M&A isn’t at the scale or of the character you'd expect given the overall health of the technology industry and the growth companies are experiencing. What’s missing is a robust market for growth acquisitions -- the companies building and selling the next wave of technology. Or so a16z Managing Partner Scott Kupor has argued. So what’s going on? Why are dollars flowing into buybacks and dividends in recent years rather than into growth-oriented acquisitions? What's putting the brakes on M&A for incumbent tech companies? And when will the newer crop of public tech companies -- arguably the new incumbents -- fire up M&A as part of their corporate strategy? Jamie McGurk, head of the corporate development operating group at a16z, joins Kupor for this segment of the a16z Podcast, which examines today’s M&A climate and what’s coming next.