As I look forward to DEMO, starting tomorrow evening — a VC lovefest like no other — I really enjoyed reading Forbes.com today. I continue to be impressed by their coverage of tech. It surely has something to do not only with their great reporters and editors (especially in the Silicon Valley bureau), but with their very well respected tech-savvy publisher, Rich Karlgaard, whom I count among my most admired colleagues.
And the fact that he hails originally from the part of the country where I live also makes him very special, too! Though he’s a Stanford boy and has lived in the Valley for many years, he gets back to the Minnesota/Wisconsin/Dakotas area regularly, and I suspect that’s partly because it keeps him feeling grounded to his roots.
Forbes uncorked an awesome set of stories the past couple of days on the current state of VC — well, really tech deal-making in general. It’s all tied to their annual Midas 100 List, which ranks the top tech deal makers in the world. 
It’s fascinating reading.
According to Forbes, companies that venture capitalists helped launch hauled in $34 billion from 86 public offerings and 304 acquisitions during 2007. No less than 31 IPOs happened in the fourth quarter, worth $3 billion — "more than any other quarter since the third quarter of 2000." That’s a very telling stat. Their assessment of who did what, and how much they and their investors profited, can be viewed here by rank, by name, or by company.
Some of the related stories to this coverage included the following, which is great reading for anyone involved in technology startups:
• Big Wins For Venture Capitalists – An excerpt: "Recent credit crunch and market woes be damned: Technology’s most powerful deal makers have been on a winning streak."
• Venture Firms Peek Out Of Silicon Valley – I love this part: "More and more firms are thinking that if they want differentiated deal flow, they need to look outside of Silicon Valley," said Village Ventures co-founder Matt Harris. Village Ventures manages $750 million in funds focused on 14 small cities across the country, from Boise, Idaho, to Tucson, Arizona. This article also includes a profile of a VC from my part of the country: John Neis, co-founder of Madison, WI-based Venture Investors, who’s one of the Midas 100.
• The Golden Google Touch – "Google has been a bonanza for venture capitalists John Doerr and Michael Moritz, who helped fund the Google when it was a start-up. Their personal gains, according to Forbes’ estimates, are likely north of $800 million apiece."
• Hot Or Not: Where VCs Will–And Won’t–Invest – "Forbes asked 10 top players to give us their assessments of areas they feel are hot–and which are not."
All in all, a great overview of the current situation, and you’ll see even more links of interest, too. They even have some informative videos posted that are part of this coverage, such as interviews with certain players they cover in these articles. I’m really impressed with the expanded coverage Forbes.com is providing on their site, and the quality of that coverage.
[I’m excited that Tech-Surf-Blog will be part of the Forbes Financial & Business Blog Network when it launches soon. (Yes, that’s part of the reason I’m starting to include ads on this site.) ]
What do you think of the current state of tech deal-making? Are you positive or negative about 2008 when it comes to VC funding, IPOs, or M&A?
So, yes, January 28-30, I’ll be in Palm Desert, CA, attending the DEMO ’08 conference as a member of the press corps again. And, as part of this prestigious group, I’ve been given the opportunity to offer Tech~Surf~Blog readers a special discount to attend.
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That’s right — close to two hundred big ones, enabling Kayak to acquire ("merge with") fellow travel metasearch site Sidestep. Sequoia Capital led the round, which included many other existing investors in both firms, and VC superstar Mike Moritz gets a board seat. This is the largest amount of dough in one Travel 2.0 deal that I can ever remember seeing. I thought 
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