Merger and Acquisition Mania to Virtual Companies

In the 1980’s it was leveraged buyouts. In the 90’s and early 2000’s it was the IPO. Now the latest craze is merger and acquisition. Now it is the dream of every Web 2.0 company to be bought out by a larger company like Google or Yahoo. The founders start these companies as a form of short-term investment. They work really hard for a couple of years, sell it, and walk away rich. They have no interest in running a company long-term. Is this a result of the recession era of the late 70’s and early 80’s. This is when we saw companies that we thought would last forever go out of business. This is when job security was thrown out the window. Now it is a requirement to go into something with an idea in mind of how you are going to get out of it before it crashes down on you. It’s kind of like the dump them before they dump you mentality of dating. Rather cynical, isn’t it? Cynicism is a hallmark of Generation X.

So, if this blog is about Foresight and Futurism, what’s next? The virtual company is next. These are what you would consider consulting and outsource companies that band together then disband when a project is completed. In the end one of the companies ends up with a product that must be managed from the operational level. But, this product adds to its core competencies as something that it can bring to the next virtual company project. Therefore, the result is something of a hybrid of a traditional company and a consulting firm.