EA's friendly buyout
12 Oct 2007
Game maker Electronic Arts bought another game maker, Bioware for $850 million.
Bioware was funded by Elevation Partners, and EA’s CEO was a former partner at Elevation. So the investor leaves and takes a CEO job with a public company and 8 months later buys one of his former investments.
Nothing like friends buying friends from friends, which is one reason why the Valley works, and most other would-be Valleys don’t. It’s not enough to have great technology, capital, and smart people; you also have to friends buying from friends. Seriously.
Another vote for the startup hub theory.