Yes, M&A is Back. But Confirmed 3x+ Returns Have Collapsed to Just 7% of Deals. Here’s What That Means for Your Exit.
There’s been some epic M&A in the past 12 months. Nvidia paid $20 billion for Groq. Google closed its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz. Google paid $2.4 billion just to hire Windsurf’s CEO and license their tech. Palo Alto Networks is buying CyberArk for...
The Quirky Math Behind M&A Pricing in Tech: Why $125M ARR Can Be Worth $2B+… And Then Disappear
M&A pricing can be a weird thing Meta buys Manus for $2B+ at $125m ARR Then likely … abandons all that revenue. It is a distraction, and in the end, immaterial to Meta’s revenues. Whatever Meta does with it, it likely won’t be investing more in the current product...
Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Startup?
Dear SaaStr: When Should You Sell Your Startup? Having been through the acquisition process 4x — twice as a founder, twice as a start-up exec, here’s my list of when and if to sell. Don’t take it literally. Most startups never get a single good...
My Biggest Fear in Investing Now: The $100,000,000 ARR Slowdown
So it’s a bit funny, when we started SaaStr we rarely talked about the stage beyond $100m ARR. That’s what it took to go big and IPO. HubSpot, Box, Zendesk, etc. all IPO’d at around that stage. Growing very, very quickly. But around then. Helping you get to $100m...
Figma is at $20B. Right Where Adobe Offered to Buy It. When Is Saying ‘No’ Worth It in A Strong M&A Deal?
Figma is one of the greatest success stories in the history of B2B software. It created and remade its category. It’s worth $18B today, and Adobe almost acquired them for … $20B. But is hasn’t been 100% smooth sailing since the IPO. The stock is down 68% since its...
Yes, The IPO Market Came Back in 2025. But It Still Has a Long Way to Go.
The year started off exciting. IPOs were back, and way up! But the data tells a more nuanced story as we close out the year. The HOT IPO'S of 2025 ATH Peak to today's trough:$CRCL -75%$FIG -75%$BLSH -70%$CRWV -62% — Heisenberg (@Mr_Derivatives)...
When Competitors Come Calling: 6 Questions That Will Help You Make the Right M&A Decision
The SaaStr Framework: 6 Key Questions Every Founder Should Ask When Evaluating M&A Offers A strategic approach to thinking through acquisition opportunities without burning bridges Most successful B2B founders will eventually face this moment: an unexpected call...
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition?
Dear SaaStr: How Hard is it For a Startup founder/CEO to Settle Into a non-CEO Role After an Acquisition? It is tough for most of us. We get that the bureaucracy and frictional taxes are going to go up. But it’s seeing the organization make decisions that are...
Nasdaq Reaches Another ATH. Nvidia Tops $5T. But Navan’s IPO and JAMF’s $2B Exit Show B2B Still Isn’t Easy.
Times are good But Navan IPO’ing at ~$5B at ~$800M ARR run rate And JAMF selling for ~$2B at 3x ARR Well, they do make me wonder about some VC rounds these days — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin (@jasonlk) October 31, 2025 The Nasdaq hit another all-time high this...
JAMF Goes Private for $2.2 Billion. That’s 3.3x ARR. Why B2B Can Be a Long, Hard Road
Francisco Partners announced this week they’re taking JAMF private for $2.2 billion at $13.05 per share. The headlines trumpet a “50% premium” to recent trading prices. The press releases talk about “strategic flexibility” and...
The Great IPO Awakening: Are We Back?
Last week marked the busiest IPO stretch since 2021. Six companies raised $4.4 billion in five days. But is this the sustainable comeback founders and VCs have been waiting for, or just another false dawn? The IPO window isn’t just cracking open—it’s...
Why Mergers & Acquisitions Are Weird and Unpredictable
Caught up this week with a founder who raised almost nothing that got a $150,000,000 M&A offer about 24 months ago Since then? Nothing, zilch — despite strong growth What happened? He's just not in a hot space anymore. — Jason ✨👾SaaStr.Ai✨ Lemkin...
We’re Back. Q1 Was a Record for Tech Acquisitions in Dollars. But Deal Count? It’s Doubled But Isn’t Close to 2021.
So Bloomberg and CB Insights have the latest data out on start-ups getting acquired, and 2025 is off to a record start: Wiz’s record $32 Billion acquisition by Google pushes the dollar value to a record, but you may have also missed there were 11 VC-backed $1B+...
No, There Aren’t That Many Deals Where the VCs Make Millions and The Founders Make Nothing
"You don't have to raise $10m, $20m, $100m in venture capital. You can raise just one round if you want. A one-and-done. And maintain so much more optionality." w/ @thesamparr pic.twitter.com/6IGJrVB5GT — Jason ✨👾SaaStr 2025 is May 13-15✨ Lemkin...
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