Over at Cambridge Cluster , Philip Baddeley wonders where the $500 million that Citrix paid for Xensource has gone.
In August of last year, Citrix and XenSource agreed on an acquisition price of $500 million in a mixture of cash and Citrix stock. The deal came trough in late October of 2007. Now 7 months later, Philip wonders where all the money went.
“You don’t hear as much about Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sevin Rosen as you used to. Kleiner Perkins is busy investing in anything but consumer Internet companies while Sevin Rosen decided against raising another fund last year. But, they are still cashing checks. The pair invested $6 million in a first round investment in January 2005 into. That’s a big hit for the duo. Other beneficiaries include Accel Partners, Ignition Partners and New Enterprise Associates.”
Philip mainly wonders how much of that money stayed in Cambridge:
“Was Cambridge Enterprise involved? It would have ranked as one of their top investments. If not, why not? Why was such a good deal funded outside of the Cambridge Cluster? Did any of the Cambridge Angels or the other groups invest? There is no trace of XenSource on the Cambridge Evening News website. It would make a great Equity Fingerprint and case study but I guess it was registered in Delaware and so all the details are not available. Hopefully the Cambridge Cluster has a couple or ten of new angels to keep turning the wheels. Just think what the Cambridge Cluster could have done with $500 million …”
Obviously the University of Cambridge played a big role in the conception of Xen. But did it get a return on its investment?
Interesting question.