Venture Capital: Ignition Partners may try hand at buyouts

Ignition Partners http://www.ignitionpartners.com typically invests in early-stage technology companies, incubating ideas internally or placing small bets on startups that have yet to release a product.

But the Bellevue venture capital firm, which raised more than $300 million last fall and recently hired former Microsoft Chief Financial Officer John Connors, is looking to move upstream with its investing tactics.

The most active venture capital firm in the Pacific Northwest is now exploring buyout opportunities — investing in later-stage companies that have established management teams, proven technologies and revenues.
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Jon Anderson, a partner with Ignition, declined to disclose specifics of how the firm might target these later-stage deals. But the former corporate controller at Microsoft did say that Ignition has evaluated buying divisions of established companies and other later-stage investments. Ignition plans to use money from its most recent fund to pursue these deals, he said.

"There are spinouts that do not require a lot of capital. It really varies," Anderson said. "There are the ones that require $15 billion, but that is not what we are going to do."

By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Full Story: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/219285_vc08.html