US firms buying Greek startups
American technology giants are increasingly absorbing Greek startups, mainly because of the technology but also for the talent that accompanies their small teams, through “acquihiring.”
Giants such as Cisco, Dell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have proceeded with small acquisitions of Greek startups, while Kathimerini understands that US semiconductor company Intel may soon enter the relevant list, as it is investigating the possibility of absorbing the technology as well as the founding team of the Greek technology company InAccel, created by Christophoros Kahris, Ilias Koromilas and Giannis Stamelos.
Discussions, according to the same sources, are at an advanced stage. “These are transactions that do not give the investors of Greek startups unrealistic profits; they are transactions of little value. But the teams of the Greek startups have the opportunity to integrate into a multinational group and in some cases even to expand,” an executive of the investment funds market tells Kathimerini.
He observes that as employees of multinational groups, the founding members of the startups gain further knowledge and experience, which leads to the creation of a new generation of entrepreneurs.
“They can brainstorm for ideas for their next startup inside the company,” he says. “They are all born entrepreneurs and it is not easy for them to integrate into a corporate culture for a long time,” he notes.
A few months ago, Cisco announced the acquisition of technology company Code BGP of Xenophon Dimitropoulos, Vassiliou Kotronis and Lefteris Manasakis. The startup, a spin-off of the Institute of Informatics of the Technology and Research Foundation (ITE), develops software for monitoring the BGP protocol, with the aim of the secure operation of the Internet.
Another startup, Arrikto, which offers tools for the development of computational learning applications to business organizations, seems to have been absorbed by the American Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Likewise Mist.io of Christos Psaltis and Dimitris Moraitis was recently acquired by US giant Dell.
