MAY 6, 2016

Sizing up Stemcentrx: The 20 Largest VC-Backed M&A Deals

The massive $10.2B acquisition of cancer startup Stemcentrx ranked it in the top five of M&A deals for VC-backed companies.

In one of the largest-ever VC-backed sales for a private company, cancer therapeutics startup Stemcentrx announced last week it will be acquired for as much as $10.2B by pharmaceutical giant AbbVie. We’d been highlighting Stemcentrx in our research on funding to cancer startups and how hedge funds and investment banks are leaping into private healthcare investing.

But how does it rank alongside other mega deals? Using CB Insights data, we took a historical look at the largest mergers and acquisitions of VC-backed companies to see how Stemcentrx stacks up.

In first place for largest VC-backed M&A remains WhatsApp‘s record-breaking acquisition byFacebook, which settled at $22B when the deal was completed in 2014. 

Second-largest was the cancer-drug maker Stemcentrx, with its recent $10.2B deal.

And in third was biotech company Acerta Pharma, which sold a majority stake to AstraZeneca at a $7.3B valuation.

(Note: Only first exits of private companies were included. Acquisition finance was omitted. Dollars are in nominal terms so there is some bias toward more recent deals.)

Taking a look at the sectors that produced the largest M&A, the most well-represented in the top 20 was mobile & telecommunications, which had 6 companies in the top 20 (including the top deal WhatsApp). Next most represented was the internet sector, followed by healthcare (which had three companies ranked).

At first glance, the list looks dominated by dot-com era deals. And, in fact, 7 deals occurred in a single year: 2000. However, exactly half of the top 20 M&A deals have happened in 2005 or later.

See the full table below (click on the companies for profiles on each):

Largest VC-backed M&A History
Rank	Company	M&A Type	Acquirer	Date	Valuation ($M)	Sector
1	WhatsApp	Acquired	Facebook	2/19/2014	22000	Mobile & Telecommunications
2	Stemcentrx	Acquired	AbbVie	4/28/2016	10200	Healthcare
3	Acerta Pharma	Corporate Majority	AstraZeneca	12/17/2015	7273	Healthcare
4	Cerent Corporation	Acquired	Cisco Systems	11/16/1999	6900	Mobile & Telecommunications
5	WebMD Health	Acquired	Healtheon	5/20/1999	4800	Internet
6	Chromatis Networks	Acquired	Lucent Technologies	6/15/2000	4760	Mobile & Telecommunications
7	Siara Systems	Acquired	Redback Networks	3/10/2000	4500	Mobile & Telecommunications
8	Ganji	Merger	58.com	4/15/2015	3600	Internet
9	Legendary Entertainment	Corporate Majority	Wanda Group	1/5/2016	3500	Media (Traditional)
10	Sirocco Systems	Acquired	Sycamore Networks	9/20/2000	3490	Electronics
11	Octane Software	Acquired	E.piphany	5/8/2000	3414	Internet
12	Xros	Acquired	Nortel Networks	6/19/2000	3230	Computer Hardware & Services
13	Nest Labs	Acquired	Google	2/12/2014	3200	Energy & Utilities
14	Supercell	Acquired	GungHo Online, Softbank Corp.	10/15/2013	3000	Internet
15	Cyras Systems	Acquired	Ciena	12/20/2000	2826	Electronics
16	Avito	Corporate Majority	Naspers	10/23/2015	2729	Internet
17	Boston Biomedical	Acquired	Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma	3/1/2012	2630	Healthcare
18	Skype	Acquired	eBay	6/16/2005	2600	Mobile & Telecommunications
19	Qtera Corporation	Acquired	Nortel Networks	1/10/2000	2483	Mobile & Telecommunications
20	Kinko’s	Acquired	Fedex Corporation	1/22/2004	2400	Retail (non-internet/mobile)

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