Happy Holidays, and let’s all wish for a more sane and prosperous 2010.  But of course, wishing alone won’t get us where we need to go. So please read on to see my recipe for holiday cheer and a far brighter new year.

But first, let’s take a moment to talk about online publishing. We’re constantly scrambling to stay on top of technology advancements, and I guess this is aspect of my job that keeps me young. I’ve actually found myself explaining what Twitter and Kindle are to the 20-somethings in my company. And then I’ve learned that a consortium of magazine publishers is developing a new web-based format that will be viewed on devices not yet available, and this is while they’re all trying to figure out what’s going to happen to print. So you can never relax in this brave new world, and the only solution is to keep finding new ways to provide ever-increasing value to your subscribers, contributors, and advertisers.

Then recently, we’ve had a number of requests to make PowerPoint presentations and abstracts available from various conferences. And in particular, the Viral Vectors and Vaccines Conference from 1997 has been in demand – go figure. So, with approval from the presenters, we’ve made two of the presentations available in this Techno-Blast. Let us know what you think and we may post even more to our websites. 

So now to my favorite subject and the crux of this blog – mergers and acquisitions (M&A’s). They continue at a dizzying pace even while so many industry participants are just trying to hang on. Apparently some of the biggest firms still have excess money or access to cheap money, and they would rather spend it acquiring than building or solidifying what they have. But if they have so much money, why are they laying off so many people?

At the Mid-Atlantic Bio Conference I recently attended in DC, I kept hearing that “companies have a lot of money.” But when I followed-up with a panelist, I was told that much of this money could not be used for operations. Apparently because of the off-shore, or other locations where it’s hiding, it can only be used to buy stock. So as I tried so hard to make sense of things, why do they appear to be getting even crazier as we approach the end of 2009? 

Then from another panel of financial experts, I asked why there had been so few initial public offerings (IPO’s) and so many M&A’s, and if the M&A’s were just easier. But the overwhelming panel opinion was that M&A’s were not necessarily easier or a better choice. The bottom line was that the investment banking community wasn’t interested in doing IPO’s. “But why?” I asked. The most audible response was, “I don’t trust anything the banks tell me,” which somehow left me unfulfilled. So I asked if the investment banks, which typically handle IPO’s, were just too busy buying exotic investment instruments and swapping default credits, and this assertion could not be disputed.

The only financial bright spot of the meeting was during a keynote presentation from Tom Watkins, president and CEO, of Human Genome Sciences (HGS). He was questioned about a company that HGS had spun off, and whether he regretted not owning all of what turned out to be a very successful venture. Mr. Watkins responded that HGS was not able to “get to” the technology and products that were spun off, and that the team which left to run the new venture was passionate about making it a success. In addition, he said that HGS maintained a small but significant ownership position in the company and was able to benefit financially. So according to Watkins, the choice was sitting on technology he wouldn’t get to, or allowing passionate people to make it successful while HGS maintained an equity position. 

I ran into Mr. Watkins later and encouraged him to convince other companies to do something similar. I said I firmly believed that the industry needed more companies and not fewer, that passionate individuals emotionally involved in a technology would do more with it, that more innovation and jobs came from smaller companies, and that big firms should be spinning out ventures rather than stifling them. So please join Tom Watkins and me in urging our big industry players to start thinking outside the box. To make this industry vibrant again, they should be spinning out companies and not gobbling them up. Thanksgiving is behind us, and the time for senseless gluttony is over.