Let’s Go Shopping..or It’s an M&A Bonanza!

I’m not quite sure I agree with Kara Swisher’s view that Silicon Valley is getting more delusional by the minute but there’s certainly a huge amount of bullishness and cash gushing around these days.

While the IPO is still trying to figure out whether it wants to come back to life, there have been a flurry of deals consummated recently that clearly suggest everyone is feeling pretty optimistic about how the Web is evolving into a place where business is happening. Here’s a short list of some of the acquisitions recently announced:

- Yahoo-BlueLithium ($300-million cash)
- Yahoo-BuzzTracker ($5-million)
- Yahoo-Zimbra ($350-million cash)
- EMC-Mozy.com $76-million)
- Echostar – Sling Media ($380-million)
- Real Networks – Gametrust ($50-million)
- Sugar Publishing – ShopStyle.com (n/a)

Then, you’ve got major financings. As everyone knows by now, Facebook is apparently auctioning off a very small stake for a very large amount of cash, while Glam Media hopes to raise a whopping $200-million.

So why the extreme bullishness? And what does all the deal-making suggest? It great to see this kind of activity but there seems to be a strange disconnect when given the economic volatility now happening in the U.S.