Cambridge easy prey for big bucks buyers from US

The online fraudbuster follows Invoke stablemate Darktrace into American hands. Also this week, Cambridge geospatial software company IQGeo went the way of all Cambridge tech flesh – bought by KKR in the States.

Pledges have been made by the American buyers in the cases of Darktrace and IQGeo that the pulses of the businesses will continue to beat in Cambridge. One awaits a similar assurance about Featurespace.

And will legal AI power player Luminance be next – a third from the Invoke camp so well built by the now departed Mike Lynch – as it grows massively from New York and Dallas with other US locations planned?

Also since last December we saw Abcam go to Danaher Corporation, Endomag to Hologic, Versed AI to Exiger and a string of other deals.

None of which is particularly surprising given that world-leading businesses need money – and lots of it – to not only stay the pace on the global stage but also to continue having an impact as it grows and competition heats up.

It is also pretty obvious that no-one in the Western world has deeper pockets than American investors, whether they are based in the Big Apple or some other fertile orchard in Texas, Boston, California or another key hub.

In many respects it is no bad thing for young tech and life science hopefuls in Cambridge and the wider UK to know that if they follow the right path and maintain good habits their discipline will be rewarded with a sale to this massive multi-trillion dollar marketplace.

For their part, American investors looking for growth opportunities just pop across the Pond and pick the ripest fruit – whether or not it is the lowest hanging.

The most intelligent US acquirers have the sense to maintain operations here to stay close to the world class University of Cambridge and its conveyor belt of pre-eminent brains.

The early pioneers too often made the mistake of taking the technology and running; they took the guts and left the grey matter. Happily, that no longer seems the case.

Whatever. One doesn’t see this fertile exchange based on supply and demand becoming barren any time soon. The Americans’ bucks and Cambridge brains is a tough combination to better. The situation is what it is and we must make the best of it. It’s a no brainer – ok, it’s exactly the opposite!