Wired magazine examines “Six Trends that are Changing the World� in its July 2006 issue.
The six trends include peer production, unlimited video, personalization, clean technology, open standards, and technology mergers and acquisitions.
The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship (NDE) highlighted Wired's report in its weekly newsletter, NDE-news.
NDE notes that large corporations are using start-ups as de facto R&D labs. Instead of setting up an in-house R&D operation, companies like Cisco and Microsoft "scout the market for promising start-ups with innovative technology development underway."
While IPO's were the "holy grail" for start-ups in the 1990s, early-stage companies in this decade are relying more on M&A activity as a viable exit strategy.