Six Silicon Valley Up-and-Comers

The result of an "informal poll" of venture capitalists by Reuters pointed to six privately held companies that are the ripest for acquisition or an IPO filing. The list is obviously based on some pretty loose criteria, the only solid one apparently being that these companies earn more than $100 million in revenue and reside in Silicon Valley.

Reuters' so-called "Silicon Valley Six" include:

• LinkedIn Corp., a career networking site, which was co-founded by angel investor Reid Hoffman;
• Solyndra Inc., a solar panel maker;
• Silver Spring Networks, a well-funded smart-grid technology developer;
• Zynga, a casual-games developer, which raised a $28 million second round a year ago;
• Guidewire, an insurance software developer;
• LiveOps, a call center company, which has been viewed as an IPO candidate for some time.

Perhaps one reason these startups rose to the top of this impromptu list is the sheer amount of money they've raised, which might lead one to conclude that their VCs are actively looking for an exit opportunity. Solyndra, for instance, has raised somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 million in financial backing. Silver Spring raised $75 million late last year in a round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Of course, with the M&A and IPO markets as lackluster as they are, it may just be wishful thinking on a slow news day.

- Olaf de Senerpont Domis