Slideshow: Top 10 VC-Backed Acquisitions for Q1

Acquisitions of venture-backed companies appear to be continuing at a decent pace, with the announcement yesterday that eBay has agreed to buy VC-backed mobile ad startup Where Inc.

Given that the purchase price wasn’t disclosed, it’s unclear how Where’s backers will fare on the deal. The Boston-based company raised a total of $16.1 million over three rounds from GrandBanks Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners and Venrock Associates, including an $11 million Series C in May 2007 that had a post-money valuation of $22.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of this blog). The three firms also provided Where with a bridge loan for an undisclosed amount in December 2009.

I took a look back at VC-backed M&A data for Q1 and the numbers look encouraging. A total of 119 VC-backed companies were acquired, up from 101 in Q4 and just below the 122 venture-backed companies bought in Q1 2010.

Of the 119 deals done in Q1, 46 had disclosed deal values totaling $5.91 billion. That was down a bit from Q4, when 41 companies had a combined disclosed deal value of about $6 billion. But it was up from Q1 2010, when 31 companies had a combined disclosed deal value of $5.59 billion.

It is also worth noting that Q1 was above average for the past five years. Since Q1 2006, the average number of VC-backed companies acquired per quarter is 92 and the average disclosed deal amount per quarter is $4.78 billion.

Which VC-backed deal topped the list in Q1? Watch my slideshow to find out.

Some notes on the list. The data are only for deals that officially closed in Q1, so deals that were announced but didn’t close aren’t in the results. Also, I tweaked the rankings to reflect the full potential amount of a deal, as opposed to just the initial payment. There were three deals in the top 10 where the VC-backed company stands to make significantly more if it meets performance benchmarks over the next few years.

No. 10: Metastorm

Metastorm Inc.

Description: Develops business process management (BPM), business process analysis (BPA) and enterprise architecture (EA) software.
Deal Value: $182M
VC Raised: $99.79M
Acquiror: Open Text Corp.
VC Backers: W Capital Partners, 3i Group, Allianz Capital Partners GmbH, Internet Capital Group, ABS Capital Partners, Diamond Point Capital Management, Axiom Venture Partners, Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, Riggs Capital Partners, Undisclosed Firm
Date of Deal Announcement: 2/2/11