Greenhorns, Yankees, and Cosmopolitans: Venture Capital, IPOs, Foreign Firms, and U.S. Markets

Abstract

Black and Gilson have argued that “venture capital can flourish especially – and perhaps only – if the venture capitalist can exit from a successful portfolio company through an initial public offering (IPO), which requires an active stock market.” But nothing in the Black and Gilson analysis requires that the exit option be a domestic capital market. In this article, I use the phenomenon of Israeli hi-tech companies going public on the Nasdaq as a case study to explore the connection between a venture capital industry and domestic capital markets in a world of global capital and product markets.