Five Startup Predictions for 2010

I just posted five of my startup predictions for 2010 over on InformationWeek. Below is the first prediction, head over to InformationWeek to read the others.

Prediction #1 – Acquisitions
Overall I expect the startup market to be very hot in 2010 and the year will see many acquisitions — especially for talent. Larger startups will throw some of their big venture capital warchests to acquire smaller startups to gain the talent in-house. An example of this style of acquisition from 2009 would be Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed.

In another example of “talent” acquisitions, Twitter acquired Mixer Labs earlier this month. Most seem to believe this acquisition was made because the founders were previously at Google in the mobile department. I expect Twitter to open their bank account for many acquisitions in 2010. While all will be small and for “undisclosed amounts”, it’s important for Twitter to stock up on talent in 2010.

While larger startups will acquire a large number of smaller startups, the big money will come from the tech giants including Microsoft and Google. One startup that will see acquisition bidding is NY-based Etsy. While I don’t expect the company to sell, I do expect to read lots of stories about the multiple acquisition offers they will receive.

If you have posted tech predictions for 2010, leave your links in the comments and I will add them to the post.