The article is very US-centric, it completely ignores the large number of hugely successful gambling startups that have come out of Europe as well as startups like Just-Eat (world's largest online takeaway aggregator, >$2m/daily turnover) and Wonga (they just closed a $117m series C round of funding).
It's as if unless you have customers in the US you don't count.
I think the first comment (http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/16/which-startup-is-cleared... ) gets it right: Europe have produced plenty of huge startups, as you'd expect, but they've almost all sold to larger US companies rather than remain in Europe. Which is a shame.
I don't see it as a shame at all. US acquirers typically are able to pay higher multiples and are more acquisitive in general. And in most acquisition cases, it's not like the companies up and leave Europe. In larger acquisitions, it's rare the Europe team is cut.
[+] [-] ig1|15 years ago|reply
It's as if unless you have customers in the US you don't count.
[+] [-] dkersten|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] estel|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robk|15 years ago|reply