As an exercise in research outsourcing, I found a list of 2008 technology acquisitions and paid some random person on Mahalo Answers $30 to research where those companies were when they got bought. I'm going to drop them on a Google Map, but I was quite surprised at how global they really were.

I'm also going to do it for 2007 (what's another $30?).

Here's the 2008 list. Once I do it for 2007, I'll map it out. Out of 106, 81 of them were outside of the Valley. There might be a few more, as I don't recognize all of the towns clustered around the valley. It would be interesting to plot exit events over time-- I'd guess that we're trending towards LESS clustering rather than more.

Moniker - Pompano Beach, Florida, United States Bodybuilding.com - MERIDIAN, Idaho, United States CleverSet - Seattle, Washington, United States Anywhere.FM - San Francisco, CA, United States Audible - 160 employees split between its headquarters in Newark, NJ and an office in London, UK. Maven Networks - Boston, MA, United States FoxyTunes - Israel Vehix- Salt Lake City, UT, United States HotOrNot - San Francisco, CA, United States Compete - London, UK BlogDigger - Washington, D.C., United States Auctomatic - San Francisco, CA, United States BeInSync - Tel Aviv, Israel Prospero - Burlington, MA, United States Social Platform - Los Angeles, CA, United States Pluck - Austin, TX, United States Bebo - San Francisco, CA, United States Sway - Middleton, WI, United States buy.at - London, UK YaData - Tel Aviv, Israel Weblistic - Fremont, CA, United States XIV - Tel Aviv, Israel Apertio - Bristol, UK Onaro - Boston, MA, United States MySQL - Uppsala, Sweden Trolltech - Oslo, Norway Fraud Sciences - Tel Aviv, Israel E-Dialog - Lexington, MA, United States MessageOne - Austin, Texas, United States G-Technology - Santa Ana, CA, United States Danger - Palo Alto, CA, United States Caligari - Mountain View, CA, United States Twhirl - Germany Pageflakes - San Francisco, CA, United States Sphere - San Francisco, CA, United States Farecast - Seattle, WA, United States Activeweave - San Francisco, CA, United States Fleaflicker - Tenafly, NJ, United States Expensr - San Francisco, CA, United States gBox - Cupertino, CA, United States MeeVee - Burlingame, CA, United States Inquisitor - Sunnyvale, CA, United States Cnet - San Francisco, CA, United States Ars Technica - Chicago, Illinois, United States StarBrand Media - Los Angeles, California, United States M:Metrics - Seattle, WA, United States Celebrity Baby Blog - New York, NY Snapvine - Seattle, WA, United States SwapDrive - Washington, D.C., United States Hostopia.com - Mississauga, ON, Canada Imity - Copenhagen, Denmark Rupture - San Francisco, CA, United States ZYB - Copenhagen, Denmark StarNet Interactive - Tel Aviv, Israel Plazes - Berlin, Germany Adify - San Bruno, CA, United States Personifi - Fort Worth, TX, United States Navic Networks - Waltham, MA, United States Gracenote- Emeryville, CA, United States Simple Star - San Francisco, CA, United States Diligent - Framingham, MA, United States EDS - Plano, TX Hands-On Mobile Korea - San Francisco, CA, United States B-hive Networks - Herzliya, Israel OpenAir - Boston, MA, United States Let It Wave - Paris, France Practique Associates - Bracknell, UK MusicGremlin - New York, NY, United States Skywire - Las Vegas, NV, United States Symbian - N./A Alltel - Little Rock, Ark, United States Helio - Los Angeles, CA, United States Iomega - San Diego, CA, United States Powerset - San Francisco, CA, United States Weather Channel - Atlanta, Georgia, United States HaloScan - N/A Imagekind - Seattle, WA, United States Truemors - Palo Alto, CA, United States ContentNextMedia - Santa Monica, CA, United States PodTech - Palo Alto, CA, United States jkOnTheRun - Houston, TX, United States Omnisio - Atherton, CA, United States AbeBooks - Victoria, Canada DailyCandy - New York, New York Blogcritics - San Francisco, CA, United States Ciao (Greenfield Online) - Connecticutm, MA, United States social.im - San Francisco, CA, United States Peerflix - Palo Alto, CA, United States Napster - Los Angeles, CA, United States YoVille - N/A PartnerUp - Shoreview, MN, United States Socialthing! - Boulder, CA, United States ZAO Begun - Moscow, Russia Pure Networks - Seattle, WA, United States Jabber - Denver, CO, United States Ribbit - Mountain View, CA, United States PostPath - Mountain View, CA, United States Lefthand Networks - Boulder, CO, United States Bitwine - Tenafly, New Jersey, United States Bill Me Later - Omaha, Nebraska, United States DBA - Denmark Polldaddy - Sligo, Ireland JungleDisk - Atlanta, GA, United States Wayport - Austin, Texas RuTube - Moscow, Russia Clickpass - San Francisco, CA, United States Revolution Health - Brooklyn, NY, United States socialmedian - New York, NY, United States AdEngage - Los Angeles, CA, United States acerno - New York and San Francisco based. Lookery - San Francisco, CA, United States Centennial - Wall, NJ, United States