Best Buy's $97 million deal for pioneering broadband service provider Speakeasy Inc. provides an exit for its host of long-standing venture investors that injected about $50 million into the company since 2000. With $80 million in annual revenue and 40,000 small business customers, it seems a strange time for the startup to sell, but perhaps, further growth would have taken too much capital.

Whatever the rationale, Speakeasy's investors that invested $26 million over the course of the company's first three rounds seem to have done best. These include BV Capital, Cornerstone Ventures, Granite Ventures, Matthew G. Norton Co. and Ares Management. In June 2004, Speakeasy nearly doubled its venture money with a $24 million fourth round, from 3i Group, Intel Capital and previous investors.

Largely absent from startup acquisitions, if Best Buy becomes even a selective, but regular, dealmaker, that would be good news for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

For more on the Best Buy's purchase of Speakeasy, see:
The Deal
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Tags: speakeasy, bestbuy, best+buy, m&a, vc, venture capital