When large firms invest in newly created smallbusinesses, they are engaging in corporate venturing.Corporate venturinghas a cyclical popularity, most recently reaching great heights during thedot-com surge of the 1990s.Following this period, declines in U.S.corporate venturing have occurred due...

Microsoft's IP Ventures program, through which Microsoft spun out promising but unused technologies into new companies, is a new approach to corporate venture capital. The program provides "IP for equity" and has proven very successful in achieving its main goals-improved morale among...