[Shih-Hung Ting]

The traditional venture capital exit playbook is being radically rewritten by antitrust pressure and the AI boom, giving rise to “quasi-mergers”—where Big Tech licenses IP and absorbs core founding teams without an outright acquisition. While this workaround offers a lifeline to capital-intensive startups, it introduces significant friction around talent equity, investor returns, and regulatory risk, which raises critical questions for the ecosystem: How should VC funds adapt their governance terms when classic M&A paths are blocked; how can non-executive employees protect their equity value in these talent-carveout deals; and are these structures a viable long-term strategy for corporate innovation or simply short-term regulatory arbitrage waiting to be closed?

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