Who said Clean Technology is gaining traction(?) and another water acquisition

Oh, right, everyone. Today, this article in New York Times, as well as an article in the print edition of the current Red Herring (note: link is now here), both point to the increased interest in Clean Technology, and some reasons why it is a compelling area for venture dollars.

In the New York Times article, Ira Ehrenpreis (who is a friend of our firm), partner at Technology Partners (a great Silicon Valley VC) says the reason his firm allocates money to the sector is he believes it is an area that can generate attractive returns.

Other key take-aways from the article include (and are not new to readers of this blog):

• The sector is underinvested relative to the opportunity
• Clean Technology represents huge, multi-billion dollar markets
• Expect to see smaller niche-sized startups, rather than an array of Clean Technology Google, E-bay’s and Yahoo’s
  

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Earlier this week, Watts Water Technologies announced the acquisition of Alamo Water Refiners, Inc.

One interesting thing to note about this transaction, beyond the fact that it is in the water quality segment, is that Alamo Water Refiners is reported to have annual revenues of approximately $13M. This stands in stark contrast to the $1.1B Mueller Industries reportedly had in 2004 revenues at the time of its acquisition by Walter Industries and ~$440M of revenues Ionics had when GE announced its intent to acquire it last year.