Company: JBoss Inc.
Description: Open source application server software.
Location: Atlanta
Amount Raised: $10 million
VC Firms: Matrix Partners, Accel Partners
VC Directors: David Skok
Exit Type: Trade Sale to Red Hat Inc.
Exit Valuation: $350 million
Absolute Return: 3500%
Memorable Quote: "We see tremendous opportunity for JBoss to disrupt the current market," said David Skok at the time of the first round investment. How right he was.
Memorable Awards: Software Development magazine's Jolt Awards recognized JBoss' contribution to Tomcat 5.0. Gartner positioned JBoss in the leading quadrant of enterprise application server companies.
Quick Take: Accel Partners continues to chalk up the victories this year. First, Wily to CA, then all the Facebook talk, and now this week's impressive exit to Red Hat. By the time the investment was made in 2004, JBoss had been around in one form or another since 1999. So, the pre-money valuation must have been high. However, JBoss had only incorporated in 2004, so this sale must still provide venture capitalists with a 10X return. After acquisition talks with Oracle leaked out earlier this year, JBoss said it was on track for an IPO. Must have been a negotiating ploy because they ended up trading that risk for the certainty of $350 million.— Joshua Jaffe

For more on JBoss' sale, see: Red Hat's press release, JBoss' company blog, The Deal

JBoss CEO Marc Fleury signs the definitive agreement to be acquired by Red Hat

Technorati tags: jboss, accel, matrixpartners, redhat, vc, venture capital