Frank Stockton’s classic short story “The Lady or the Tiger” is about a princely pauper who for the crime of loving the king’s daughter finds himself in an arena of justice where he is faced with a choice between two doors. Choose what’s behind door No. 1 and you win a beautiful maiden with whom you can enjoy earthly pleasures. Choose door No. 2 and you hear a muted trumpet play “wah-wah-wah” to indicate a zonker as the lovely Carol Merrill reveals a ravenous tiger who promptly eats you as you listen to the sounds of your own screams. The princess in the story knows what lies behind each door and signals to her lover which to choose, but she is jealous of the maiden chosen for him. The story ends with Stockton leaving the reader to reason which came out of the door at the end -- the lady or the tiger. Biotechnology companies have faced a sort of lady-or-tiger choice this year when it comes to exit strategies. They could open one door and risk being ravaged by the public markets or choose the other and find themselves in the warm embrace of an acquirer. At the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s annual BIO Investor Forum in San Francisco on Oct. 19-20, exit strategies were certainly a topic of conversation among venture investors and private company CEOs. There’s no doubt that the IPO market has been more tiger-like than lady-like this year.
