Tino Mantella has put together a pretty good series of speakers in 2007 for the TAG Entrepreneurial Forum. This morning Marc Fleury spoke on the Art of a Company Sale.

A little more specifically he talked about the growth of JBoss from being founded in an office at his in-laws to the sale to Red Hat last April for $350 million.

Marc said that the decision to sell was essentially an NPV exercise and offered these words of advice:

1. With SOX the pendulum has swung too far. The cost to get SOX compliant would have cost JBoss $2 million and would have decreased his companies worth by $20 million. Not worth it. He thinks that acquisitions, or going public on a foreign exchange such as London or Dubai are the best ways to go. The mention of DFIX brought a few laughs. Which prompted Marc to say “money is money.” Sure is.

2. While it is hard to do, though becoming more common, take some money off the table in your VC rounds. It helps you to keep your cool in the heat of the deal. Jay Chaudhry has the same philosophy.

3. Going public would have actually decreased Jboss’ ability to invest in growth. They could have gotten out, but they could not have invested the proceeds it in a way to maximize the company’s value.

Update: According to Haynie Mark has left Red Hat.