Is The Tug-of-War Between VC and M&A New? Or Even Real?

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson today wrote about "DST deals," or later-stage VC investments for companies that have rejected corporate takeover offers. Think Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Fred positions this as a new phenomenon, and an indication that "VCs are starting to compete directly with the M&A market." I'm not sure I agree on either count. First, we've seen this show before. Russia's DST is certainly a new player, but Advanced Equities has been doing this sort of thing for years. So was Tudor Ventures for a while. And remember that explosion of big-dollar corporate venturing in 1999-2001, in which ROI was considered more important than strategic alignment? Or big buyout firms dipping into the VC market?