The Europeans are coming! (with checkbooks)

The falling value of the U.S. dollar is crimping the European vacation plans of American tourists, something anyone who's tried to buy fish & chips in London or a beer at Oktoberfest this month can tell you. And let's not mention all those formerly-reserved Canadians streaming south across the 49th parallel to celebrate the fact that their precious loonie has now achieved parity with the greenback. But there may be an upside to the dollar's slide for startup entrepreneurs, according to one investment banker I spoke to recently. The strengthening euro and British pound have padded the balance sheets of many firms that were prepared for the currency move, and some of them are now looking to apply that money toward technology acquisitions in the U.S., according to Murray Beach, president of Boston Corporate Finance.  "Anyone who is looking to sell a company and hasn't reached out to potential European bidders is selling themselves short," said Beach, whose tech-focused bank has helped sell startups to storage kingpin EMC and other large firms. While the bids may not resemble the mind-blowing $12.5 billion that Terra Networks, the Internet arm of Spain's biggest phone company, paid for Lycos seven years ago (this is 2007, after all, not 2000), overseas interest shouldn't be ignored. In fact, because the U.S. dollar has been sliding against nearly all major currencies, the trend goes beyond Europe. Last week, Beach's firm advised the New York City-based SaaS provider OKERE Inc. on its sale to the consulting arm of Japanese giant Fujitsu.