Recently, Goldman Sachs tried to get cute with a nearly 50-year-old law that requires private companies with more than 499 shareholders to publicly report their financial results. (As Goldman was publishing a 63-page document about amending its business practices, it tried to make the argument that its syndicate of U.S. investors should only count as one shareholder because only Goldman would be managing the investment bloc.) Goldman’s hubris has called attention to the need for federal regulation of the private markets. And that may not be such a bad thing.
2 min read · 20 January 2011
6 min read · 14 January 2011
2 min read · 13 January 2011
3 min read · 13 January 2011
2 min read · 12 January 2011
Steve Schimmel was born into poverty in suburban Chicago, yet by age 32, he was able to retire, having been made unfathomably rich by the initial public offering of Google, where he was employee no. 13. (An analyst by training, Schimmel didn’t have a specific job description at Google but says he instead got to be a “business development renaissance man.”) Last week, Schimmel wrote of his compelling rags-to-riches story in a widely read blog post. Last night, I asked him if we could talk more about his experience of become suddenly wealthy and what advice he could share with the tens, if not hundreds, of Facebook employees who will surely enjoy the same life-altering event, likely next year. Schimmel, who is currently writing a novel and “working on a business plan to change the way Hollywood does business,” shared some thoughts with me just now.
6 min read · 11 January 2011
Earlier today, TechCrunch was handed a release that Groupon is publishing widely later today. In it, the group-buying behemoth is announcing that it’s completed a $950 million round from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Venture, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mail.ru Group, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures. The megaround is no longer a huge surprise, given that details about it began surfacing last month, right after Groupon’s almost-done-deal with Google wholly unraveled. What is a surprise is who isn’t mentioned in the release: Accel Partners and New Enterprise Associates
3 min read · 10 January 2011
3 min read · 07 January 2011
5 min read · 07 January 2011
2 min read · 06 January 2011
