Private Equity
The Valley has been watching a lot of TV’s Charlie Rose lately, who, since early February, has been hosting the superstars of the tech industry on his PBS show, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt, investor Marc Andreessen, MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson , and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Unsurprisingly, Rose himself is an interesting interview, as illustrated by Drue Kataoka, an artist and local celebrity who nabbed her Zen sit-down with Rose during his recent trip out here. Personally, I could do without the traditional Japanese music faintly overlaying the video, but I loved learning how Rose manages to wheedle his guests into giving him exclusive tidbits, including by knowing when to keep his mouth shut. Video after the jump...
1 min read · 17 March 2009
2 min read · 16 March 2009
According to Indian newspaper Mint, VC-backed PIPE deals aren't just on the rise in the United States. Companies trading on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India also are attracting the interest of venture investors, including some with strong U.S. ties. In the most recent example, NVP India, the Indian arm of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners, just invested $15 million in OnMobile Global, a publicly traded spin-off of Infosys Technologies, for what roughly amounts to a 5 percent stake in the company. OnMobile was originally incorporated in California in 2000. The now Bangalore-based company sells "value-added services" for cell phones, like multimedia push services.
2 min read · 16 March 2009
Ken Hill is someone whose acquaintance you really don't want to meet. If Hill shows up on your doorstep, or your hangar, it means that your airplane is about to fly away -- with Hill at the controls. He's an airplane repo man, and according to this interesting New York Times profile in this weekend's paper, he's looking at his busiest year yet. Last year, he says in brought in 50 aircraft, from Piper trainers to Gulfstream jets to his clients, banks that specialize in aircraft loans. This year, "it could be 100," he says.
1 min read · 14 March 2009
TechFlash has a great interview up right now with Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft's corporate vice president of strategic and business development, among whose chief responsibilities it is to identify which Silicon Valley startups Microsoft should acquire. The interview is wide-ranging, but the most provocative questions and answers center on how Microsoft is perceived today in the Valley as compared with Google. TechFlash: How would you describe the current state of Microsoft's relationship with Silicon Valley? Lewin: I think we have reasonably well acclimated and normalized our relationship, as any large company has a relationship with startups. Consistent, ongoing, basic interaction has been the operating premise for eight years. The routine is, we respond. So the relationship there is predictable.
2 min read · 13 March 2009
4 min read · 13 March 2009
"KKR Eyes Dead Billionnaire's Phoenix Group-Source" That comes from our Reuters news colleagues, who needed just seven words to make KKR sound like a firm full of soulless vultures. Story after the jump...
1 min read · 12 March 2009
1 min read · 10 March 2009
Yesterday, the Obama administration announced its decision to overturn restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. To find out what it will mean to startups, along with who is most likely to benefit from the reversal first and why, I spoke just now with venture capitalist Chris Christoffersen, a Boulder, Colo.-based partner in the healthcare practice of Morgenthaler Ventures, who sits on the boards of two stem cell companies.
3 min read · 10 March 2009
1 min read · 10 March 2009
