Private Equity
5 min read · 11 December 2008
4 min read · 10 December 2008
1 min read · 10 December 2008
5 min read · 09 December 2008
Talk about an unexpected twist. Terry Drayton, a well-known Seattle entrepreneur who has founded companies like HomeGrocer.com (acquired by WebVan), is being accused of ripping off a soccer club, a Little League team and a ski organization. But that may be just the beginning of his troubles. Drayton’s Count Me In, a Bellevue company whose online registration tools are used by thousands of nonprofits and youth programs across the country, apparently hasn't been passing along a percentage of those fees.
1 min read · 09 December 2008
Last Friday, I caught up with Bob Ackerman, who co-founded early-stage venture firm Allegis Capital back in 1995. Allegis is a low-flying operation that has enjoyed a few exits in recent years, including IronPort Systems, which raised $94 million and sold to Cisco for $830 million, and the telephony software company Ribbit, which raised $23 million before selling to British Telecom in July for $105 million. Ackerman himself is no shrinking violet, however, and he's certainly not shy when discussing his views on the industry. Here’s part of our conversation: You position yourself as a “value investor.” Are you in the middle of a shopping binge? We’ll seize on depressed valuations, definitely. What’s interesting this time around
2 min read · 09 December 2008
Back in 2006, a number of ex-Googlers became full-time investors, including angels Aydin Senkut, Georges Harik and Paul Buchheit (founder of FriendFeed). It would be overstating things to say that the tide has now turned, but at least one former VC, Karim Faris, has joined Google to focus on investments and acquisitions. Faris spent the last year and a half working independently to help startups build their teams and raise financing, but for four years before that was a principal at Atlas Ventures in Boston, where he sat on the boards of Atlas-backed Lilliputian Systems, a Wilmington, Mass., a portable fuel cell technology startup, and CLK Design Automation in Littleton, Mass., which makes timing and power analysis tools used in microprocessor design (and that continues to list Faris as a board member, and
1 min read · 09 December 2008
2 min read · 07 December 2008
1 min read · 07 December 2008
Halsey Minor isn’t making any new friends in the art world, but he’s making plenty of enemies. In September, it was widely reported that the auction house Sotheby’s was suing the Internet entrepreneur turned venture investor for refusing to pay for three paintings he purchased in May, including, ironically, “The Peaceable Kingdom,” by renowned American folk painter Edward Hicks. According to Sotheby’s, Minor initially told the auction house that he hadn’t paid for the works because he was owed money by other parties. Minor, who has countersued, has said he hasn’t paid for the paintings because Sotheby’s didn’t directly disclose to him its financial stake in the sale. (Minor contends he might have bid a distressed asset price otherwise.) Now peHUB has learned that Minor is taking on another venerable Manhattan-based auction house, Christie’s. Its alleged offense was hampering Minor's efforts to sell seven Richard Prince paintings by holding on to them for a protracted period this fall, after failing to help him
2 min read · 05 December 2008
