Private Equity
Debra Chrapaty has left her post as Zynga's CIO to become the CEO of cloud-storage startup Nirvanix. But to get the company on track, the tech veteran may have to overcome morale issues first.
3 min read · 25 March 2013
Today, Debra Chrapaty, appointed Zynga's chief information officer in 2011, announced that she has left the company to join cloud-stage startup Nirvanix as CEO. As a result, Zynga has appointed longtime employee Dorion Carroll as CIO of the company. Carroll joined Zynga in 2009 as CTO of the popular game "Mafia Wars." He was later promoted to CTO of Zynga's Shared Technology Group and in October 2011 made the CTO of Zynga's mobile efforts. Before joining Zynga, Carroll was the VP of engineering at the blog search engine Technorati.
1 min read · 25 March 2013
Earlier this month, venture capitalist Tim Draper announced he was launching "Draper University," a boarding school for entrepreneurs aged 18 to 26, who will come to San Mateo for one of the school's four eight-week-long sessions each year. Now, Draper University has announced a Heidi Roizen scholarship for female applicants. Roizen, a longtime venture capitalist and former Stanford classmate of Draper, will fund the scholarships. The "university" opens its doors April 17.
3 min read · 22 March 2013
Vista International Technologies, a Denver-based company whose technology ostensibly converts waste, biomass, tires and other solid carbon based materials into electricity and thermal energy, while capturing the pollutants, has raised a letter of interest from Intercapital Partners Limited, a U.K.-based private equity firm that's looking to invest up to $6 million in Vista, according to the company. Vista says terms and conditions of the investment are "currently being finalized."
2 min read · 22 March 2013
American Internet Services (AIS), a San Diego-based company that manages the IT infrastructure of its clients, has secured a $43.5 million senior secured credit facility from Fortress Credit Corp., an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.
2 min read · 22 March 2013
Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Company, named Richard Colton head of its Mergers and Acquisitions Industry Practice. Serving middle market and large corporate customers, including private equity firms, the practice provides clients with insurance, risk, due diligence, and employee benefit services and solutions. Colton, who will be based in new York, previously served as co-founder of Aon's mergers and acquisitions group and was also former chairman of Lockton's mergers and acquisitions group.
3 min read · 21 March 2013
Devicescape, a San Bruno, Calif.-based WiFi software maker, has appointed Jeff Baeth to the position of CFO. Baeth joins the company from Jajah, where he served as CFO, helping facilitate the company's sale to Telefonica S.A. in 2010. Devicescape has raised nearly $16 million in funding, including from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and August Capital.
2 min read · 21 March 2013
Earth911, a Scottsdale, Az.-based company that gathers, distributes and analyzes localized recycling information for its customers, has added Ed Skernolis to its advisory board. Skernolis spent 14 years with the Environmental Protection Agency, and 18 years as the director of government affairs for Waste Management, among other roles.
5 min read · 21 March 2013
If you thought we might see a slowdown in the private equity secondary market in 2013, you probably don’t work for a pension fund, bank or insurance company. According to the private equity data provider Preqin, which just finished interviewing roughly 40 institutional investors worldwide, fully 98 percent of them said they expect to see as much if not more activity on the secondary market than last year.
2 min read · 21 March 2013
Amy Andersen doesn’t have a degree in psychology, but she has interviewed 4,500 people since founding her Menlo Park, Calif.-based matchmaking service Linx Dating ten years ago. And that collective experience has given her the kind of pattern recognition that comes in handy when trying to divine who her well-heeled clients – some of them venture capitalists – want to date or, in some cases, marry.
4 min read · 20 March 2013
