Private Equity
Great video of how Mac designs have changed over the past thirty years, compiled by Gary Katz of Mac MD (h/t @scottmaustin):
1 min read · 07 July 2010
Citigroup has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity interests for more than $900 million, according to multiple sources. Lexington Partners is the buyer, while StepStone Group will provide management services. This is a big deal – one of the largest secondary transactions ever and a further move by Citi away from private equity. So let’s break it down: What’s being sold? The deal includes Citi’s stakes in bank-branded funds-of-funds, mezzanine and co-investment vehicles. Basically what used to be known as Citigroup Private Equity, and managed by John Barber (he left earlier this year).
2 min read · 07 July 2010
Elevation Partners was originally known for its high-profile partners, including Roger McNamee, Fred Anderson and Bono. But it quickly became better known as the firm that kept plugging money into Palm, the PDA maker whose popularity seemed to have peaked in around 2001. "As goes Palm as goes Elevation," summed up an investor in the firm's $1.8 billion debut fund. Last week, HP completed its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, which gave around a 5% cash-on-cash return from its $460 million in total investments. Not very good, but better than Elevation would have faired in the Palm bankruptcy that some predicted. To get a better sense of the Palm situation from Elevation's point of view, I spent some time on the phone with Fred Anderson, the ex-Apple CFO who repped Elevation on the Palm board of directors. The conversation actually took place back when the deal was first announced in April, but Palm lawyers prevented me from publishing it until now. What follows are some of his comments from our conversation:
3 min read · 07 July 2010
The European Venture Capital Association this morning sent over new data on Central and Eastern European investment and fundraising for 2009 (both VC and PE). Download the release here.
1 min read · 07 July 2010
Maven Research today will announce that it has raised $1 million in seed funding, in order to keep building out a micro-consulting platform that lets individuals market their expertise on just about anything. The company is particularly popular with venture captial and private equity firms, which use Maven to better understand both potential investments and market perception of existing portfolio companies. "We have 15,000 total members right now, with the network growing in excess of 30% per month," says Wyatt Nordstrom, Maven's co-founder and CEO. "A lot of that is in the asset management space, although we also have law firms and corporate product management groups and individual professionals."
2 min read · 06 July 2010
1 min read · 06 July 2010
Henry Kravis and George Roberts each made over $70 million in 2009, according to a new filing with the SEC. Almost all of that was in the form of stock awards, with their actual salaries coming in at $250,000 each. Also included is the use of a chauffeured car, on which Kravis spent $99,000 and Roberts spent around $144,000. For context, Blackstone Group boss Steven Schwarzman's 2009 salary was $350,000. His total 2009 compensation was over $7.8 billion -- almost all of which was stock awards. Leon Black of Apollo Group, on the other hand, had a 2009 salary of $100,000 and total compensation of around $787,000. In terms of fees and carried interest compensation, KKR reports:
2 min read · 06 July 2010
Venrock has closed its sixth venture capital fund with $350 million in capital commitments, peHUB has learned. Expect a formal announcement later this morning. At first blush, it's tempting to say that Venrock's fund-raising success was no big deal. After all, the firm was only targeting 58% of the $600 million it raised for its fifth fund in 2005. But I've got to give some major kudos here. First, Venrock reached its modest target very quickly -- something that many rival firms have struggled to do. Second, it somehow managed to maintain its 25% carried interest structure. Third, and perhaps most important, it succeeded despite some major personnel changes and investment strategy tweaks.
4 min read · 06 July 2010
My weekly Reuters Insider spot this week is about Tesla Motors, which closed its first day of trading up over 40% to $23.94 per share (it was only at around $18 per share when we filmed). Only regret on below video is that I didn't bring up A123 Systems when asked about Tesla's battery building plans. That company also had a $2 billion+ market cap post-IPO (and plenty of gov't backing), but has since tumbled more than 50 percent. Anyway, happy viewing:
1 min read · 29 June 2010
Today I received a new study on student-run VC funds at business schools (there are more than a dozen of them), produced by the University of Oxford. It finds that education is considered the primary goal of such efforts, with ROI placing second. That said, over one-third of the funds surveyed have produced a profitable exit. Download the full report here
1 min read · 29 June 2010
