Is Steve Rattner about to become the car czar? And, if so, what does that mean for Quadrangle Group, which is currently targeting $2 billion for its third private equity fund? The car czar job is part of legislation introduced today by Rep. Barney Frank, which would impose stricter conditions on TARP and the semi-associated auto bailout/restructuring package. It also was part of the original auto industry bailout bill approved by the House of Reps, but got stripped by the Senate. No word yet on how the Senate feels this time around, although Frank is hoping for a vote in his chamber by next Wednesday.
3 min read · 10 January 2009
We're nearing the expiration period for 2009 prediction videos, but Charlie O'Donnell has crowdsourced a worthy set of 7-second clips from tech VCs and entrepreneurs. For those who don't know Charlie, he's an LP (with GM Asset Management) turned VC (Union Square Ventures) turned entrepreneur (Path101). And, as you'll see from the video, he also seems to fancy himself as an amateur Rich Little. The list of all participants is available here:
1 min read · 09 January 2009
Lip-Bu Tan, founder and chairman of venture capital firm Walden International, has been named CEO of semiconductor company Cadence Design Systems (Nasdaq: CDNS), effective immediately. Tan had been a long-serving member of the Cadence board of directors, and had been serving as interim vice chairman. Cadence said in a statement that Tan would continue to serve as Walden Interenational's chairman, but I'm not exactly sure what that means on a practical level. Public company CEO is a fulltime job, which either means that: (A) Tan will cut way back on his Walden International responsibilities, or (B) Tan already had cut way back on his Walden International responsibilities. Please note that I keep writing both Walden and International, so as to distinguish the firm from the unaffiliated WaldenVC.
1 min read · 09 January 2009
1 min read · 08 January 2009
Yesterday’s big news was that Sun Capital Partners laid off a little more than 10% of its 200-person staff. I first predicted PE firm layoffs months ago and have been covering them ever since, but this one really took me by surprise. If any firm should be immune from layoffs, shouldn’t it be Sun? This is a firm focused on distressed opportunities, which means that these should be its salad days. How do you cut folks when deal-flow should be at a record high? Particularly when your investment model is to eschew leverage whenever possible? It’s certainly true that Sun has been racking up portfolio company bankruptcies, but that’s just a reflection of the firm’s bad judgment during the boom times (really, how is a retailer struggling in 2006 going to be better off today?). It shouldn’t color plans going forward when the macro environment has flipped into Sun’s favor.
9 min read · 08 January 2009
I’ll be on Jim Braude’s New England Cable News show tonight at 8pm, to discuss the economic speech Obama is supposed to have begun delivering at 11am ET (all I see right now is an empty podium and lots of fidgety reporters). Expect us to touch on everything from TARP to decifit spending to Madoff. Jim is never shy about putting me -- or his other guests -- onthe spot, so it should be fun. We're on live beginning at 8pm, with Shana Orczyk of Peak Financial Management appearing alongside... You can read the prepared text of Obama's speech after the jump.
10 min read · 08 January 2009
Say goodbye to Wallstrip. The finance-focused video blog has not produced a new episode since Dec. 12, and peHUB has learned that this is no extended holiday break. A source familiar with the situation says that Wallstrip owner CBS Interactive plans to “take the DNA from WallStrip and apply it" to fellow CBS property BNet. No word on if that DNA includes current Wallstrip host Julie Alexandria, or past host Lindsay Campbell (whose subsequent CBS vidcast MobLogic also hasn’t published since Dec. 12). An email sent to Wallstrip co-founder Howard Lindzon went unanswered. CBS had acquired Wallstrip for $5 million in May 2007, from a group of angels that included Fred Wilson. Hopefully they'll at least put together a farewell episode. In the meantime, I need to find some new daily video content for the peHUB First Read posts...
1 min read · 07 January 2009
* Penthouse is a legitimate IPO candidate in search of an underwriter, but Wall Street banks won't touch it. Kind of like when VCs wouldn't give an early-stage investment to AdultFriendFinder, which Penthouse ultimately bought for $500 million. * Richard Guay is out as president and CEO of the powerful Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, after just four months on the job (including the past two of medical leave). The Globe & Mail blames politics. * Morning Call: U.S. futures points lower, as Alocoa layoffs are eyed; European shares led down by banks and miners; Nikkei keeps rising and Hong Kong dropped by telcos and banks. * Jason Mendelson of Foundry Group has blogged a bunch about law firms 2.0, including here at peHUB. Now his firm is putting money behind the thesis, with an investment in FirstDocs. * Could the Madoff scandal bean one of the big bean counters?
1 min read · 07 January 2009
Last week, I posed the following quiz question: Can you name the venture capital firms that just pumped more than $40 million into Cash4Gold, the company whose name – and ubiquitous television commercials – basically say it all. Your hint was to think East Coast, although not so far south as Cash4Gold’s Florida headquarters. I’ve received over 80 replies so far, including a small handful that answered correctly. So it’s time to spill the beans: The investors are General Catalyst Partners and Highland Capital Partners. If you’re like me, your initial reaction is to spit out your mouthful of Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and then wipe off your Kevin Garnett bobble-head. Ok, maybe that’s a bit too specific. Let’s just assume you’ve having a good chuckle. Still going? Think of something sad, so that we can collectively continue… For those who don’t watch too much television (here’s a test: do you know what a ShamWow is?), Cash4Gold is not some sort of national pawnshop chain. Instead, it’s better described as a C2B precious metals refiner. It pays consumers to send it jewelry
2 min read · 06 January 2009
Limited partners keep telling me how “unrealistic” it is for VCs to launch new firms this year, but that sure isn’t stopping the dreamers. Last month we broke news on the formation of ArrowPoint Ventures, and now there appears to be yet another Boston-area firm getting off the ground. This one is called Genovation Capital, a seed- and early-stage shop that is expected to begin formal fundraising later this quarter. It came together last summer, and includes three partners who previously worked together at television on-demand company Broadbus Inc. (bought by Motorola in 2006 for $189m in cash). They are: Jeff Binder, a Broadbus co-founder who later served as senior director of strategy and M&A for Motorola’s on-demand solutions group; Vin Bisceglia, chairman and CEO of Broadbus from 2004 to 2006; and Dave Fellows, a former Broadbus board member via his role at CTO of Comcast, and a onetime principal with Pilot House Ventures. I spoke with Binder and Bisceglia for nearly an hour this afternoon, and touched on just about every topic other than fundraising (apparently they’ve already retained counsel). My main questions, of course, were about how Genovation would
3 min read · 06 January 2009
