Private Equity
* Private equity is proving problematic for Gov. Jon Corzine's reelection bid in New Jersey, even though he's not actually an investor in the private equity fund at issue (he's in an affiliated, but independently-managed, hedge fund). * Text of FCC chief Julius Genachowski's speech in support of net neutrality. * James Surowiecki: What to do with the credit rating agencies. You know, the folks that gave good grades to reams of paper that deserved to (and ultimately did) fail. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares climb on banks and commodities, Japan pares losses and Hong Kong closes up 1%. * Michael Masnick: Venture capital is part of the startup ecosystem, but it isn't the ecosystem. * Play-Doh has rolled out some fairly disturbing ads in Singapore. * Epicurean Dealmaker goes against the consolidation grain: Let a thousand investment banks bloom.
1 min read · 22 September 2009
* Harvey Rubin: Why bankers are like bacteria. * Charlie O'Donnell: How to start a VC fund in New York City. * Battery-maker A123 is scheduled to go public this week. Here's the electronic roadshow. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares dip, Japan pares losses as banks recover and Hong Kong and Shanghai split. * Vivek Wadhwa: What have VCs really done for innovation? (grating veneration of entrepreneurs as immaculate purists, forced to suffer the indignity of investment). * Buyouts examined C-level compensation at 10 of the largest companies acquired by LBO shops in 2006. Apparently valuations aren't the only thing to take a tumble. (sub req) * BoA Merrill Lynch: 40% of U.S. junk bonds are likely to default by 2013. * The Times of London portrays Incisive Media as an LBO victim, a company buckled by the weight of its own debt. Totally fair. What's bizarre, however, is how the authors seem unbothered by the CEO's naiveté about the structure of a deal that made him extraordinarily wealthy.
1 min read · 21 September 2009
* Albert Wegner: What's restricting the Internet's impact on education is not technology. It's scale. * Banks vs. Cleantech: Both sectors benefit from Washington's policies, but only one group is grateful to D.C. Guess which one? * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slip off 2009 highs, the Nikkei pares losses and Hong Kong pulls back from rally. * Dave Weidner: Wall Street's biggest con is M&A "advice." * HBS Working Paper (just the abstract): "We find that a company that has a director who has had LBO experience through prior board service is ~40% more likely to receive a private equity offer, and that the strength of this effect varies with the influence of the director and the quality of the prior LBO experience." * Sarah Lacy: "Ten years from now I don’t want to look back on TechCrunch50 and see that our winners had a string of $100 million exits. For a conference that seeks to ferret out the most exciting startups in the world, that’s failure. I want to see huge audacious failures and huge gaudy wins."
2 min read · 18 September 2009
* Does Apollo's take-private of Parallel Petroleum signal a new model for private equity deals? In a semi-related note, does it mean that Apollo has decided it's a leveraged buyout firm again? * Steve Blank: Can you trust any VCs under 40? * Marketplace host Scott Jagow interviews kids about the economy. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares climb on recovery optimisim, the Nikkei gains on steel and both China and Hong Kong shares rally. * Venture firm Opus Capital cuts its carried interest from 25% to 20%. Biggest surprise is that Opus had 25% in the first place. * The Big Money ♥'s Felix Salmon * Sovereign anti-wealth fund? Singapore's Temasek Holdings says net profit fall 67% from March 08 to March 09.
1 min read · 17 September 2009
* Colin Barr: Where are the subprime perp walks? * The evolution of business simulation games. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London hits 2009 high, European shares keep rising, the Nikkei clings to gains and Chinese shares fall. * Do corporations need M&A bankers? * Cerberus has finally found a deal that isn't for the dogs. * Facebook says it has becomefree cash-flow positive. Here's how. * Same old secondary story: Demand for Asian secondaries is outpacing supply. * The sticky wage theory seems to have taken hold, as average income keeps rising (well, for those who can find work).
1 min read · 16 September 2009
* Bain Capital's Steve Pagliuca is strongly considering a bid to succeed Ted Kennedy. Pagliuca is a Democrat, as evidenced by the fact that he was one of the only Bain bigs who didn't donate to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. That also means he actually has a chance to win in Massachusetts. * Bidders behaving badly. * Farhad Manjoo: America can't remain the world's tech leader without immigration reform. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London opens flat, Europe's tech gains offset by energy losses, the Nikkei rises 0.2% and China shares climb. * The Lenny Dykstra saga gets even sadder. * Stephen Mihm: Why capitalism fails. * Andrew Bennett: How my technology career helped my fly-fishing business. * VCs are keeping young startups to themselves, as first-round syndications are on the downswing.
1 min read · 15 September 2009
* Mebane Faber: The endowment model is not broken. * Una Galani: Dubai's trophy assets now look like dead weights. * TC50 is today (Debbie Gage will be covering for us). Mark Suster warns presenters not to drink their own Kool-Aid. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares slip, the Nikkei loses more than 2% and China shares riss on unfrozen IPO market. * Foxwoods: The wonder & the fall. * Why Good Housekeeping's "green seal" is bogus. * Chart comparing the differential ease of starting and closing a business in various countries.
1 min read · 14 September 2009
Yesterday we spotted a regulatory filing from something called Factery.net, which had raised $1.25 million in VC funding. No investor info on the document, and the only listed executive was search marketing vet Paul Pedersen. We described it as an "online answer engine," based on the alpha product up on Factery's website. Now a source has filled us in with additional details, including how Factery's current website isn't really representative of its product plans.
2 min read · 11 September 2009
* Brad Feld: The founders visa movement. * Really can't believe it was eight years ago. Take more than a moment to remember... * Harvard beats Yale: Crimson endowment drops 27.3% while the Swensenites fall 30%. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point to higher open, London rises early, European shares keep climbing and increases for both China and Hong Kong exchanges. * Moneyball doesn't always pay off. * The Economist: Electric fuel trade acid test. * The Small Business Administration (SBA) has launched its own YouTube channel. Deborah Cohen wonders if it's an unneccessary diversion? * Conventional wisdom is that Obama gained at least a tiny bit of ground on Wednesday night. And then the market hit a year-long high on Thursday. Crickets from those who insisted (yes you, Jim Pethokoukis) that the public equity rally was tied to Obama's agenda losing steam.
2 min read · 11 September 2009
What follows are six VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. None of them has been otherwise disclosed: * DisplayLink Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based fabless semiconductor manufacturer that focuses on network displays, has raised $8 million in fourth-round funding. The company previously raised around $51 million, from Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, DAG Ventures and
2 min read · 10 September 2009
