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Can You Feel the Bubble Spray? Groupon's Founders Smartly Take the Money and RunTechCrunch is now reporting that Groupon is on the verge of closing a $130 million Series C round at a stunning $1.35 billion valuation. According to TC’s source, Digital Sky Technologies, the same Russian holding company that’s become a major stakeholder in Facebook, is leading the round with participation from Battery Ventures and, presumably, Accel Partners, which led the company’s $30 million Series B just five months ago. The best part about this story? According to TC, Groupon isn’t raising the money for operations because it’s right now making money “hand over fist.” Instead, Groupon is taking the money to cash out insiders. If we were talking about twentysomethings without enough capital to buy themselves penthouse apartments, I could understand their rationale. But Groupon’s insiders are fabulously wealthy.
- Groupon Worth $1.2 Billion? Not So Fast
TechCrunch is reporting that the group buying site Groupon, which raised a $30 million round at a $250 million valuation in December from NEA and Accel Partners and has raised $35.8 million altogether, is raising more money right now at a stunning $1.2 billion valuation. You can read the story here http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/13/groupon-raises-huge-new-round-at-1-2-billion-valuation/ In light of the news, it might be interesting to contemplate the fate of some of Groupon’s predecessors, including the once-popular group-buying site MobShop, which raised $51 million from Marc Andreessen and Mayfield Fund before going belly up in 2001. As with Groupon, analysts loved, loved, loved the idea of MobShop. As with Groupon, MobShop had plenty of competitors. Know what? They all disappeared. Maybe it was purely bad timing. Maybe it was, a little bit, the sustainability of the concept, too. You decide. Is Groupon really worth $1.2 billion or are we heading down a well-worn path?
- Sierra Atlantic Adds On
Sierra Atlantic Inc., a Fremont, Calif.-based provider of engineering solutions for Oracle products, has acquired Baytree Associates, a Charlotte-based consulting firm and Oracle solutions provider. No financial terms were disclosed. Sierra Atlantic raised $18.4 million in 1999 from Information Technology Ventures, General Electric, New Enterprise Associates and Walden International.
- peHUB Wire: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Random Ramblings
- peHUB Wire: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Random Ramblings
- VC-Backed IPO Pipeline Keeps Growing
Tengion priced its IPO last Friday, becoming the 11th VC-backed company to go public on a U.S. exchange in 2010. It also was the sixth to do so since we last looked /66353/vc-backed-ipo-pipeline-remains-full/ at the VC-backed IPO pipeline (the other newbies were Calix, China Lodging, MaxLinear, Meru Networks and SS&C Technologies). There also have been eight new additions to the pipeline in the past month. That works out to a total of 42 VC-backed companies currently in registration to go public on U.S. exchanges, representing more than $4.6 billion in targeted raise (a net increase of just over $100m). The full pipeline is after the jump...
- IPOs stage comeback in Q1
Communications networking led the way with three companies going public in quarter
- Telecom Infrastructure Is Hot Again
For years, communications networking has been pretty much a one-way investment bet. That is, money went into startups, but very little came back out. In recent weeks though, that’s been changing. At least three companies in the sector have gone public in the past three weeks, and others are waiting in the wings. Overall, market reception has been warm. Shares in wireless network provider Meru Networks closed up 28% in first-day trading on March 31, with shares trading in a narrow range since. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Meru which sells wireless LAN equipment, raised $66 million in a Nasdaq offering. Principle shareholders include Clearstone Venture Partners (21% stake), Vision Opportunity Master Fund (19%), NeoCarta Ventures (18%) Bluestream Ventures (16%) and D.E. Shaw (16%). Meru has raised $171 million in venture funding since 2002. Telecom equipment maker Calix Networks also posted double-digit gains in its debut a week earlier. Calix, a Petaluma, Calif.-based provider of communications access systems and software, priced its 6.3 million shares offering at $13 per share, the high end of its proposed range. The stock closed up 16% in first-day