Private Equity
The BlackBerry Partners Fund, a $150 million VC vehicle focused on applications and services for the BlackBerry platform, has launched its “Jump Start Financing Initiative.” The effort will provide capital infusions of up to $250,000 in the form of a convertible debenture.
2 min read · 20 October 2008
1 min read · 17 October 2008
1 min read · 17 October 2008
2 min read · 17 October 2008
1 min read · 16 October 2008
1 min read · 14 October 2008
Last Friday, I asked you to name the university endowment that’s trying to sell a large portfolio of private equity fund commitments. I probably should have italicized the word “large,” or perhaps used a more emphatic synonym like humongous. The result was that some of you offered up schools like Duke and Stanford – both of which have assets for sale on the secondary market, but not of the scope I was suggesting. Then yesterday one of you got it right, which means it’s time to share… The answer we were looking for was Harvard. The Ivy Leaguer has retained Cogent Partners to pitch what could be one of the largest secondary sales of all time, with an optimistic asking price in excess of $1 billion. The available portfolio includes a variety of venture capital and buyouts funds, albeit none of its crème de la crème VC (i.e., Sequoia Capital or
2 min read · 14 October 2008
File under: Confirmation of what we already knew. The National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB) today released data showing that VC fundraising has declined from both the prior quarter and from the third quarter of 2007. Fifty-five U.S.-based firms raised approximately $8.12 billion in Q3 2008, compared to 76 firms raising $9.25 billion in Q2, and 78 firms raising nearly $8.6 billion in Q3 2007. It's worth noting that the Q3 tally was higher than what was raised in Q1 of this year, and that it's higher than all but one quarter of 2006. On the downside, however, the Q3 capital was raised by fewer firms than in any time over the past few years, which means two things: (A) Fewer firms are raising larger funds; (2) Most of those fewer firms are existing firms, rather than new ones. Download the press release here: q3fundraising. Deal data will be released this coming weekend.
1 min read · 13 October 2008
1 min read · 10 October 2008
Lehman Brothers just issued a statement on the status of the investment management groups that are not included in the proposed sale to Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman. It doesn’t shed much light, although it also doesn’t discourage widespread speculation that the groups will soon transform themselves into independent entities. Here it is: As specified in a recent press release, the proposed sale of Neuberger Investment Management and several related asset management business units to Bain Capital Partners, LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC does not include Lehman Brothers' major direct private equity businesses such as Merchant Banking, Real Estate, Venture Capital and MLP. However, the investment teams for these funds remain intact and focused as we actively pursue the best strategic alternatives for these businesses going forward. As always, a primary consideration is the best interests of our investors. While we wait for definitive plans, there are still a pair of questions worth pondering: 1. What will happen to each fund's uncalled commitments from Lehman Brothers? For example, the dearly-deceased bank promised
2 min read · 02 October 2008
