|
Josh Kopelman’s First Round Capital Quickly Reloads with $126.4M
|
||||||
 The new fund is just $1.4 million larger than the first institutional fund raised by the early stage firm, which is based in West Conshohocken, Pa. First Round was started five years ago by Josh Kopelman, who previously enjoyed a highly successful career as an entrepreneur. Giv...
|
|
VCs Slow Deal Pace in Q3, Say They’re Happy Angels Are Picking Up Slack
|
||||||
 Venture capitalists invested $4.8 billion in 780 deals in the third quarter of 2010, according to the MoneyTree Report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB.com). Q3 investment activity decreased 31% in terms of dollars, and it fell 19% in the number of deals, c...
|
|
Second Opinion 10.14
|
||||||
|
Google is developing self-driving cars and investing in wind farms, but it hasn't lost its focus. So suggest newly released numbers, including income, which is up a stunning 32% from last year.
Skype gets serious Facebook integration. (This is big.) The party is over for Steve Rattner, but the SEC can't seem to quit him. It's also over (for now) for Andrew Fashion, a Web entrepreneur who earned $2.5 million by his 21st birthday, then promptly blew it all. In a familiar refrain, Seagate receives a buyout offer. The hot money? It's on Poland, argues the Financial Times. John Sculley -- the exec who famously pushed Steve Jobs out of Apple years ago --is now talking about the secrets to Jobs' success (which, I'm sure Steve Jobs just loves). Speaking of Apple: Run, do not walk. For one week, you can trade in your old iPod for a hundred bucks. Read more »
|
|
Why Skeptics of Kleiner Perkins are Eating Crow (or Will Be Soon)
|
||||||
 The sale is a huge boon for the investors of Ngmoco, which was founded little more than two years ago and has since raised $45 million, including from Institutional Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Google Ventures. Yet the biggest ownership stake in the company belongs to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, whi...
|
NEWS |
|
||||||||
|
Shamrock Capital has closed its buy of Screenvision and appointed Travis Reid as the company's CEO. Shamrock is an Los Angeles PE firm. Screenvision, of New York, is a provider of cinema advertising. Reid is the former CEO of Digital Cinema Implementation Partners. Read more »
|
||||||||
 |
|
That Striking Entrepreneur from the New Amex Ads? She’s in the Market for Capital
|
||||||
 The ad isn’t for Gugnani’s company, Behind the Burner. It’s for a new American Express card. Yet the ad is also shining a spotlight on Gugnani, who’s no stranger to some degree of fa...
|
|
PE Firms Put Yahoo In Play Again But Sale is Doubtful
|
||||||
 On Wednesday, the WSJ reported that AOL and several buyout firms are considering making a play for Yahoo, which currently has a market cap of roughly $22 billion. Silver Lake Partners and the Blackstone Group are among the buyout shops interested in teaming up with AOL to buy Yahoo. But the discussions, the story said, are preliminary and don't involve Yahoo yet. Yahoo, meanwhile, has hired Goldman Sachs to field any offers. Yahoo shares closed at $15.25 Wednesday. This all seem a little too preliminary for my taste, especially since no one has apparently involved Yahoo yet. In fact, Yahoo first heard about the discussion from the press—which is oh so reliable—and from its own bankers at Goldman, Dealbook points out. Blackstone has already passed on the idea, Reuters says. Read more »
|
|
SK Capital Kills Mammoth $922 Million Dividend From Ascend: UPDATED
|
||||||
 Jack Norris, a SK Capital managing director, says there was sufficient demand for the deal, but “we didn’t think it was appropriate for us.” peHUB reported last week that SK Capital was wavering on whether to take the dividend. Ascend, in September, was in the market for an $800 million term loan to support the $922 million dividend. SK Capital bought Ascend in March 2009 for roughly $50 million cash and, due to tax issues, wanted to take three years worth of dividends at one time. Read more »
|
NEWS |
|
||||||||
|
Steven Rattner, formerly of private equity firm Quadrangle and the former head of the U.S. auto task force, is close to settling with the SEC over an investigation into a state pension pay-to-play scheme, according to Reuters. Rattner will most likely have to pay $6 million and take a two-year ban from the securities industry. His former firm, Quadrangle, has already paid $7 million to New York and $5 million to resolve the SEC investigation. Read more »
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
NinePoint Medical has completed a $33 Million Series A financing round, led by Third Rock Ventures and Prospect Venture Partners. The money will be used to develop innovative broad-based medical platforms for pathology devices. The company is also moving to new corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. Read more »
|
||||||||
|
|
|
peHUB First Read
|
||||||
 Finally: Steve Rattner is near a deal with the SEC to settle a federal probe of his role in the pay-to-play scandal. But what about NYAG Cuomo's investigation? Glitter Gone: Celebrity media funds may open doors but doesn't mean big returns. Performance: A long term look at leveraged ETFs. No Lawsuit: UBS, in a fit of restraint, won't act against its ex-bosses. Suspension: A Tribune executive was suspended after sending out a memo with links to The Onion. Read more »
|
NEWS |
|
||||||||
|
San Francisco-based Burrill & Company has established an investment banking group that will target life sciences clients. PRESS RELEASE: Burrill & Company, a San Francisco-based global leader in life sciences with activities in Venture Capital, Private Equity, Merchant Banking and Media, is pleased to announce that it has established a new Alternative Equities Group. “For life sciences companies, accessing capital has become increasingly complex and challenging,” said G. Steven Burrill, CEO, Burrill & Company. “The creation of an Alternative Equities Group is an important step in Burrill’s strategic build out. It addresses our goal of becoming the leading single-source provider of a broad and comp
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Boston-based Century Capital Management has just injected an undisclosed amount of capital into Seattle-based business services company Torrent Technologies out of its Century Focused Fund II private equity fund. PRESS RELEASE: Torrent Technologies, Inc. (Torrent) announced today that Century Focused Fund II, a private equity fund sponsored and managed by Century Capital Management, LLC, completed an investment in Torrent. Torrent plans to use the additional capital to support their rapid growth and to recapitalize early investors in the company. Torrent is a technology leveraged business services company that provides back office policy and claims processing services to private insurance carriers that participate i
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Associated Materials, a Cuyahoga Falls, Oh.-based manufacturer, announced its completed purchase by Hellman & Friedman from former investors Harvest Partners and Investcorp. The deals is reportedly valued at $1.3 billion. PRESS RELEASE: Associated Materials, LLC, a leading, vertically integrated manufacturer and distributor of exterior residential building products in the United States and Canada, announced today that affiliates of Hellman & Friedman LLC have completed their purchase of Associated Materials. The planned acquisition from
|
||||||||
|
|
|
Justin.TV and Chief Business Officer Part Ways, One Week After VP of Product Departs
|
||||||
 Founded in 2006, Justin.tv was among the first startups to emerge from the Y Combinator program in 2007. Months later, it raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Alsop-Louie Partners and Tim Draper. In an em...
|
|
peHUB Second Opinion 10.13
|
||||||
|
Googly gossip: Is Marissa Mayer's new appointment a demotion?
Speaking of Google: Microsoft's Bing suddenly has something that Google does not -- Facebook's 500 million users. Speaking of Facebook, government agencies sometimes "friend" people on social networks to monitor their activities. What the solar industry needs now? Its own Karl Rove. Meanwhile, Energy Future Holdings has become one more reason for Warren Buffett to hate private equity. And wireless chip maker Beceem takes the money and runs, accepting a $316 million buyout offer from Broadcom seven years after launching -- and seven months after filing a registration statement to go public. Apple investors have far more to cheer: the company's stock hit a record $301.96 today. Read more »
|
 |
 |
