{ Category Archives }
Companies
Private Equity: New Players, same standards….
Though there has been a rush of private equity into M&A transactions, this has not effected the manner and standards by which the Delaware courts have reviewed these transactions. This interesting article examines several recent decisions from the Delaware Court of Chancery involving private equity firms and management buyouts. The article concludes that, while the players in the M&A market may have changed, the rules of the game remain the same where the board of directors decides that it’s time to sell the company.
Silver Lined Bubble?
Here is an interesting article from CNET on the silver lining of the Bubble- the bubble is a gentler bubble and since the cost of technology is far less in terms of capital and talent requirements, this bubble will hurt less as it bursts.
That is is a glass half full view, but one that is not without merit.
VCs acting as Angels
Though this commentator portrays this as an old dog learning new tricks, Angel investors have been offering this form of investment vehicle for years.
Charles River Ventures introduces friendly “convertible” seed round
Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks… CRV, one of the oldest venture partnerships in the country, has launched a program they are calling Quickstart to seed invest up to $250k in the form of convertible loans.
Deal Flow November 2
from The Wannabe Venture Capitalist
Launches:
- Six Apart launches VOX
- Chinese Facebook Clone Formed
- MingleNow launched new bar/restaurant social networking site
Fundings:
- Tablus takes on a $16mm second round
- SkyRider takes on $12mm for P2P search
- Edgeio takes on an additional $5mm
- GotVoice takes a $3mm series A for web based voicemail management
- Synacor takes $17mm for Portal Content Distribution
- eyespot raises $3.7mm for online flash video editing
- MindCandy takes $7mm for online gaming
- Coveo takes on $6mm series A for secure enterprise search
- Music Blog Stereogum.com takes money from Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group
- eBuddy announces 5mm euros in funding
- iCopyright gets $2mm third round
- Maya’s Mom raises angel round
- vSocial raises $1.5mm
- TopTenSources raises $3.5mm and acquires blogniscient
- CardPricer.com raises $100k for baseball card pricing
- SpotRunner raises $40mm more
- Monitor110 gets $11mm third round
- eSnips raises $2mm for media sharing site
VC Fads
Here is an interesting post by Howard Morgan of the Acara Group on his view of VC fads.
One search does not fit all : Google Gets Smart
from cnet.com
Here is a great article on Google’s evolving strategy.
Google has the leg up on all of them, though, not because it’s markedly easier to use or has more features–it isn’t and it doesn’t–but because of the direct AdSense connection.
SDForum Meeting Thoughts: Open Source SIG
Last Thursday I attended the SDForum re-launch of the Open Source Software SIG. For those of you who don’t know, SDForum (Software Developer Forum) is a Silicon Valley not-for-profit organization providing an unbiased source of information and insight to the technology community for the past 23 years. SDForum provides a venue for engineers, executives, researchers, technology leaders, and venture capitalists to exchange information on emerging technologies and best practices.
The Open Source SIG (Special Interest Group) was re-launched after a few month hiatus. The speaker panel included Mark Brewer, CEO Covalent, Munwar Shariff, COO Cignex, Roy Singham, Thoughtworks, and was moderated by Andrew Aitken, Managing Director, The Olliance Group.
Here are some of the top themes that emerged from this meeting:
- The question for Fortune 1000 companies is not if they will integrate open source into their systems, it is a question of how it will work with their legacy systems.
- Open Source used to be driven by technologists, now business units are demanding because of the cost savings provided by open source software as compared to the cost of traditional license deployments.
- The US is two to three years behind the rest of the world, particularly Europe, which has consistently demonstrated the propensity to use open source.
- The number one objection to open source deployment given by CIOs is vendor “lock-in”- the existence of long term contracts or packaging of software that make the integration of one piece of a open source solution difficult.
- Microsoft is still an impediment to open source deployment because of their aggressive bundling of products which act increase their “lock-in.”
- The biggest challenge facing open source software vendor is the lack of active and talented open source community software developers as many of the top talent move in-house to software providers and integrators.
NYT Article on Friendster
My personal take is that Friendster does not have much relevance today, their community has little added value as far as social networks are concerned.
originally nytimes.com
JONATHAN ABRAMS was in a spot. He could take the safe bet and accept the $30 million that Google was offering him for Friendster, the social networking Web start-up he began only a year earlier, in 2002. Saying yes to Google would provide a quick and stunning payout for relatively little work and instantly place the Friendster Web site in front of hundreds of millions of users across the globe.
More firms flee U.S. online gaming ban
Will moving offshore make any real difference? Will there be a new way for these gamers to access these sites?
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Leisure & Gaming and payment processor FireOne joined the list of companies fleeing a U.S. ban on online gaming on Tuesday, as signs emerged that Europe is to open up its gambling market.
Leisure & Gaming said it would stop serving U.S. gamblers if President George W. Bush signed into law a ban that was unexpectedly passed by Congress at the start of this month.