Andrew Ross Sorkin of NY Times Dealbook has developed some middle ground between Ben Stein’s call for banning management buyouts and the private equity market’s calls for continued regulatory indifference. Specifically, he has a four-part plan for fixing certain problems inherent in management buyouts. It goes like this: 1. Require that a majority of minority shareholders approve the […]
ContinueThe latest issue of PE Week features a scoop by our reporter, Alexander Haislip, who delves into the legal bind that VC-backed NetPickle finds itself in. Company founders Lance Tokuda and Jia Shen, who raised about $1.5 million from Sequoia Capital and others, are accused of code theft, misuse of company time, and failing to […]
ContinueThis issue of Buyouts breaks loads of news on tech buyout funds and includes an in-depth look at an issue that’s popping up in the news more and more: The buyout industry’s interest in renewable energy, and more specifically ethanol. Buyouts editor David Toll was able to uncover the doings of a number tech funds […]
ContinueNPR’s OnPoint program is currently broadcasting a conversation on private equity, with Bob Kuttner of The American Prospect and Steve Kaplan of the University of Chicago. Update: The broadcast is now over, but definately worth a listen. Podcast should soon be available at http://www.wbur.org/listen/podcasts/
ContinueI suggested to Dan that the private equity community was ready for a columnist who addresses environmental issues. He agreed. So, is this going to be a column about soil and groundwater contamination, asbestos, and permitting? I hope not. You see, the term environment is so much broader than that, and some of the more current issues […]
ContinueIt’s now been two days since a few disgruntled shareholders filed what they hope will become a class-action lawsuit against 13 top private equity firms. I hope that it doesn’t. To be clear, I am not an apologist for private equity firms. I think many of them charge unfair transaction fees to their limited partners, and […]
ContinueIf you weren’t at the Hiller Air Museum on Thursday night for Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s Schmoozefest 2006, you missed out on the 16-piece orchestra, a crooning Tim Draper, Sky High blue cocktails and Steve Jurvetson’s effervescent description of his soon-to-be-made Tesla roadster (see slideshow on jump page). The last DFJ Schmoozefest was held during the […]
ContinueThere has been plenty of discussion recently among entrepreneurs and VCs regarding bridge loans for startups, also know as “converts”. Josh Kopelman wrote a nice post here, and Matt Marshall posted a bridge loan calculator for entrepreneurs here. Lots of people ask us our views on these structures, because we’re focused only on Seed and […]
ContinueI understand Second Life like I used to understand Dungeons & Dragons. Not my cup of tea, but clean escapist fun for those who fancy themselves dice-throwing sorcerers. What completely confounds me, however, is the Second Life economy, in which people can make real money by selling fake things. Examples include pixilated designer dresses or […]
ContinueI was fortunate enough to visit two great conferences here in sunny San Diego during the last week of September, DEMOfall and ASIS, and then Consumer Technology Ventures more recently. In case some of you don’t know: DEMOfall (or “Demo”) and CTV are all about startups pitching their new products, mostly software, to VCs and […]
ContinueLance Tokuda, founder of embattled photo-slide show startup RockYou, pulled down his personal blog this afternoon. He had written detailed notes about his venture fundraising efforts on it earlier this spring. But fear not loyal PE Week and PE Hub readers! Google cached it for you so you could read the superfluous name-dropping first hand. […]
ContinueLance Tokuda asked me to leave the one year anniversary party for Web2.0 startup RockYou last night. He didn’t want to answer questions about the injunction a U.S. District Judge slapped on his startup, prohibiting the use of programming code he may have developed while working at another company. Tokuda is in danger of losing […]
ContinueDuring the White House Correspondents Dinner earlier this year, emcee Steven Colbert said of President Bush: “He believes on Wednesday exactly what he believed on Monday, regardless of what happened on Tuesday.” Kind of reminds me of what I keep seeing on the private equity beat. The first example came last month, when Sevin Rosen […]
ContinueThe American Made study that details the impact of immigrant entrepreneurs on U.S. competitiveness has been public now for about eight hours. NVCA commissioned this study to add some hard facts into the rancorous and often overly emotional debate on immigration. For years the venture capital community has recognized the tremendous value that foreign born nationals […]
ContinueWhile the Department of Justice continues its primer course on private equity, some individual shareholders are taking action against perceived abuses. Three people have filed what they hope to be a class-action lawsuit against 13 private equity firms, for allegedly violating federal antitrust laws. The plaintiffs are/were shareholders in such companies as HCA, Harrah’s and […]
ContinueIn order to make this as interactive as possible, I wanted to spark some conversation around some of the areas of focus that our firm works on a day-to-day basis. As an introduction, Collective IQ focuses on four main areas: Private equity, corporate venture, corporate advisory, and portfolio companies. To start the ball rolling, in […]
ContinueThe IT establishment (or at least one person in it: Andy Grove) has been working hard for many years to bring the medical world out of the dark ages and improve record keeping (http://med.stanford.edu/about_photo/) . Mayo is clearly ahead of the curve.
ContinueKPS Special Situations Fund just announced that it is selling steel casting company AmeriCast Technologies to Castle Harlan for $110 million. Not earth-shaking news in and of itself, except that it represents KPS’ fourth exit in the past five business days. I have never seen anything quite like it, either in the buyout or venture capital […]
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Payal Kadakia is part of a small but growing cadre of entrepreneurs: women CEOs or [...]
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By Clint Korver, Ulu Ventures When Lightspeed Venture Partners became the first outside investor in [...]
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By Bill Rossi, CEO, Metabiota With the growth of insurtech, a new breed of specialized [...]
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