Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for February, 2009

SALE OF EMPHASYS MEDICAL, INC.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Gerbsman Partners has been retained by Emphasys Medical, Inc. to solicit interest for the acquisition of all, or substantially all, Emphasys Medical Inc.’s (“Emphasys”)  assets.

Emphasys Medical Company Profile

Founded in 2000, Emphasys is a private, California-based, revenue stage medical device company. Over the past 8 ½ years, the Emphasys has raised approximately $90mm in equity and debt from leading venture capital firms including ABS Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, SplitRock Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors, Morgan Stanley Venture Fund, Cargill Ventures, and Western Technology Investment.

Emphasys is a leader in developing innovative, therapeutic devices to treat advanced heterogeneous emphysema. Emphasys’  Zephyr EBV provides therapy for patients whose lungs are hyperinflated due to emphysematous destruction. By reducing the amount of trapped gas in the hyperinflated regions of the lungs, the devices restore the elastic recoil of the lung, therefore improving overall lung function.

Emphasys Medical’s Assets

Emphasys has developed a portfolio of assets critical to the bronchoscopic treatment of emphysema with endobronchial valves.
These assets fall into a variety of categories, including: Patents, Patent Applications and Trademarks

  • Prospective, Randomized Patient Data Set for Treating Heterogeneous Emphysema
  • Prospective, Registry Patient Data Set for Treating Persistent Air Leaks
  • Bronchoscopic Valve Technology and Product Inventory
  • Manufacturing, Design and Calibration Equipment
  • CE Mark for the Zephyr EBV
  • International Revenue
  • Intellectual Capital and Expertise

The assets of Emphasys will be sold in whole or in part (collectively, the “Emphasys Medical Assets”) on an ” as is, where is basis, with no reps and warrtanties whatsoever” and must close in 7 days.  The sale of these assets is being conducted with the cooperation of Emphasys. Emphasys and its employees will be available to assist purchasers with due diligence and a prompt, efficient transition to new ownership. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Emphasys should not be contacted directly without the prior consent of Gerbsman Partners.

For more information, please contact:

Steven R. Gerbsman

(415) 456-0628

steve@gerbsmanpartners.com

Read Full Post »

U.S. Taxpayers Risk $9.7 Trillion on Bailout Programs

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2009| Leave a Comment »

(Bloomberg) — The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients’ names have not been disclosed.

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

For more information on this topic, please visit: Bloomberg, TARP, Howard Lindzon blog, Brookings, Money Morning.

Read Full Post »

Emphasys Medical Up For Sale

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Distressed Intellectual Property, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Life Science, Market research, Strategy, Technology, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

emphasys-logoEmphasys Medical Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based medical device company focused on emphysema, has retained Gerbsman Partners to find a strategic buyer, according to VentureWire. The company canceled an IPO last spring, and before that had raised around $80 million in VC funding. Shareholders include Advanced Technology Ventures (17.8%), Morgenthaler Ventures (13.8%), St. Paul Venture Capital (11.5%) OrbiMed Advisors (13.7%), ABS Ventures (10%), Morgan Stanley Venture Partners (7.4%), Cargill Ventures (6.1%) and Neww Enterprise Associates. www.emphasysmedical.com

Links: peHUB, Biospace, DOW Jones,

Read Full Post »

More Tech Start-Ups Call It Quits

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Distressed Intellectual Property, Distressed IP, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

mk-au416_shutdo_ns_20090211185403WSJ reports: As Funding Dries Up, Fledgling Silicon Valley Firms Are Shutting Down; Fears of Chill on Innovation

“Many start-ups survived last year by slashing costs and deferring development projects. But as demand for their products continues to deteriorate and funding dries up, these young firms are now running out of lifelines. Many are calling it quits, recalling the dot-com bust earlier this decade.

…

Venture capitalists pulled back sharply in the fourth quarter as credit markets seized and stock markets collapsed. Venture capitalists invested $5.54 billion in U.S. start-ups in the fourth quarter, 27% less than the third quarter, according to data compiled by VentureSource.”

Another excellent take on the same theme is Stacey Higginbotham´s analysis at GigaOm:

“The crisis in the financial market is coming home to roost for startups of all kinds. Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article detailing the death or firesale of several startups in the last few weeks. It’s grim, but this is only the beginning for many venture-backed companies, as we reported back in October. Over the next few months, we’ll see continuing news of businesses giving up the ghost as their venture backers take a hard look at upcoming cash needs and decide to prune.

…

Venture capital is a cyclical business that follows the fate of the stock market, so it depends on where a startup is as the cycle turns from boom to bust. Unfortunately, many of these unlucky startups are getting crushed under the wheel as it rolls through the downturn. Right now is a good time to work on an idea, but a bad time to be selling things.

However, innovation won’t just stop.VCs are still making selective investments in early stage startups at newly reasonable valuations, hoping those deals are ripe by the time the economy reaches the next boom.”

Gerbsman Partners focuses on maximizing enterprise value for stakeholders and shareholders in under-performing, under-capitalized and under-valued companies and their Intellectual Property. In the past 60 months, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in maximizing value for 51 Technology, Life Science and Medical Device companies and their Intellectual Property and has restructured/terminated over $770 million of real estate executory contracts and equipment lease/sub-debt obligations. Since inception, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in over $2.2 billion of financings, restructurings and M&A transactions.

Gerbsman Partners has offices and strategic alliances in Boston, New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Europe and Israel.

For more information on Gerbsman Partners, please visit our website at www.gerbsmanpartners.com

By way of Stacey Higginbotham article at GigaOM. For the full WSJ article, please click here

Read Full Post »

Good PR, bad PR…or not PR

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Market research, Marketing, tagged , , , , on February 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Those of us in this profession that have made the decision to make a living the hard way by asking to be paid only if we actually land positive press coverage for our clients rather than ‘counsel’ them, may be passing on some good income these days. I hope it’s not a sign of the dour economic times, but it’s apparent there are a lot of clients out there in need of some solid counsel rather than publicity. Do Michael Phelps, A-Rod, Jessica Simpson, and continuing fan and press fav, Blagojevich, come to mind?

Maybe it’s a backlash to the seeming adulation and feel-good nature of the coverage of the historic inauguration and charismatic new president, but we, as represented by the media we subscribe to (and ingratiate ourselves to as PR people) lately seem to have veered toward a fascination to report and elevate the weaker and sillier side of our nature. It’s as if we needed a good old-fashioned, what my grandmother used to say, “come-uppence” for being so smug in our reporting of real news that seriously affects our lives and incomes. “Enough” said the media kings and the publicists that feed off of them…”bring back the court jesters!” And of course, there are those amongst us, more than happy to do so.

The fact that we’re in the midst of an important debate with valid issues on all sides of the aisle that will affect all of us in the most personal ways over the next few years does not preclude us from the enjoyment of entertainment news, of sports, of even some fluff to lighten our day. Not at all. We all need and deserve a guilty pleasure or “silly fix” once in a while. But to be transfixed on it, to have it become a story with legs is an embarrassment to the media covering it, the audiences into it, and to the PR-types behind the scenes promoting it for income and profit.

This excerpt is from The Grove Report, for the full article and other excellent posts, please click here

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »