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Archive for the ‘Board Of Intellectual Capital’ Category

Facebook accept investment, pull back IPO plans

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, FaceBook, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 27, 2009| 1 Comment »

Facebook avoid the IPO and steam ahead with expansion plans. It is not your average valuation we are talking about – $10B is quite a accomplishment. Please find earlier Facebook articles here; Facebook turned down funding at $8B, Few IPO candidates, Rapid growth and several more here.

Here is a story from Read Write Web.

“After we saw some rumors about this over the weekend, Facebook today confirmed that it will receive a $200 million investment from Digital Sky Technologies (DST), one of the leading Internet investment groups in Eastern Europe. This investment puts Facebook’s valuation at $10 billion. DST also plans to offer to purchase at least $100 million in Facebook common stock from existing shareholders.

According to Facebook‘s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, roughly 70% of the company’s users are now outside of the U.S., so cooperating with an international investment firm seemed to make sense in order to bring a global perspective to Facebook’s operations. DST will not get a seat on Facebook’s board, however.”

It continues…

“Digital Sky Technologies is a major player in Eastern Europe, and with Mail.ru, Forticom, and vKontakte among its assets, the company claims to account for over 70 percent of all all page views on the Russian-speaking Internet. Interestingly, DST (mostly through its investment in Forticom) also owns interests in a number of social networks like one.lt and Odnoklassniki.ru.

This deal also fits in well with other rumors about Facebook trying to raise capital to allow its employees to cash out some of their options. Just two weeks ago, our colleagues at VentureBeat reported that Facebook’s current investors “found it a stretch to supply the full amount of capital” that would be needed to provide Facebook with enough money to allow it to buy out roughly 15 million common shares at around $10 each.”

Zuckerberg commented this deal on the pressconference by saying…

“The company does not have any immediate plans for the cash it will receive from DST. Zuckerberg was also asked about a possible IPO, but according to Facebook’s CEO, an IPO is not on the “immediate horizon.”

Being asked about Microsoft’s investment in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation, Zuckerberg mostly sidestepped the issue, but stressed that this investment was part of a larger partnership at the top of the bubble and that he thinks that $10 billion valuation is “fair” and that he “feels good” about it.

Given the nature of the call, there was not a lot of focus on specific features, but Zuckerberg did confirm that Facebook is testing out a video chat feature. Our friends at All Facebook spotted references to this in Facebook’s code two weeks ago.”

Read the full article here.

Other sources for this topic include: TrolleyBlog, The Next Web, PEHub, Northloop,

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More IPO candidates – Fortinet, Qualys, NetQoS and BigFix may be filing.

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Investments, Market research, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Reading an analysis over the 4 IPO´s this year – OpenTable, Mead Johnson Nutritional, Bridgepoint Educational and Changyou – I came across some new speculations regarding possible IPO´s this year. We covered this topic yesterday as well.

Here is some excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article.

“In particular, the debut of network software firm SolarWinds Inc. last week showed there’s “appetite for untested, unproven, unknown names out there,” says Brenon Daly, a senior financial analyst at The 451 Group.

However, Mr. Daly cautions that few tech newcomers can match the financial strength of SolarWinds, which generated strong revenue and net-income growth in the first quarter, even as many more-established technology companies reported declines.

But he said there could be strong interest in companies such as closely held computer-security outfit Fortinet Inc.; security risk and compliance service provider Qualys Inc.; network performance software company NetQoS Inc., and systems and security management firm BigFix Inc.

A Fortinet spokesman said the company is considering an IPO, as well as other options, but has no definitive plans at this point. A Qualys spokesman said the firm wants to prepare for an IPO by the fall of 2010. NetQoS said it had no immediate plans to go public, “but all options are on the table.”

It continues…

“Another area to watch in the 12 to 18 months is smart-grid technology, which allows for more efficient power distribution, based on where and when demand and supply exist, says Trip Chowdry, managing director of equity research at Global Equities Research.

On her radar screen is closely held DS2, a company based in Spain that provides power-line communications semiconductors.

In the next three years, some cloud computing and enterprise-level mobility technology firms could also be ready for IPOs, she added.

For now, though, the tech environment “continues to be challenging. Investors should look for companies who have a very sticky customer base,” she says.”

Read the full article here.

Please comment on other candidates and I will seek out some info on the topic.

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CleanTech IPO candidates – Tesla, Silver Spring Networks, and possibly Solyndra will go public by the first quarter of next year!

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some optimistic news on the economic crisis blues – Steve Westly goes out on a limb and predicts some IPO´s on the CleanTech sector horizon.

The story is by way of Reuters.

“Initial public offerings as of late have been about as common as celebratory banquets for Wall Street bankers. Last week, however, after some nine months of an IPO drought, two venture-backed startups, software maker SolarWinds and online restaurant reservation system OpenTable, broke the mold and went public. Neither was a cleantech firm, but the news was a positive sign for cleantech investor Steve Westly, managing partner of Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture firm The Westly Group. Westly tells us he sees a changing appetite for companies going public, and he predicts that venture-backed cleantech IPOs will happen by early 2010.

“I’ll go out on a limb -– Tesla, Silver Spring Networks, and possibly Solyndra will go public by the first quarter of next year,” he said in an interview. “I say this because all three of these companies in 2008 did between $10 million and $15 million in revenue, and in 2009 they will do over $150 million. When a company has 10x growth, that is a company you can take public.” The Westly Group has invested about $50 million into cleantech startups, including some $5 million in electric car maker Tesla. It has not backed smart grid startup Silver Spring Networks nor thin-film solar manufacturer Solyndra.”

The article concludes:

“Stephen Simko, solar analyst for Morningstar, still thinks it will be difficult for a solar company to IPO in this market. Solar panel supply far outstrips demand today, and financing for projects is difficult to access. “If lending thaws and the U.S. solar market starts to rise that will lead to the conditions necessary for companies to improve profit and that might lead to IPOs,” he said. “But only the best of breed will be considered.” Solyndra declined to comment for this article.

Of course, it might not be any of these three startups that make headlines as the first cleantech IPO after the drought. First Wind, a wind energy developer, and lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems both filed for IPOs in late 2008. While the filings don’t necessarily mean they will go public, it at least means executives at the firms have their eyes on that prize.”

Read the full article here.

Others covering this story includes: Earth2Teach and Business Insider.

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Java Appstore in the works

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Investments, Java, Market research, mobile 2.0, Sun Microsystems, Wireless, Wireless 2.0, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Building on the trend of Apple, Nokia and others – Sun makes the move into a independent Appstore deployment. As Apple has shown that it is a viable business model, it only makes sense – end-users like to shop around, and are willing to pay for smaller apps. As Google Android starting to make its way into mobile phones, and Nokia “opened” up Symbian – the end-user community developer trend will create a business eco-system worth spending some research on. The project is codenamed Vector but will likely be called “Java Store” after its official launch.

Here is some quotes from Jonathan Schwartz by way of Washington Post.

“Candidate applications will be submitted via a simple web site, evaluated by Sun for safety and content, then presented under free or fee terms to the broad Java audience via our update mechanism. Over time, developers will bid for position on our storefront, and the relationships won’t be exclusive (as they have been for search). As with other app stores, Sun will charge for distribution – but unlike other app stores, whose audiences are tiny, measured in the millions or tens of millions, ours will have what we estimate to be approximately a billion users. That’s clearly a lot of traffic, and will position the Java App Store as having just about the world’s largest audience.”

“The store will be for all Java devices. Initially, the PC desktop will get the most attention from developers and customers, but there’s plenty of Java-enabled phones and developers will be pleased to have another distribution channel, especially one with the power of Sun behind it.”

Read the full article here. Read Jonathan Schwartz blog entry here.

Other bloggers covering this topic include: OStatic, Mobile Marketing Watch, Mobile Blogs, IndicThreads.

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IT Forecast: “The Great Restructuring” On Horizon

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Market research, tagged , , , , on May 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some good news posted at WSJ Venture dispatch. Please visit them for the whole article by clicking here.

“When chief information officers from across the country gathered Wednesday in Cambridge, Mass., for the sixth annual Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan CIO Symposium, talk was of virtualization and cloud computing, and the forecast was for a reconstruction of business IT infrastructure made more urgent by the economy’s troubles.

One panelist, MIT Professor Erik Brynjolfsson, even went so far as to say this period could become known in information technology lore as “the great restructuring.” He said it would have three elements, experimentation, measurement and building on scale.

Author James Champy, chairman of consulting at Perot Systems Corp., said many industries have overbuilt IT capacity and face a three-to-five-year challenge to right-size. He advised CIOs to reduce the cost basis of the enterprise to remove top line uncertainty across the business and to generate cash to invest in innovation.”

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