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Archive for the ‘Investments’ Category

Cloud Startup Values Are Getting Insane

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Investments, Market research, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

“Forget the AngelGate controversy and shift your attention to the big-money world of cloud computing and infrastructure startups. While the clashing egos clang in the Silicon Valley echo chamber, massive amounts of money have started to flow into cloud companies at nosebleed valuations, and things are only just getting started.

Here are some of the recent deals and some exclusive details on forthcoming rounds and valuations of some of the better-known cloud and big data focused companies:

  • StorSimple, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based storage company making hybrid storage systems, recently raised $13 million in Series B funding. The company, which has yet to bring in a dollar in sales, is being valued at $50 million.
  • RightScale recently raised $25 million in Series C funding from Tenya Capital, DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures and Presidio Ventures at a reported valuation of $100-$125 million. Another source suggests that RightScale’s valuation is even higher.
  • Eucalyptus, a company headed by ex-MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, is said to be valued in excess of $100 million, and raised $20 million in new funding from New Enterprise Associates, Benchmark Capital and BV Capital.

On the big data front:

  • Aster Data recently snagged $30 million in new funding from the likes of Sequoia Capital and a new undisclosed investor. Rumored valuation: somewhere between $85 and $120 million.
  • I’ve heard rumors that Cloudera, the Hadoop-based big data company and one of the all-stars of big data movement, is looking to raise a fresh round of funding and is being valued in excess of $100 million.

My sources tell me a handful of cloud companies are likely to raise a ton of money in the coming weeks. So now you must be wondering what’s going on. There are two forces at work:

From a macro standpoint, the investment industry’s thinking about cloud-based investments has evolved. At our Structure 2010 conference, folks like VMware CEO Paul Maritz talked about the 10-year shift in the IT infrastructure. Early cloud doubters such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison are coming around and rethinking the opportunities being offered by the cloud. The venture capital community is sensing an opportunity and pumping dollars into the sector. But when you zero in, you can see that late-stage investors are willingly investing in companies that already have backing from the cream of the crop venture capital firms, such as Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures.”

Read the full article here.

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HP tops Dell’s offer in bid to buy 3Par

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, internet, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , on August 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Article from SF Gate.

“Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest PC-maker, has offered to buy Fremont’s 3Par Inc. for about $1.6 billion, topping Dell‘s bid for the maker of data-center equipment and software.

The bid of $24 a share in cash is 33 percent higher than Dell’s offer, HP said Monday in a statement. Dell offered $18 a share in cash, or about $1.15 billion, for 3Par on Aug. 16.

HP and Dell are using acquisitions to challenge Cisco Systems and IBM in the market for data-center products and services, which generate higher profits than desktop and laptop computers. 3Par sells hardware and software that make it easier and cheaper for companies to store information. Its stock rose past HP’s offer, signaling that some investors expect a bidding contest.

“One of the growth areas in technology is in the enterprise storage space,” said Joel Levington, managing director of corporate credit at Brookfield Investment Management Inc. in New York. “3Par’s products fit well in there. It’s an easy way to gain product breadth.”

HP said on a conference call that it has been working on the proposed acquisition since before the departure of Mark Hurd, who stepped down as HP’s chief executive officer on Aug. 6 after an investigation found he filed inaccurate expense reports to conceal a personal relationship with a marketing contractor.

The offer is HP’s second bid for 3Par, Dave Donatelli, who heads HP’s storage and server division, said Monday. The PC-maker has been in talks with 3Par for “some period of time,” he said, declining to comment further.

David Frink, a Dell spokesman, declined to comment. John D’Avolio, a spokesman for 3Par, didn’t immediately comment.

HP’s offer values the unprofitable 3Par at almost 2 1/2 times its worth before Dell’s bid, and at more than eight times its sales of $194.3 million in the year ended March 31. 3Par’s revenue rose 5.2 percent from 2009, and it has about 670 employees.

“It’s a very exorbitant price,” Levington said. It probably doesn’t make economic sense for Dell to counter, he said.”

Read more here. 

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Patience May Pay Off For 3Par’s Venture Investors

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Investments, Market research, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from WSJ Venture Dispatch.

“3Par’s IPO in November 2007 was held up as yet another strong offering during a year that saw 74 venture-backed companies go public. The IPO, which priced above market estimates at $14 a share and saw a 13% gain on opening day, also was billed as a big exit for venture capitalists.

But the market soon tanked, bringing down 3Par’s stock with it – by spring-time it was fluctuating between $6 and $9, and its venture investors were nowhere near exiting this company. Typically, VCs begin unloading some shares once the 180-day lock-up period ends, but with the stock-market in flux, three of 3Par’s main venture backers mostly stayed put.

Nearly three years later, Mayfield Fund, Menlo Ventures and Worldview Technology Partners still own significant chunks of 3Par stock, and that patience may pay off mightily – thanks to the bidding war between Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Last week, Dell agreed to acquire 3Par for $1.13 billion, or $18 a share, but Hewlett-Packard has swooped in with a $24-a-share offer that values 3Par at $1.6 billion. The bidding has caused 3Par’s stock to rocket upward to more than $25 today, finally bringing the stock above its IPO price.

This is especially good news for limited partners in Mayfield Fund and Worldview Technology Partners, which first invested in 3Par in 1999. Together, these three firms and a number of others invested a total of $183 million into 3Par over the years.

Prior to these buyout offers, 3Par’s venture investors were left with a difficult choice between selling out for liquidity now or waiting for better returns down the road. Menlo Ventures, which led the company’s 2004 recapitalization, and Worldview Technology Partners, which first invested alongside Mayfield Fund in the 1999 Series A round, have both held onto their entire stakes and today own 13.4% and 12.2%, respectively. These investors declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

Mayfield Fund, which was at the time of the IPO, the company’s largest shareholder, has been slowly selling its stake in the business over the last two years at prices ranging between $9.22 and $12.30, which was near the price prior to the announcement from Dell. That firm currently owns about 9.9% of 3Par.”

Read the full article here.

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Bidding Process – Procedures for the sale of certain assets and Intellectual Property of NovaLign Orthopaedics

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Distressed Intellectual Property, Distressed IP, Gerbsman Partners, Inetellectual Property, Investments, Life Science, LinkedIn, Venture Capital, tagged , , , on August 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Bidding Process – Procedures for the sale of certain assets of NovaLign Orthopaedics,, Inc.

Further to Gerbsman Partners e-mail of August 6, 2010 regarding the sale of certain assets of NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc., I attach the legal documents and wire transfer information  that we will be requesting of bidders for certain assets of NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc. All parties bidding on the assets are encouraged, to the greatest extent possible, to conform the terms of their bids to the terms and form of the attached agreements.  Any and all of the assets of NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc. will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis.  I would also encourage all interested parties to have their counsel speak with Stephen O’Neill, Esq., counsel to NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc.

For additional information please contact Stephen O’Neill, Esq., of Murray & Murray counsel to NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc. He can be reached at 408 907 9200  and/or at soneill@murraylaw.com

Following an initial round of due diligence, interested parties will be invited to participate with a sealed bid, for the acquisition of the NovaLign Assets. Sealed bids must be submitted so that the bid is actually received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Friday, September 17, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. Central Standard Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at NovaLigns’ office, located at 5885 Ridgeway Center Parkway, # 210, Memphis, TN 38120.  Please also email steve@gerbsmanpartners.com with any bid.

For your convenience, I have restated the description of the Updated Bidding Process.

The key dates and terms include:

The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers

Interested and qualified parties will be expected to sign a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (attached hereto as Appendix B) to have access to key members of management and intellectual capital teams and the due diligence “war room” documentation (“Due Diligence Access”). Each interested party, as a consequence of the Due Diligence Access granted to it, shall be deemed to acknowledge and represent (i) that it is bound by the bidding procedures described herein; (ii) that it has had an opportunity to inspect and examine the NovaLign Assets and to review all pertinent documents and information with respect thereto; (iii) that it is not relying upon any written or oral statements, representations, or warranties of Gerbsman Partners, or their respective staff, agents, or attorneys; and (iv) all such documents and reports have been provided solely for the convenience of the interested party, and Gerbsman Partners (and their respective staff, agents, or attorneys) do not make any representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the same.

Following an initial round of due diligence, interested parties will be invited to participate with a sealed bid, for the acquisition of the NovaLign Assets. Each sealed bid must be submitted so that it is received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Friday, September 17, 2010 at 5:00pm Central Daylight Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at NovaLign’s office, located at 5885 Ridgeway Center Parkway, Suite 210, Memphis, TN 38120.  Please also email steve@gerbsmanpartners.com with any bid.

Bids should identify those assets being tendered for in a specific and identifiable way. In particular, please identify separately certain equipment or other fixed assets. The attached NovaLign fixed asset list may not be complete and bidders interested in the NovaLign equipment must submit a separate bid for such assets.

Any person or other entity making a bid must be prepared to provide independent confirmation that they possess the financial resources to complete the purchase.  All bids must be accompanied by a refundable deposit in the amount of $200,000 (payable to NovaLign Orthopaedics, Inc.).  The deposit should be wired to NovaLign’s attorneys Murray & Murray, A Professional Corporation.  The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days of the Bid Deadline. The deposit will be held in trust by NovaLign’s counsel.  Unsuccessful bidders will have their deposit returned to them within 3 business days of notification that they are an unsuccessful bidder.

NovaLign reserves the right to, in its sole discretion, accept or reject any bid, or withdraw any or all assets from sale.  Interested parties should understand that it is expected that the highest and best bid submitted will be chosen as the winning bidder and bidders may not have the opportunity to improve their bids after submission.

NovaLign will require the successful bidder to close within a 7 day period. Any or all of the assets of NovaLign will be sold on an “as is, where is” basis, with no representation or warranties whatsoever.

All sales, transfer, and recording taxes, stamp taxes, or similar taxes, if any, relating to the sale of the NovaLign Assets shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to NovaLign at the closing of each transaction.

For additional information, please see below and/or contact:

Stephen O’Neill, Esq.
(408) 907-9200
soneill@murraylaw.com

Steven R. Gerbsman
(415) 456-0628
steve@gerbsmanpartners.com

Dennis Sholl
(415) 457-9596
dennis@gerbsmanpartners.com

Kenneth Hardesty
(408) 591-7528
ken@gerbsmanpartners.com

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Ning will make all users pay

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Economy, FaceBook, Investments, LinkedIn, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Web 2.0, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is an article from SF Gate.

“Ning Inc., the social-networking site co-founded by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, did what many young Web companies only dream of: It got customers weaned on free services to start paying.

Since telling users in April that it would stop offering the means to build and operate social networks for free, Ning’s paid user base tripled to 45,000, with memberships starting at $2.95 a month. The privately held Palo Alto company is adding paying subscribers at the rate of 5,000 a month, three times what it was before.

“A very large percentage of economic activity is shifting online, and it makes sense that there are more services that are going to charge,” said Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp., who serves as Ning’s chairman. “It also means there are going to be more people willing to pay.”

Few are charging

Ning is one of the few social-media sites charging users, following a path cut by media and entertainment providers, which have experimented with fee-based services. Founded in 2004, the same year as Facebook Inc., Ning failed to turn a profit with its original strategy: offering most services for free and charging a monthly fee for extra features. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Gina Bianchini resigned in March, and 42 percent of the staff was laid off in April.

Social-networking tools on the Web are widely available for free. Facebook, which has more than 500 million users, is expected to generate at least $1.4 billion this year, mostly from the sale of ads, two people familiar with the matter said last month. Twitter, with more than 100 million users, began running ads on its site this year.

With a large population of Web users relying on Facebook for basic social services, like keeping track of close friends, there’s an opportunity for other sites to charge for more unique services, said Lou Kerner, a social-media analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc. in New York.

“Facebook has won the free social media race,” said Kerner. “What you’re seeing in the marketplace is folks who are trying to find out business models that are more niche-oriented.”

For Jive Software Inc., that niche is business. The startup, also based in Palo Alto, sells social-networking and online collaboration tools to corporations, including Nike Inc., Intel Corp. and Charles Schwab Corp. Jive’s services start at $100 per user per year, and many customers pay for at least 10,000 users to start.

“The use of social software in the consumer world has no doubt fueled the interest level” among business users, said Tony Zingale, Jive’s CEO. The company, which received a $30 million investment last month led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, expects bookings of as much as $25 million in the last three months of the year, he said.

Paying subscribers are an attractive asset to venture capitalists, who are often asked for money from Internet startups planning to cash in on advertising.

“Ad-driven is a lazy model,” said Dave McClure, a startup adviser and venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. “If there is value, then there probably is a paid relationship that works there at some point,” he said.

Business networking site LinkedIn Corp. generates some revenue by selling professional services, like tools for finding and recruiting job candidates. Meetup Inc., a service for coordinating social events, charges organizers a fee.

The “freemium” model of charging a portion of users is nothing new. One of the earliest examples is PayPal Inc., founded in 1998, which made its payment service free to buyers of products and services so that many people would use it.

“You need free users to enhance the overall value for the product,” said David Sacks, one of the founders of PayPal, who now runs enterprise social-media startup Yammer.”

Read more here.

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