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When Valuations Don’t Actually Mean Valuable

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, FaceBook, Intellectual capital, internet, Investments, IPO news, LinkedIn, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from BusinessInsider

“You’re walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.” – Gordon Gekko in “Wall Street”

A week before Groupon’s initial public offering, Henry Blodget was telling readers he wouldn’t touch it with a 50-foot pole for reasons that amounted to, “It’s an insider’s game.”

As Blodget expected, insiders were indeed the big winners. Investors who bought at the peak that opening day are now down about 20 percent since then. The only good news for investors: at least they’re not in the territory of Demand Media, which now trades about 70 percent below its first day of trading back in January.

Investing in IPOs today screams “caveat emptor.” But do we listen? The prospect of investing in something that all our friends are using seems to be as irresistible as super-sizing a fast-food meal — and can be equally bad for our (fiscal) health.

There’s also the view that if people are buying things they don’t understand, they should lose their money. It’s called capitalism, redeploying money to smarter people so it can be invested more intelligently.

Better Ways To Invest?

I agree that capitalism should not reward stupidity but we also should make it a little safer for non-insiders to invest. Why not increase transparency and let outsiders see what’s really going on in a company?

Perhaps it’s time for the equivalent of nutritional content labels on investments that outline, in plain language, just how much risk we’re taking. And maybe it’s time we also start asking if there are better ways to invest, not just for us but the health of our planet. That’s happening now with a growing trend called “impact investing,” defined as for-profit investment made to solve social and environment problems.

TonyGreenbergImg“Impact investing will need to scale to an enormous level for these solutions to be achievable,” said Eric Kessler, founder and principal at Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors, which advises philanthropies like Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation and touches nearly $1 billion in grant and impact investment portfolios a year for. “Profitable, socially-driven businesses are the only sustainable solution. Philanthropists are awakening to that now and transforming themselves into impact investors.”

As things currently stand, it’s turned into a bit of the Wild West for investors. In an era of Occupy Wall Street and too many investing scandals, the impulse is to blame fraud or at least insiders who take liberties at the expense of the rest of us.

True, neither Groupon nor its underwriters held a gun to anyone’s head to buy a single share. Key information, from insiders taking money out to decelerating revenue growth, was thoroughly and publicly documented, as per all SEC regulations and rules.

But months before Groupon went public, breathless news stories were estimating a $25 billion valuation for the site. By the time the IPO put real numbers on those estimates, Groupon was valued at $13 billion instead, but even that seems optimistic for an unprofitable company founded three years ago.

Sky-High Valuations

Groupon is not the only example of misplaced “IPO-ptimism.” Zynga, the online game company, was reportedly seeking a $20 billion valuation. It now expects to go public with an estimated value of about $14 billion, though some seasoned analysts think $5 billion is more realistic. Facebook valuations currently range from $60 billion to $80 billion, up from $500 million just four years ago, though the social media behemoth has yet to announce when in 2012 it may actually go public.

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Ask a venture capitalist about these sky-high valuations and their response ranges from a shrug of their shoulders to a gleam in their eye. The bottom line, though, is they don’t know what to think. This is uncharted territory, with companies only a few years old riding huge valuations to ridiculous riches, at least for a few.

“The biggest risk I see in today’s extraordinary Internet company valuations is the short length of time these companies have been in business,” said William Edward Quigley, co-founder and managing director of Clearstone Venture Partners.  “The longer a company has been operating, the more secure its competitive position in the market and the more predictable its revenues.  Predictability is a core ingredient in successful public companies.”

Quigley points to LinkedIn, which went public after a full decade of operations, with a seasoned executive team, strong internal and financial systems and a proven business model. Groupon, by contrast, has had none of those advantages.

“A pubic investor should be more cautious when investing in companies that are still figuring out their business.” Quigley says.

IPOs Hit The Skids

This brings us back to what we are investing in and whether those investments are wise. One recent report looked at the dismal performance of new companies in the IPO market. During the past 15 years, the number of young companies entering capital markets through IPOs has plummeted relative to historic patterns, hobbling job creation.

The report, “Rebuilding the IPO On-Ramp,” also had a number of recommendations, including the need “to improve the availability and flow of information for investors.”

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Regulations have driven up costs for young companies looking to go public, the report says. At the same time, institutional investors are leery of buying stock in startups because their risk levels are much higher.

“Right now, there is very little capital available to these emerging companies,” said Wall Street investor Terren Peizer, chairman of Socius Capital Group. Peizer said more than 4,000 publicly traded companies have market capitalizations of less than $300 million each. Companies that small just aren’t attractive to choosy institutional investors.

“These companies are unable to attract capital on viable terms, if at all,” said Peizer. “Increased regulatory pressure has had the unintended consequence of choking off capital access for the small companies.”

“In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules … and this is something that the public really doesn’t understand. It’s impossible for a violation to go undetected.” – Bernard Madoff

All of this leads me to hope there will be a greater emphasis on impact investing, which may be help resolve these problems.

The Rockefeller Foundation started looking at these issues in 2008 when it developed a set of guidelines for “Impact Investing and Investment Standards,” or IRIS. As part of the process, the foundation developed a common reporting language for impact-related terms and metrics.

Out of IRIS came the Global Impact Investing Network Investors’ Council. GIIN was set up to identify how investor funds define, track, and report the social and environmental performance of their capital, in a way that’s transparent and credible.

In my company, which deals with similar issues of managing risk in an opaque environment, I’ve learned that it’s not about making a single right decision. Instead, it’s about hedging, diversifying, and understanding your risk vs. reward. It’s also about doing what’s right.

So much of what’s wrong with the investing picture today stems from the basic human impulses of fear and greed. People are afraid they will miss out on something big, which is the attitude that helped puff up the housing bubble. And that fear leads to greed, as people pay big bucks now, hoping to reap huge returns later.

Perhaps it’s time we put fear and greed back into the bottle and focus on how to invest for a better tomorrow that makes all of us winners.”

Read more here.

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LinkedIn, others show why transparency is needed

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Intellectual capital, internet, Investments, IPO news, LinkedIn, Market research, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 13, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from SFGate.

In recent years, LinkedIn, Groupon and Demand Media all suggested they were profitable while privately held. But when the businesses were forced to file audited financial statements as they prepared to go public, those years or quarters in the black mysteriously vanished.

That’s just one of many reasons why it’s disturbing to see legislators hard at work on laws that would actually make it easier for companies to seek investments without also providing thorough and transparent financial data. And it’s why the proposals demand serious scrutiny.

This week, Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Tom Carper, D-Del., introduced a bill that would raise the number of shareholders that companies are allowed to have before being forced to routinely disclose finances. Under the proposal, the threshold would rise from 500 to 2,000, minus employees.

Companies often feel compelled to go public when they near the 500 mark, because the disclosure requirements are nearly the same as those for a public company. Observers were quick to note that the law could ease IPO pressure on businesses like Facebook, which is bumping up against that threshold, further inflating private trading markets without adding any financial clarity.

“Lots of companies with fairly substantial market capitalizations would avoid the transparency of being reporting companies,” said John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University.

Crowd funding

Separately this week, the House approved legislation proposed by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., that would allow small businesses to raise capital through what is called crowd funding. That would mean startups could solicit investments from a pool of small investors, not just high-net-worth investors.

Individuals could invest the lesser of $10,000 or 10 percent of their annual income. As long as the firms raise less than $1 million a year, they could provide scant if any financial disclosures (though they would have to highlight the risky nature of the offerings).

Meanwhile, the private-equity and investment-banking industries are pushing for even bigger changes. Last month, a group calling itself the IPO Task Force – including representatives from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati – submitted an audacious wish list for policymakers.

Complaining about the paucity of IPOs in recent years, it recommended a looser set of rules for “emerging growth companies” with less than $1 billion in annual gross revenue.

These companies would be able to take advantage of a five-year “on-ramp” period that would reduce requirements for disclosures of historical financial data. The bill would also exempt companies from regulations concerning shareholder voting rights on executive compensation and loosen rules regarding analyst conflicts of interests.

Some corporate governance experts think the very premise of an on-ramp is flawed.

The first five years “is exactly when you would need to have the best disclosures,” said Charles Elson, director of the center for corporate governance at the University of Delaware.

The argument in favor of these proposals is that freeing companies from onerous regulations put in place in recent years would allow them to more easily build capital, accelerate innovation and create jobs.

Advocates for the task force recommendations contend that the rules are directly responsible for the decline in IPOs in recent years. Without that potential payday, venture capitalists and other investors have less incentive to take chances on young companies.

“Given the urgency to get America back on the path to economic growth, we need to get capital back in the hands of companies that create jobs,” said Kate Mitchell, chair of the task force and managing director of Scale Venture Partners, in a statement.

These are all tantalizing promises in the current economic climate. But we’ve seen again and again why transparent information is critical for the investing public..

Shareholders of Enron lost $11 billion and employees saw their life savings evaporate when it turned out the company was hiding billions in shell firms and fudging its balance sheet.

More recently, Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns and AIG crashed and nearly took the global financial system with them after losing highly leveraged, complicated and opaque bets on toxic mortgages.

These economic crises prompted laws like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which required more thorough disclosures of things like off-balance-sheet transitions. Similarly, the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in the aftermath of the 2008 economic collapse, granted greater oversight of complex instruments like credit default swaps.

Watering down

But political memories are short, and the instinct to enact reforms to prevent future catastrophes fades as constituents shift their frustrations to stubborn unemployment rates. And so now, we see proposals to water down the protections that were just passed.

From the moments these rules went into effect, industry has lamented how the burdensome and expensive regulations harm business and discourage IPOs. But maybe these things should be burdensome and expensive.

There’s a great responsibility that goes along with accepting millions of dollars from college endowments, pension funds, mom-and-pop stock pickers and, yes, even accredited investors.

I’d submit that the decline in IPOs had at least as much to do with the market crashes brought about by dot-com pump-and-dump schemes and the subprime mortgage and derivatives fiasco.

In other words, the private-equity and investment-banking industries haven’t exactly proven themselves worthy of lighter regulations. On the contrary, they’ve repeatedly demonstrated an unconscionable eagerness to get away with exactly as much as they can, even at immense cost to the broader economy.

Obviously, this isn’t universally true, and not all startups, venture capitalists or investment banks should be tarnished by the acts of a few. But the best way for the rest of us to know the difference is through crystal-clear transparency.”

Read more here.

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How the web has powered work for 20 years

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, FaceBook, Intellectual capital, internet, LinkedIn, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from GigaOm.

“2011 has been a year of milestone birthdays in tech. September saw Google become a teenager, email hit the big 40 in June, and even Twitter turned five back in March. Perhaps the most significant tech birthday this year, though, was the World Wide Web itself turning 20.

In 1991 British scientist Tim Berners-Lee posted a brief summary of the World Wide Web (or W3) project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup, writing:

“The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the Web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome.”

It’s safe to say that Berners-Lee’s invitation to potential collaborators went fairly well. That initial web page has expanded to more than 19 billion pages (at the last count) and there are millions and millions of workers across the globe who rely on the World Wide Web to go about their daily lives. In those 20 years, the changes to the workplace that have taken place thanks to the Internet are nothing short of remarkable. Email is as good a place as any to start.

You’ve got mail

Try to explain the workplace B.E. (before email) to someone under 30, and you could be describing life in the 19th century for all the relevance it has to their working day. Back then, we lived in a world in which quaint technologies such as the fax machine prevailed. With the fax machine, it was not unusual to wait days for a reply.

Later, when Web-based email began to grow in popularity, it transformed communication in the workplace. You could now receive a response to a question within minutes, especially once broadband connections became more commonplace. You could send information and documents to colleagues around the world at the click of a button.

Email overload

But technology was now developing at a pace that seemed astonishing even to those who worked in the industry, and email, after a honeymoon period, hit problems. “Too intrusive,” said some. “Too much of it,” said others. “Not quick enough,” moaned the rest.

When consumer-based instant-messaging technologies infiltrated the workplace – AIM launched in 1997 and Yahoo! Messenger (then Pager) in 1998 – users were suddenly able to communicate with co-workers in real-time. Years later, these tools would often be integrated into a platform that also included voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), shared whiteboards, video conferencing and file transfer features.

It was around this time that social networks also began to establish a presence. Some of these are undoubtedly more consumer-focused, but there can also be no denying that Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have had a massive impact on working life, too. The ability to communicate and share content with your extended network (and beyond) has transformed many of our traditional working practices. As well as enabling businesses to engage in two-way conversations with their customers, these social networks are now a central part of the recruitment process. Last year, I wrote a piece on how Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can enable you to find a team of peers without breaking the bank of recruitment agencies. You can tap into your workforce’s network and find like-minded, talented people to become part of your company.

Getting ready to collaborate

The net result of all the technological developments outlined above has been to change the very fabric of how we work. We now live in a collaboration economy. To share and communicate information, ideas and innovation has never been easier, or come more naturally to the workforce. The emergence of the Web has given rise to a global working village, with location and time zone utterly irrelevant. You can work as closely with someone in another country as you would with someone sitting opposite; work from home or on the move, and even send files from your mobile handset to someone on the other side of the world.

This has all been made possible by the World Wide Web. From Skype to smartphones and social networking to SaaS, it’s all underpinned by the internet and the changes to the workplace of 20 years ago are just extraordinary. With a global mobile worker population set to hit 1.19 billion by 2013, one can only wonder what the Internet will bring us next. Bring on the next 20 years!”

Read original post here.

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Alure Medical, Inc. -Date Certain M&A of its Intellectual Property and Assets

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Distressed Intellectual Property, Distressed IP, Gerbsman Partners, Inetellectual Property, Intellectual capital, Investments, Life Science, LinkedIn, Medical Device, National Venture Capital Association, NVCA, Venture Capital, Venturebeat on October 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SALE OF ALURE MEDICAL, INC.
Gerbsman Partners (www.gerbsmanpartners.com) has been retained by Alure Medical, Inc. (www.AlureMedical.com) to solicit interest for the acquisition of all, or substantially all of, Alure Medical’s assets.

Headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, Alure Medical is a medical device company developing innovative product for minimally invasivecosmetic and reconstructive procedures.  Allure’s technology provides applications to various parts of the body, including breasts, buttocks, thighs, etc.

IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICE:

The information in this memorandum does not constitute the whole or any part of an offer or a contract.

The information contained in this memorandum relating to Alure Medical’s Assets (as defined herein) has been supplied by Alure Medical.  It has not been independently investigated or verified by Gerbsman Partners or their respective agents.

Potential purchasers should not rely on any information contained in this memorandum or provided by Gerbsman Partners (or their respective staff, agents, and attorneys) in connection herewith, whether transmitted orally or in writing as a statement, opinion, or representation of fact.  Interested parties should satisfy themselves through independent investigations as they or their legal and financial advisors see fit.

Gerbsman Partners, and their respective staff, agents, and attorneys, (i) disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the truth, accuracy, andcompleteness of any information provided in connection herewith and (ii) do not accept liability for the information, including that contained in this memorandum, whether that liability arises by reasons of Alure Medical’s or Gerbsman Partners’ negligence or otherwise.

Any sale of the Alure Medical Assets will be made on an “as-is,” “where-is,” and “with all faults” basis, without any warranties, representations, or guarantees, either expressed orimplied, of any kind, nature, or type whatsoever from, or on behalf of Alure Medical and Gerbsman Partners. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Alure Medical and Gerbsman Partners and their respective staff, agents, andattorneys, hereby expressly disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the condition of the Alure Medical Assets and any portions thereof, including, but not limited to, environmental conditions, compliance with any government regulations or requirements, theimplied warranties of habitability, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose.

This memorandum contains confidential information and is not to be supplied to any person without Gerbsman Partners’ prior consent. Thismemorandum and the information contained herein are subject to the Confidential Disclosure Agreement attached hereto as Appendix A.

Company Profile

Alure Medical, Inc., a Santa Rosa, California based medical device company, develops innovative products for minimally invasive cosmetic and reconstructive procedures.  The company’s main product is the minimally invasive internal suspension systems that support soft tissue naturally from within.  The company has one (1) issued U.S. patent (Nov 2010), four (4) pending U.S. patent applications, and three (3) pending foreign PCT applications.

Alure Medical was founded in 2007 and has raised $5.5 million in capital financing.  Alure Medical’s mission is to develop minimally invasive solutions for enhancing cosmetic and reconstructive procedures.   The body changes significantly during one’s lifetime and many are seeking for ways to correct or regain a youthful, aesthetic appearance.  Most options are invasive surgeries, while other options have limited effectiveness.

Everyone is affected by ptosis (drooping/sagging) which is part of the natural aging process.  Ptosis is often exaggerated after child birth and other weight fluctuations.  Others have asymmetry due to genetics or previous procedures like mastectomies or otherbreast reconstruction.  The Alure technology provides a unique and elegant approach to aesthetic procedures in an effective, minimally invasive system.

The core of Alure Medical’s technology is the Alure Medical RefineTM device.  The device kit consists of two sets of implantable mesh and sutures lines.  In addition, the kit comes with two delivery needles and a handle that will aid the physician in delivering the implantable components.  The product is packaged and delivered sterilized via e-beam radiation.  The system has proven to be an effective, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-use product for patients who desire a change to their breast shape and position.   The product has not been tested in other areas of the body but a high level of interest has been communicated to thecompany.  These new areas include buttocks, thighs, and other soft tissue areas that are troublesome for patients and their physicians.

AVIDEO IS AVAILABLE DESCRIBING THE ALURE MEDICAL REFINE DEVICE UPON REQUEST WITH A SIGNED NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT

 
Alure Medical believes its assets are attractive for a number of reasons:

·    Alure Medical’s intellectual property based on Minimally Invasive Tissue Support and Non Augmentative Mastopexy, includes one (1) issued U.S. patent (Nov 2010), four (4) pending U.S. patent applications, and three (3) pending foreign applications in each of Australia, Canada, and Europe.

·    US FDA 510(k) clearances 2009 (K08312) and 2010 (K092538):  The Refine™ Support System is indicated for reinforcement of soft tissue in plastic or reconstructive procedures.

·    CE Mark 2008:  The Refine™ Lift System is indicated for use in the approximation of soft tissue including, but not limited to the breast, mid-face, forehead, neck, jowls, and buttocks.

·    Alure Medical is being sold in US and Europe.

·    Longest term Alure cases now implanted 3.5+ years.

·    Alure Medical implant procedures exceed 100+ cases to date.

·    Three (3) internationally renowned plastic surgeons have actively supported, implanted, and purchased Alure Medical’s devices.

·    Alure Medical has sold over 60 units with an ASP of $800+, for a kit.

·    Two US surgical sites have reimbursement approval (hospital pay).

·    Recent sites have paid training fees of $500 each.

·    Alure Medical has achieved ISO 13485 certification.

·    Alure Medical has received California FDB (Food and Drug Branch) approval.

·    Alure Medical is vertically integrated with the majority of the assembly in-house and easily scalable.

·  Alure Medical believes suspension technology is applicable forother markets inside the plastic surgery field, and also applies into non-surgical cosmetic field and other non-cosmetic clinical procedures, such as wound therapy.

Impact of Technology on the Market

Many procedures performed by plastic surgeons are limited by their tools of scalpels, sutures, and augmentation implants.  There is a universal desire from physicians and patients to achieve aesthetic results with the minimal amount of noticeable scarring, while maintaining a natural appearance.  A clinical need exists for a specialized device to help reinforce, support, and manipulate soft tissue from small entry sites.

Specific to the breast surgery field, physicians and patients desire a minimally invasive method of performing mastopexy that allows faster recovery and less post-operative pain as compared to traditional surgical methods.  Market research indicates that approximately 90,000 traditional mastopexy procedures, 80,000 breast reductions, and 300,000 breast augmentation surgeries are performed each year in the US alone.  In the US, there are also about 4,000,000 previous breast implant patients, and 1,000,000 previous breast lift patients.  Feedback demonstrates there is also a potentially large “new market” of patients that are dissatisfied with their body, but do nothing.  Many know their options are invasive surgery or breast implants, which are not acceptable.  The company estimates that there could be 7,500,000 “new market” patients in the US alone that would consider using this technology.  Considering all theprocedures numbers above, the global market is estimated as 2X the size of the US market.

Physician feedback indicates that a significant percentage of their cases would utilize the Alure device instead of their surgical procedure and would also use thedevice in conjunction (adjunctively) with their surgical procedure.  The previous breast surgery patients may also want a quicker, less obtrusive revision to refresh their look.  Within a few years, this minimally invasive option is expected to capture 100,000 procedures per year, when penetrationreaches 0.5% of the market.  This conservative 0.5% penetration would equate to $60,000,000 dollars in global sales.

Intellectual Property Summary

1.  Alure Medical’s intellectual property based on Minimally Invasive Tissue Support and Non Augmentative Mastopexy, includes one (1) issued U.S. patent (Nov 2010), four (4) pending U.S. patent applications, and three (3) pending foreign applications in each of Australia, Canada, and Europe, each as more specifically described in Intellectual Property section.  The portfolio represents a broad array of strategic variables including:

2.  Alure IP covers an internal suspension implantation system for performing a breast tissue lift.

3.  Alure issued IP uniquely has an upper fixation mesh and lower soft tissue anchors.  This is comparison to other lower sling “internal bra”, concepts, that have not proven effective via a minimally invasive approach.

4.  Alure issued IP covers fixation points in soft tissue.  This creates natural look and a natural suspension.  This is compared to the disadvantages of fixing into rigid clavicle or ribs.

5.  Alure IP generated around post implanted adjustability mechanisms- able to adjust and correct a device that has been previously implanted.

6.  Alure IP generated around durable and bioabsorbable internal suspension components.
7.  Alure IP generated on a variety of other internal suspension concepts.

Alure Medical’s Assets

Alure Medical has developed a technology portfolio that delivers a product platform for adjunct and stand-alone use in cosmetic and reconstruction procedures.  It is a simple technology that physicians are creatively expanding to new indications.  These assets fall into a variety of categories, including:

·     Patents, patent applications, and trademarks

·     Regulatory approvals in US and Europe

·     Technology addressing in the billion dollar market of aesthetics

·     Established customer revenue with surgeon/patient sales

·     Established hospital pay

·     The only minimally invasive internal fixation system that works

·     Positive long term clinical feedback from top surgeons and their patients

·     Next generation product designs

·     Manufacturing and equipment developed internally and easily scalable

·     Intellectual capital and expertise

The assets of Alure Medical will be sold in whole or in part (collectively, the “AlureMedical Assets”). The sale of these assets is being conducted with the cooperation of Alure Medical. Alure Medical and its employees will be available to assist purchasers with due diligence and a prompt, efficient transition to new ownership. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Alure Medical should not be contacted directly without the prior consent of Gerbsman Partners.

Management

Michael J. Lee
VP of Research and Development
Head of Operations

Mr. Lee has headed Alure R&D and Operations since April 2009.  He has more than 18 years of medical device experience.  Prior to Alure, Mr. Lee headed Medlogics, a drug eluting coatings and stent company, in the areas of R&D, Engineering, Equipment, and Facilities since August 2003. Prior to Medlogics, Mr. Lee was the Director of R&D of Bioheart’s hybrid percutaneous, thoracoscopic, and surgical myocardial regeneration injection systems, where he started and headed the delivery system division.  Prior to Bioheart, Mr. Lee was in R&D for Cardeon Corporation, responsible for research and development of innovative blood return cannulae with cerebral protection using differential flow and temperature. Prior to Cardeon, he was in R&D for Arterial Vascular Engineering, Inc. (subsequently acquired by Medtronic, Inc) working on stents, stent delivery systems and angioplasty devices for coronary and peripheral indications; and was instrumental in the growth from about 30 to 3000 employees over 4 years.  Prior to AVE, he worked in R&D at Cardiac Pathways Corporation (subsequently acquired by Boston Scientific Corp.) on innovative electrophysiology systems with integrated cooling. Mr. Lee has several patents issued and several that are pending.  He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Board of Directors

Randy Lashinki

Mr. Lashinski is a co-founder of Alure Medical, served as President and CEO, and currently is Chairman of the Board.   Mr. Lashinski is currently Claret Medical’s President and CEO.  Mr. Lashinski was also a co-founder of Direct Flow Medical a percutaneous aortic valve replacement company.  Acting as the CEO for Direct Flow’s first two years he raised $8.5 million in funding to achieve clinical use of the product which is now in a European Clinical Trial.  Mr. Lashinski also was a founding engineer and served on the board of directors at MitraLife where he helped develop a device based treatment for congestive heart failure.  The company was sold to EV3 in Minneapolis in 2003.  Prior to this was he VP of R&D at Medtronic Vascular (AVE).  This division was spawned from the $4.3 billion dollar acquisition of AVE where Mr. Lashinski held other roles in Engineering and Management.  Mr. Lashinski was also employed as an R&D engineer atTarget Therapeutics which was acquired by Boston Scientific in 1999 for $1.1 billion dollars.  Mr. Lashinski received his education from the University of Minnesota in Mechanical Engineering.

Gordon Bishop

Mr. Bishop co-founded Alure in 2007.  A serial entrepreneur Mr. Bishop also co-founded Direct Flow Medical in June 2004.  Mr. Bishop was recruited to Arterial Vascular Engineering, Inc. (AVE) in 1999 where he lead various stent projects including the Driver™ stent currently on the market in the US and Europe.  In addition to leading the Driver stent Project at AVE, Mr. Bishop served on the ASTM F04 committee alongside agents of the FDA and other industry representatives to establish standards for stenttesting and modeling.  Hired as a Senior Engineer at MitraLife, Inc,. Mr. Bishop was a lead engineer on a novel percutaneous approach to lessen mitral regurgitation by implanting a deviceinto the coronary sinus.  MitraLife was acquired by ev3, Inc. a Minneapolis based company.  Mr. Bishop has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from California Polytechnic State.

Michael DeVries

Mike is a Managing Director with EDF Ventures. Mike’s 25-year medical device background, coupled with his experience with venture-backed companies, gives him a valuable perspective in guiding start-ups in the medical device industry.  Currently, Mike sits on the boards of the following companies:  Alure Medical, BioSurface Engineering Technologies, and CardioMetrix.  He serves as Chairman of the board for the following companies:  Direct Flow Medical, Sonoma Orthopedic Products, and TransCorp, Inc.  Prior to joining EDF, Mike served as President and CEO of A-Med Systems, a California-based cardiac device company. Prior to A-Med, Mike served on theexecutive team of Medtronic’s venture organization focused on cardiac surgery technology. His background also includes serving on the management team at DLP, a Michigan-based cardiac device company which was acquired by Medtronic.  Mike holds an MBA from Grand Valley State University and a BA from Calvin College. In addition, Mike is a Kauffman Fellow.

Dennis Condon

Mr. Condon has been President and Chief Business Officer of Merz Aesthetics since June 2007 and served as a board of director from January 2004 to June 2007. From March 2006 to June 2007, he was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Apsara Medical, a medical device company focused on the aesthetics market. From February 2005 to November 2005, Mr. Condon was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Reliant Technologies Inc., a provider of lasers for aesthetic applications. Since November 2002, Mr. Condon has also served as a principal of a privately-held medical aesthetics services practice. From 1998 to July 2002, he was Chief Executive Officer of The Plastic Surgery Company, a healthcare services company. From 1991 to 1998, he was President of Mentor Corporation’s aesthetics division. Mr. Condon holds a B.S. from the University of California, Davis

Josh Siegel

Joshua Siegel, MD is the Sports Medicine Director at Access Sports Medicine & Orthopaedics in Exeter, NH.  Dr. Siegel has pioneered techniques in arthroscopic surgical treatments of the knee, shoulder and elbow.  He is a fellow of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and a member of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM), the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and the Sports Medicine Fellowship Society.  He is also a founding member of Northeast Surgical Care, an ambulatory surgery center in Newington, NH.  He completed his sports medicine fellowship at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama under Dr. James Andrews and Dr. William Clancy.  He currently serves as a US Ski and Snowboard Team physician and is also serves as a physcian for the US Olympic Committee.  He has won numerous awards for medical and business accomplishments nationally and statewide.

Scientific Advisory Board

Jack Fisher, M.D.

Dr. Fisher is currently the Treasurer of The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), and will be President of the Society in 2013.  Dr. Fisher is a distinguished member of the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) and The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).  He also is currently on the ASAPS Board of Education Committee.  Throughout the country, Dr. Jack Fisher is a well-known and respected surgeon. He has been invited to speak at a number of surgical conferences throughout the world particularly on breast and aesthetic surgery. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery at the prestigious Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN.  Dr. Fisher received his medical degree from the Emory University School of Medicine inAtlanta, completed his internships and residencies in general surgery at George Washington University Medical Center and his plastic surgery residency at Emory University Affiliated Hospital. Following his residency, he was on staff at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, from 1981 to 1986 as attending plastic surgeon.

Dennis Hammond, M.D.
ASAPS Chairman, Symposium Committee
James Namnoum, M.D.
Co-Chair of Atlanta Breast Symposium, (Top Global Breast Surgery Meeting)

The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers

Interested and qualified parties will be expected to sign a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (attached hereto as Appendix A) to have access to key members of management and intellectual capital teams and the due diligence “war room” documentation (“Due Diligence Access”), and the Alure Video. 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 Alure Medical 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 orcompleteness 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 Alure Medical Assets. Each sealed bid must be submitted so that it is received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 2:00pm Pacific Daylight Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at Alure Medical’s office, located at 3637 Westwind Boulevard, Suite B, Santa Rosa, California 95403. 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.

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 Alure Medical, Inc.).  The deposit should be wired to Alure Medical’s attorneys Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.  The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days of the Bid Deadline. The deposit will be held in trust by Alure Medical’s counsel.  Unsuccessful bidders will have their deposit returned to them within 3 business days of notification that they are an unsuccessful bidder.

Alure Medical 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.

Alure Medical will require the successful bidder to close within a 7 day period. Any or all of the assets of Alure Medical 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 Alure Medical Assets shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to Alure Medical at the closing of each transaction.

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

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

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

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U.S. Facebook users clock in 53.5 billion mins.

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, FaceBook, internet, LinkedIn, Market research, Social Networks, Twitter, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Article from SFGate.

“Here’s a mind-numbing stat: Americans spent a total of 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook in May, according to a new Nielsen study released Monday.

In fact, the media-measurement firm’s new report on social networking found that Americans spent more time on Facebook than on any other website – and it wasn’t even close. Yahoo was second with 17.2 billion minutes in May and Google ranked third at 12.5 billion minutes.

With Americans now spending nearly one-quarter of their overall Internet time on social networks and blogs, Nielsen said the results show “how powerful this influence is on consumer behavior, both online and off.”

“Whether it’s a brand icon inviting consumers to connect with a company on LinkedIn, a news ticker promoting an anchor’s Twitter handle or an advertisement asking a consumer to ‘Like’ a product on Facebook, people are constantly being driven to social media,” said Nielsen’s first-ever State of the Media report to focus on social networking.

The report took a snapshot of online activity during May and found nearly 4 of every 5 active U.S. Internet users went to social-networking and blogging sites, accounting for 22.5 percent of the total amount of minutes people spent online. Online gaming was next with 9.8 percent, followed by e-mail at 7.6 percent.

In the social-networking and blogging category, Palo Alto’s Facebook was the runaway leader with 140 million unique visitors during the month, with Google’s Blogger blogging platform a distant second with 50 million unique visitors spending about 723 million minutes.

But the up-and-coming blogging platform Tumblr was third with 623 million minutes, edging out both San Francisco microblogging service Twitter Inc. with 565 million minutes and the professional social network LinkedIn Corp. of Mountain View, which had 325 million. Nielsen said New York’s Tumblr Inc. has nearly tripled its audience since May 2010 and is now “an emerging player in social media.”

Also, the report said 70 percent of all adult social-network users shop online. But 60 percent of social-network denizens create reviews of products or services, making them more likely to be influential for online and offline purchases.

And compared with average Internet users, social networkers are 26 percent more likely to post their political opinions, 33 percent more likely to say what they like or don’t like on television and 75 percent more likely to spend heavily on music.

Other Nielsen findings include:

— The profile of the most active social-network user is of a woman of Asian/Pacific Islander descent between the ages of 18 and 34. The majority of social-network users are women, but men are more likely to visit LinkedIn.

— About 31 million people watched nearly 157 video streams on social networks or blogs in May. More women than men watched video this way, but men spent 9 percent more time watching those streams.

— While almost all social-media users access their networks by computer, a growing segment – about 37 percent – now do so with their mobile phones. More than twice the number of Internet users age 55 and older accessed social media on their phones than a year ago.”

Read more here.

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