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Update to the Bidding Process, Procedures for the Sale of certain Assets and Intellectual Property of GluMetrics, Inc. 
Further to Gerbsman Partners e-mail/sales letter of January, 30, 2014 regarding the sale of certain assets of GluMetrics, Inc., I attach the GluMetrics Fixed Asset List and GluMetrics Company Briefing.  The GluMetrics Fixed Assets are in addition to the information supplied for the GluMetrics Intellectual Property and Assets outlined in the sales letter.  Any and all of the assets of GluMetrics, Inc. will be sold on an ‘as is, where is’ basis and will be subject to “The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers”, outlined below.

The key dates and terms include:

The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers

Interested and qualified parties will be expected to sign a nondisclosure agreement (attached hereto as Exhibit A) to have access to key members of the management and intellectual capital teams and the due diligence “war room” documentation (the “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 an opportunity to inspect and examine the GluMetrics 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 GluMetrics Assets. Sealed bids must be submitted so that it is actually received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Friday, March 7, 2014 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at GluMetrics’ office, located at 15375 Barranca Pkwy, Suite I-111, Irvine, CA  92618.  Please also email steve@gerbsmanpartners.com with any bid.

Bids should identify those assets being tendered for in a specific and identifiable way.  The attached GluMetrics fixed asset list may not be complete and Bidders interested in the GluMetrics Assets must submit a separate bid for such assets.  Be specific as to the assets desired.

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 where applicable.  All bids must be accompanied by a refundable deposit check in the amount of $250,000 (payable to GluMetrics, Inc.).  The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days after the Bid Deadline.  Non-successful bidders will have their deposit returned to them.

GluMetrics 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 bid will be chosen as the winning bidder and bidders may not have the opportunity to improve their bids after submission.

GluMetrics will require the successful bidder to close within 7 business days.  Any or all of the assets of GluMetrics 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 GluMetrics Assets shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to GluMetrics at the closing of each transaction.

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

Steven R. Gerbsman
steve@gerbsmanpartners.com

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SALE OF GLUMETRICS, INC.

Gerbsman Partners (www.gerbsmanpartners.com) has been retained by GluMetrics, Inc. (www.GluMetrics.com) to solicit interest for the acquisition of all, or substantially all, the assets of GluMetrics, Inc.

Based in Irvine, CA, GluMetrics, Inc. is a glucose monitoring medical device company, founded in 2005 with a patented, optical fluorescence, continuous, non-consumptive, real-time glucose sensing technology with the potential to materially impact both the hospital-based and diabetic glucose monitoring markets.

The Company has raised in four (4) rounds of venture capital financing over $57M, from Versant Ventures, ATV (Advanced Technology Ventures), Kaiser Permanente Venture Group, New Leaf Partners and private investors.

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 GluMetrics’ Assets has been supplied by GluMetrics.  It has not been independently investigated or verified by Gerbsman Partners or its agents.

Potential purchasers should not rely on any information contained in this memorandum or provided by GluMetrics, or 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.

GluMetrics, Gerbsman Partners, and their respective staff, agents, and attorneys, (i) disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the truth, accuracy, and completeness 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 GluMetrics’ or Gerbsman Partners’ negligence or otherwise.

Any sale of the GluMetrics Assets will be made on an “as-is,” “where-is,” and “with all faults” basis, without any warranties, representations, or guarantees, either express or implied, of any kind, nature, or type whatsoever from, or on behalf of GluMetrics or Gerbsman Partners.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, GluMetrics and Gerbsman Partners and their respective staff, agents, and attorneys,  hereby expressly disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the condition of the GluMetrics Assets and any portions thereof, including, but not limited to, environmental conditions, compliance with any government regulations or requirements, the implied 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.  This memorandum and the information contained herein are subject to the non-disclosure agreement attached hereto as Exhibit A.

GluMetrics, Inc. is a medical technology company that has developed the patented GluCath® Intravascular Continuous Glucose Monitoring (IV-CGM) System (referred to as the“GluCath System”).  The system consists of (i) a fiber-optic based, single-use, disposable sensor that is inserted into either an artery or vein using standard vascular accesstechniques and (ii) a portable battery-powered monitor. The GluCath sensors leverage a proprietary chemistry which changes its fluorescence in proportion to the surrounding glucose concentration.

GluMetrics was focused initially on applying its proprietary technology to inpatient continuous glucose monitoring, a market that could exceed $1.4 billion globally, concentrating solelyon specific critically ill patient segments in the surgical, cardiac and medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Significant and successful clinical testing was completed using the first product embodiment in hospitalized, post surgical patients in the US and abroad. The impressive results of this data speak to a significantly de-risked core measurement engine. The Companybelieves that an additional $800 million of upside opportunities exist in the hospital by expanding from the initial core ICU market to general surgeries and the general ward.

With the first commercially viable non-enzymatic sensor technology, the Company also believes that it could exploit the existing outpatient continuous glucose monitoring marketconsisting of three million people with Type 1 diabetes and the need for improved sensor technologies to support safe and effective insulin pump therapy, including the elusive “closedloop” insulin delivery system. Healthy human volunteer studies in diabetics were also completed which helped further confirm the utility and performance of the measurement engine in subcutaneous placements.

GluMetrics believes its assets are attractive for a number of reasons:

Technology “De-risked” with Clinically Proven Success

GluMetrics has completed design, development and clinical testing of its continuous, real-time, non-consumptive, fluorescent glucose measurement technology, which included extensivein-vitro testing and design verification activities. The technology, successfully deployed in the hospital ICU setting, is easily inserted via an existing radial artery cannula, stable requiring only one calibration/day, with exceptional accuracy in the hypo- and euglycemic ranges.

The Technology is Applicable for Numerous Applications

The core chemistry, hydrogel and optical system are configurable for other applications, including CGM for the diabetic population. In addition, potential applications such as for bioreactors and other laboratory measurements are straightforward developments, based on the existing measurement engine.

The Intellectual Property Portfolio is Diverse and Impressive

Twenty-five (25) issued US Patients and Foreign Counterpatents cover the core technology with an additional Twenty-two (22) pending US or PCT patent applications, with Claims that are extremely broad and diverse covering both the intravascular and subcutaneous realms (see Appendix for details).

Well Documented, Repeatable Manufacturing and Quality Procedures

The GluMetrics dye-quencher chemistry, hydrogel and monitors have been manufactured under the Company’s Quality System. The processes incorporated have resulted in repeatable and reliable devices for the uses intended, and are thoroughly documented, including all product and raw materials specifications, manufacturing and inspection processes.

GluMetrics Company Profile and Funding History

GluMetrics, Inc. was incorporated on Jan. 1, 2005. Throughout the course of 2005, GluMetrics, Inc. raised just over $2.9M in series “A” and “AA” capital to fund recruitment, establish theOrange County, California headquarters and advance the development of the fundamental GluCath sensor chemistry.

In July 2006, GluMetrics purchased all assets, goodwill and intellectual property of TGC Research Ltd. from Diametrics Medical, Inc. (“Diametrics”).  All prior art, trade secrets andintellectual property (including seven issued patents still in force) relating to Diametrics’ previous fluorescence-based intravascular systems for blood constituent monitoring is nowexclusively owned by GluMetrics.  Following this transaction, TGC Research Ltd. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of GluMetrics, Inc.

Also in July 2006, the Company closed a $9M series “B” financing to further refine and validate the GluCath System in pre-clinical trials.  This series “B” round was co-led by VersantVentures (Newport Beach, CA) and Advanced Technology Ventures (Palo Alto, CA), with each firm participating at $4.5M.

In March 2008, GluMetrics secured a $3M venture debt financing through Silicon Valley Bank supporting operations through September/October of 2008.

In July 2008, the Company closed a $21M series “C” round financing to continue the development of the GluCath System and initiate clinical trials. This series “C” round was led by NewLeaf Venture Partners (Menlo Park, CA) with significant participation from series “B” investors.

In October 2010, GluMetrics secured $10M in bridge financing from existing investors to initiate clinical trials of an arterial sensor and support ongoing operations.

In March 2012, the Company secured $8M in new equity as part of a recapitalization.  These funds supported the expansion of clinical trials, including extended duration arterial andvenous deployments.

In January 2013, GluMetrics secured $5.6M in bridge financing from existing investors to complete its arterial and venous clinical trials through the second half of 2013.

Impact of Technology on the Market

The GluCath System is ideally positioned to become the clinician’s preferred solution to support glycemic measurement for both the in-hospital and diabetic markets for five primaryreasons:

1)      The GluMetrics fluorescent glucose sensing system is the first non-GOX sensor to be clinically validated in a meaningful multi-center trial with sub-10% MARD results.

2)      The ultimate flexibility and adaptability of the measurement engine will enable broad application across a diverse universe of clinical applications including hospital-based and diabetic patients.

3)      The GluCath sensor measures plasma glucose in flowing blood continuously and directly. Given the non-enzymatic method of measurement, the GluCath sensor is notsusceptible to the numerous interferences and limitations which have affected electrochemical sensors.

4)      The GluCath System is most accurate in the physiologic range where accuracy is paramount (i.e., in the euglycemic and hypoglycemic range).  Additionally, the GluCathSystem provides rapid user feedback on both directionality and rate of change.

5)      The GluCath monitor is configured in a portable, hand-held, battery powered format allowing for flexible and convenient monitoring across the continuum of care (i.e., Pre-op-OR-ICU-Step-Down-General Floor-Outpatient). The GluCath sensor is small enough to be inserted into the radial artery of the arm via a standard arterial catheter, while maintaining pressure monitoring and blood sampling capability.  The sensor can also be deployed directly into a vein using a splittable introducer, leaving only the sensorindwelling in the vessel. Alternatively, it is feasible to deploy the sensor through a central venous catheter or integrated into a novel vascular access device.

6)      The sensor physical size, optical path and chemistry are such that it can be configured for subcutaneous insertion and sensing

In contrast to the GluCath System, potentially competitive devices now known to be under development have significant disadvantages, including larger size, limited mobility, therequirement for unique flush/calibration solutions and greater user-complexity. Additionally, numerous physician interviews have described some of these competitive approaches asfundamentally lacking sufficient accuracy in the target range, algorithmically dropping points, missing glucose excursions, or being too slow to reflect changing blood glucose.

GluMetrics’ Assets

Scope Of GluMetrics’ Patent Coverage

In summary, GluMetrics has a strong patent portfolio, including 25 issued patents, 1 allowed and 21 pending patent applications, with priority in optical fiber-based equilibrium fluorescent glucose detection going back as early as December 2000, and patent terms extending past 2030.  Since licensing the core chemistry, GluMetrics has perfected its commercially valuable innovations in extensive patent filings.  Indeed, the GluMetrics’ patent portfolio creates a minefield for any competitor trying to commercialize an equilibrium, fluorescent glucose sensor, whether intravascular or subcutaneous, whether fluorescence lifetime or intensity, and whether critically ill or walking diabetic populations. (See Appendix for details)

In addition to the GluMetrics’ patent portfolio, the following are available:

·         Clinical and pre-clinical data

·         Design and test equipment used in the development and manufacture of the GluCath system

·         Product specifications, drawings, manufacturing, assembly and quality insurance documentation

·         Furniture, fixtures and tooling used to assemble and/or manufacture the system

·         Test procedures, reports and data supporting the system testing during design and development

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

The Sale of the GluMetrics Assets is being conducted pursuant to a Resolution of the Board of Directors of GluMetrics, Inc. for the liquidation and dissolution of the company which was approved by unanimous consent of the Board on January 23, 2014. GluMetrics expects the sale of the GluMetrics Assets to be completed without any further vote or action by GluMetrics’ stockholders.

GluMetrics, Inc. Key Personnel

William Markle, President and CEO

With a 30 year career in high-tech medical devices focusing on the Critical Care marketplace (Baxter, Edwards Life Sciences, American Hospital Supply), Mr. Markle has most recentlybeen a senior member of two well-funded and successful medical device start-up companies:  Tensys Medical and Masimo Corp.  Bringing an emphasis on understanding and definingkey customer requirements, operationally building and directing successful marketing, clinical support and direct sales teams, Mr. Markle has a strong record of both successful fund-raising and visionary leadership in multiple “customer-facing” disciplines.  A graduate of Duke University (BSME) and Pepperdine (MBA), Mr. Markle provides a current and real-worldperspective to the creation of shareholder value within the medical device sector.

Stuart L Gallant, VP, Product Development

Mr. Gallant has been in medical device development and management for over 41 years with extensive experience in the design, development and marketing of cardiovascular, patientmonitoring and vital signs devices and systems.  Initiating his career with Medtronic, he has subsequently been a successful medical device entrepreneur involved with creating,managing and developing four prior medical device start-ups, including significant experience with venture- capital financed enterprises, in senior management and Board positions.Coupled with his technical and management background and education (BSEE, MSBME, MBA), Mr. Gallant holds twenty US issued patents in medical devices and nationallyrecognized professional certifications in financial planning (CFP®, ChFC®).

Tricia Zubke, Controller

Ms. Zubke has over 20 years’ experience in accounting, human resources, information technology and all aspects of office management.  Prior to joining GluMetrics, Inc. in 2005, Ms. Zubke worked for a privately-held real estate development company and a recruiting firm specializing in human resources executives.  Ms. Zubke obtained a Bachelor’s degree in business management from Concordia University, Irvine and is a licensed California real estate broker.

GluMetrics, Inc. Outside Board of Directors

·         Mike Carusi, General Partner, Advanced Technology Ventures, Palo Alto,, CA

·         Charles Warden, Managing Director, Versant Ventures, Menlo Park, CA

·         Sam E. Brasch, Director, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Oakland, CA

·         John Alexander, Santa Cruz, CA

·         Tom Berryman, Laguna Beach, CA

The Bidding Process for Interested Buyers

Interested and qualified parties will be expected to sign a nondisclosure agreement (attached hereto as Exhibit A) to have access to key members of the management and intellectual capital teams and the due diligence “war room” documentation (the “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 an opportunity to inspect and examine the GluMetrics 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 GluMetrics, Inc., 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 neither GluMetrics nor Gerbsman Partners (or their respective, staff, agents, or attorneys) makes 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 GluMetrics Assets.  Sealed bids must be submitted so that the bid is actually received by Gerbsman Partners no later than March 7, 2014 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at GluMetrics’ office, located at 15375 Barranca Pkwy, Suite I-111, Irvine, CA  92618.  Please also email steve@gerbsmanpartners.com with any bid.

Bids should identify those assets being tendered for in a specific and identifiable way.  The attached GluMetrics fixed asset list may not be complete and Bidders interested in the GluMetrics Assets must submit a separate bid for such assets.  Be specific as to the assets desired.

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 where applicable.  All bids must be accompanied by a refundable deposit check in the amount of $250,000 (payable to GluMetrics, Inc.).  The winning bidder will be notified within 3 business days after the Bid Deadline.  Non-successful bidders will have their deposit returned to them.

GluMetrics 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 bid will be chosen as the winning bidder and bidders may not have the opportunity to improve their bids after submission.

GluMetrics will require the successful bidder to close within 7 business days.  Any or all of the assets of GluMetrics 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 GluMetrics Assets shall be the sole responsibility of the successful bidder and shall be paid to GluMetrics at the closing of each transaction.

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

Steven R. Gerbsman

(415) 456-0628

steve@gerbsmanpartners.com           

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San Francisco, January, 2014
The Black Swan Pushes Events to the Tipping Point-Maximizing Enterprise Value in the upcoming Crisis
This article was published by Steven R. Gerbsman and Robert Tillman in May, 2007.

Please read, enjoy and “be prepared”.

Best regards,
Steve Gerbsman

We are currently in one of the best economic times in our country’s history. The stock market is at all time highs, unemployment is at all-time lows, interest rates are low, money is plentiful and deal valuations are high and getting higher. There are, of course, many worrisome trends: terrorism, excessive government spending, trade deficits, high oil prices, immigration and over the longer term, such issues as an aging population and (possibly) global warming. Although problems and worries always exist, in historical terms, times are very good indeed.

The big questions for us as specialists in maximizing enterprise value are:

Will it end?

Yes. Of course. Even fundamentally healthy economies experience frequent and often violent corrections. The current world economy has evolved in many ways over the past decade. All large businesses are international. The primary economies of the world are very tightly linked together. Money is far more liquid and moves around the world with far less “friction” than it did in the past. The pace of technical change continues to increase. Nevertheless, we do not believe that the laws of history, and especially, the laws of human nature, have been repealed.

As always, “The more things change, the more that they remain the same.”

When will it end?

Unfortunately, no one knows the answer to this question. In historical terms, the current economic expansion has continued for a very long time and has survived numerous shocks, including war, a doubling of energy prices, natural disasters and localized economic downturns, such as the bursting of the sub-prime mortgage bubble. It appears to be “ripe” for a downturn. On the other hand, inherently unstable situations often persist for far longer than anyone could believe possible. During the 2000 Internet bubble, it seemed to us for quite some that the old rules of business no longer applied and that 25 year-old CEOs knew something us old guys did not know. When the crash occurred, we were relieved to find out that we were not so obsolete after all.

We did, however, underestimate the staying power of technically insolvent companies with broken or non-existent business models. Many of these companies had significant cash on the balance sheet (offset, of course, by significant liabilities) and investors who continued to infuse more cash far beyond the point of reason. Today, there exist immense pools of uncommitted cash, much of it in the hands of entities, such as private equity funds and hedge funds that are subject to minim al regulatory scrutiny and whose operations are obscured from the public view. In addition, the weakness of the dollar against both the Euro and the Pound Sterling makes U.S. assets a relative bargain. These factors tend to mitigate against an economic downturn. For how much longer they will continue to do so we do not know (and if we did know, we would certainly would not tell).

How will it end?

Fast, hard and unexpectedly. Two recent books shed a great deal of light on the process:

The first book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell describes how human behavior causes events to cascade rapidly once a certain critical mass (the “Tipping Point”) has been achieved. Examples in the business world include periodic economic “panics” and the spread of certain technologies and products, such as personal computers, iPods, cell phones, etc. It is very difficult to predict in advance when the “tipping point” in any situation will be reached, but history has shown that, once it has been reached, events proceed very quickly.

The second book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes how highly improbable, and hence unpredictable, events periodically create massive change. The title of the book derives from the observation that the existence of even a single black swan disproves the assertion that all swans are white. Historical examples include the Fall of France at the beginning of World War II, the rise of the Internet and 9/11.

There are many obvious candidates for a “black swan” event that pushes the world economy over “the tipping point” into a downturn – a war with Iran, a nuclear terrorist attack or a worldwide bird flu or small pox epidemic, but generally, it is what you do not see that gets you. We are fundamentally optimists about the long-term prospects of the world economy. In many highly measurable ways, the wor ld really is improving, driven by technological innovation, a lowering of barriers to trade and increasing economic integration. Nevertheless, we are old enough to have lived through many “bumps” along the road and know that such discontinuities will always occur. We believe that we will see a significant economic event sometime over the next 12-18 months, either localized to a particular sector or geographic region or globally.

Our Advice?

Before such an event occurs:

As a board member, investor or stakeholder:

1.  Implement tight cash flow, receivables and inventory reporting so that you are alerted to problems early.
2.  Focus on the control, preservation and forecasting of CASH on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.
3.  Require “bottoms up” forecasting for all aspects of revenue and expense. Have the CEO and CFO defend ALL numbers.
4.. Hold the CEO responsible and accountable for Performance. If you are off the business plan/forecast, re-forecast based on the reality of “what is” today.
5.  Communicate frequently with all parties at interest. Check that the CEO is providing leadership, motivation and morale to the management team and employees.
6.  Review all companies in your portfolio. Identify and define action plans to fix weaknesses now.
7.  Utilize professional resources to assist in maximizing enterprise value, when appropriate.
When such an event occurs:

Face up to reality and act quickly. When things are going bad, waiting seldom improves them. We have never seen a board of directors act too quickly when faced with a crisis. We have all too frequently seen a board act slowly or not at all.
Call for assistance early. The earlier professionals can get involv ed in the process, the better the potential outcome in maximizing enterprise value. Many times boards request assistance only after a company has run out of cash. Many more options exist to maximize enterprise value if a company has some running room.
About Gerbsman Partners

Gerbsman Partners focuses on maximizing enterprise value for stakeholders and shareholders in under-performing, under-capitalized and under-valued companies and their Intellectual Property. Since 2001, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in maximizing value for 79 technology, medical device, life science, digital marketing/social commerce and solar companies and their Intellectual Property and has restructured/terminated over $810 million of real estate executory contracts and equipment lease/sub-debt obligations. Since inception, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in over $ 2.3 billion of financings, restructurings and M&A transactions.

Gerbsman Partners has offices and strategic alliances in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Orange County, VA/DC, Europe and Israel.

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GERBSMAN PARTNERS
Phone: Cell: +1 415 505 4991
Email: steve@gerbsmanpartners.com
Web: www.gerbsmanpartners.com
BLOG of Intellectual Capital: blog.gerbsmanpartners.com

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San Francisco, October, 2013
Successful “Date Certain M&A” of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of digital marketing suites company, its Assets and Intellectual Property.
Steven R. Gerbsman, Principal of Gerbsman Partners, Kenneth Hardesty and James Skelton, members of Gerbsman Partners Board of Intellectual Capital, announced today their success in maximizing stakeholder value for a venture capital backed, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of digital marketing suites company, its Assets and Intellectual Property.

Gerbsman Partners provided Crisis Management and Investment Banking leadership, facilitated the sale of the business unit’s assets and its associated Intellectual Property. Due to market conditions, the board of directors made the strategic decision to maximize the value of the business unit and Intellectual Property. Gerbsman Partners provided leadership to the company with:

1.  Crisis Management and technology/digital marketing domain expertise in developing the strategic action plans for maximizing value of the business unit, Intellectual Property and assets;
2.  Proven domain expertise in maximizing the value of the business unit and Intellectual Property through a Gerbsman Partners targeted and proprietary “Date Certain M&A Process”;
3.  The ability to “Manage the Process” among potential Acquirers, Lawyers, Creditors Management, Advisors and the Receiver;
4.  Communicate with the Board of Directors, senior management, senior lender, creditors, vendors and all stakeholders in interest.
About Gerbsman Partners

Gerbsman Partners focuses on maximizing enterprise value for stakeholders and shareholders in under-performing, under-capitalized and under-valued companies and their Intellectual Property. Since 2001, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in maximizing value for 79 Technology, Life Science, Medical Device, Solar and Digital Marketing companies and their Intellectual Property and has restructured/terminated over $810 million of real estate executory contracts and equipment lease/sub-debt obligations. Since inception in 1980, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in over $2.3 billion of financings, restructurings and M&A transactions.

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

GERBSMAN PARTNERS
Phone: +1.415.456.0628, Cell: +1 415 505 4991
Email: steve@gerbsmanpartners.com
Web: www.gerbsmanpartners.com
BLOG of Intellectual Capital: blog.gerbsmanpartners.com

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SALE OF ASSETS OF OPTIFY INC.

Gerbsman Partners (http://gerbsmanpartners.com ) has been retained by Optify, Inc (“Optify”), (http://optify.net) to solicit interest for the acquisition of all or substantially all of Optify’s assets, including its Intellectual Property (“IP”), in whole or in part (collectively, the “Optify Assets”).

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Optify is a provider of a SaaS digital marketing suite, inclusive of both inbound marketing and marketing automation functionality, targeted at small to medium businesses and digital marketing agencies.

Optify Inc. is a privately held company.  Optify, founded in 2008, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.  To date, Optify has secured $10.8 million in equity financing.  The company’s Series A round was led by Madrona Venture Group, with Triangle Peak Partners leading the Series B round.  The company also raised $1.5 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank and an additional $2.0m in a convertible note from its two institutional investors.

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 the Optify Assets has been supplied by Optify and 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 (the “information”), as a statement, opinion, or representation of fact.  Please further note that all information provided herein relating to the operations of Optify’s business and its market positions relates to periods on or prior to August 31, 2013.  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, and completeness 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 Gerbsman Partners’ negligence or otherwise.

Any sale of the Optify Assets will be made on an “as-is,” “where-is,” and “with all faults” basis, without any warranties, representations, or guarantees, either express or implied, of any kind, nature, or type whatsoever from, or on behalf of, Gerbsman Partners.  Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, Gerbsman Partners, and their respective staff, agents, and attorneys, hereby expressly disclaim any and all implied warranties concerning the condition of the Optify Assets and any portions thereof, including, but not limited to, environmental conditions, compliance with any government regulations or requirements, the implied 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.  This memorandum and the information contained herein are subject to the non-disclosure agreement attached hereto in Exhibit A.

SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL INFORMATION[1]

Optify Inc. is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of a digital marketing suite for small to mid-size enterprises and digital marketing agencies.  Optify’s suite is very simple to use and thus accessible by a broad swath of less sophisticated marketers in smaller organizations.

In 2012, coinciding with the launch of its email marketing offering, the company shifted the business from primarily services-led SEO contracts with large enterprises (80% of the revenue in January 2012) to a transactional SaaS subscription revenue business with no attached services except training.  A new CEO started in May 2012 to drive the shift in go-to-market strategy.

For the 12 months beginning August 2012, the transactional SaaS subscription revenue has grown 141% to $160,000 of monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

The transactional SaaS distribution channel has been a direct telesales channel, which can be quickly replicated.  The company grew SaaS subscription revenue to agencies and businesses aggressively with a relatively young group of five telesales reps (average experience 2-4 years from college) at an average sales price of $650 MRR and a 25-day sales cycle via online demos and facilitated free trials.

The product strategy focused on a “simple and integrated” digital marketing suite to combine cross-channel marketing data in a single system without needing to log into multiple point solutions and/or merge spreadsheets constantly.

Optify’s digital marketing suite encompasses both “top-of-the-funnel” (inbound) and “mid-funnel” (marketing automation) functionality.
·       Inbound Marketing: The “top-of-the-funnel” areas of the product suite includes website tracking, persistence, and reporting of all website visitors and their historical behavior discretely for both anonymous and known visitors.  The inbound suite also includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools and an integrated Twitter workflow interface.
·       Marketing Automation: The company’s suite also includes a robust “mid-funnel” set of marketing automation tools including landing pages & forms; email marketing; simple marketing automation & automated form-fill response; and a best-in-class contact manager showing all historical interactions with a contact including website visits, form-fills, and emails.

The company is positioned to capitalize on several industry trends – the migration of direct marketers from offline to online; the increased emphasis on accountability and ROI which has fueled the growth of the digital marketing space; and the increased focus on targeting and segmentation.

Optify Inc. is a privately held company.  Optify, founded in 2008, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.  To date, Optify has secured $10.8 million in equity financing.  It’s Series A round was led by Madrona Venture Group, with Triangle Peak Partners leading the Series B round.  The company also raised $1.5 million in venture debt from Silicon Valley Bank and an additional $2.0m in a convertible note from its two institutional investors.

Target Market:

The product is applicable to any “generalist marketer” who works across channels each week (blog posts optimized for search, customer emails, social, reporting, etc.  This marketer is typically found in a 1-5 person marketing department of a small to mid-size business.

Given limited marketing resources and an ability to differentiate the brand in a tighter and higher leverage segment, Optify further narrowed it’s primary segment of focus to digital marketing agencies.  Every employee in a digital agency besides the controller fits the “generalist marketer” target user description.  According to Adobe publically available information, there are roughly 120,000 smaller digital marketing agencies in North America with that many again in Europe.

Optify’s product continues to be well suited to small to mid-size marketing departments of operating companies.  According to a 2012 Infotrends study, marketing automation for sub-500 person companies represents a $21 billion market opportunity.

Customers:

Optify has over 350 customers.  The customer base breaks down into two categories:
1.  Roughly 190 are digital marketing agencies utilizing the Optify suite to provide retainer-based services for its clients.
2.  The rest are small to mid-sized marketing departments of companies.

Optify’s customer base beyond digital marketing agencies represents a broad set of industries. The monthly MRR billing base of Optify is diverse, as no client represents over 10% of its accounts receivable balance.

Proprietary Digital Marketing Suite and Website Tracking – Intellectual Property:

Optify’s internally developed technology platform currently monitors traffic across more than 1750 websites.  Each visitor, either known or anonymous, is being persisted in a database with their respective visit histories.  The system is architected in a horizontally scalable manner so that additional virtual servers can be added as needed to support additional customers.

Optify vs. Google Analytics: Optify’s site tracking and analytics is well differentiated from industry standard Google Analytics (GA) due to the ability to track and record behavior of discrete visitors, where as GA only provides data in aggregate (how many visits to a page, total visitors, average time on site, etc).

Importantly, Optify’s site tracking is as easy to deploy GA, and therefore much simpler than other website monitoring/analytics solutions like Webtrends or Omniture.  Just like GA, a single java script snippet is required on each web page.  Most Optify customers have both Optify and GA java script snippets on their site.  Optify has also made it increasingly simple to deploy by creating single click installers of the java script for the most common industry content management systems – WordPress and Drupal.

SEO tools and backend: Optify’s backend systems are also running 150,000 – 200,000 keyword analyses per week, effectively imitating searches and scraping resulting search ranks. This large scale search imitation is accomplished via a 3rd party system called Anonymizer to spread the searches across thousands of IP addresses.  The results provide search ranks that are directionally accurate for businesses needing SEO trends and competitor information. Google is making a specific rank nearly impossible to nail down due to local search preferences, search history biasing, etc.

Optify’s email marketing is built on top of Exact Target (now Salesforce.com) plumbing for actually sending the emails.  The entire email marketing interface and user experience is within Optify, however, and the user never knows what plumbing is being used to actually send the email. Since Exact Target is the global standard for high delivery rates, having Exact Target as the Optify OEM email infrastructure provider has proven to be a positive differentiator in the market.

Cross channel data: Optify provides a suite to minimize the number of point solutions, multiple logins, and multiple data sources required to be used today by a generalist marketer.  Because the different feature groups are simple and integrated, the user can seamlessly filter, create lists, execute email campaigns, and run reports with cross-channel data.

An example of utilizing cross-channel data for a segmented list would be a saved list of all known visitors who filled out a certain website form, have opened a certain email, and whose company is in a given state.  This simple filtering would normally require data from 3 different systems (form tracking system, email system, contact management or D&B lookup) and would be far beyond the ability for a typical marketer to merge and execute on any routine basis.

Optify’s product suite contains the following feature groups segmented as either “top-of-the-funnel”  (inbound marketing) and “mid-funnel” (marketing automation) areas of the suite.

Top-of-the-funnel Inbound Marketing feature groups:

1.  Keywords: A tool for analyzing search keywords, checking existing ranks and rank trends over time, selecting competitor websites to compare ranks vs. competitors.
2.  Pages: A tool that can be pointed at any particular page, or many pages, on a site and check SEO rules for a specific keyword(s), what search engine optimization (SEO) opportunities exist for a given page, and an associated task list (H1 tag does not contain keyword, etc) to better optimize the page for SEO characteristics.  Pages uses an Optify-built site crawler which can crawl very complex or simple sites.
3.  Links: A listing of backlinks to a given website.
4.  Twitter for Business: A Twitter interface for sending out tweets and tracking them consistently for reporting purposes and comparison with other cross-channel data inside Optify.
5.  Reporting: A reporting tool with the ability to customize and save reports integrating cross-channel marketing data.
 
Mid-funnel Marketing Automation feature groups:

1.  Lead Intelligence: A summary of all website activity, including both known and anonymous visitors.
2.  Lead Scoring: A user-created score for leads in order to prioritize website traffic. Lead Scoring also sends a daily email of website visitor traffic prioritized or filtered by lead score. The “Daily Lead Mail” is opened by more than 25,000 unique users, many of them sales people, each month.
3.  Landing Pages: A landing page creation and deployment application containing 5 preset landing page templates with many configuration options as well as an iFrame form choice to embed in an existing landing page.
4.  Email: An email marketing section of the app to create emails from existing templates or by pasting in HTML directly.  All key email statistics are provided including opens, click-thrus, hard and soft bounces, etc.  Email can be sent to filtered lists using the same cross-channel filter data available in Contact Manager (see below).
5.  Marketing Automation: Automated response functionality is integrated directly into the “Email” module above. Dynamic, or automated, lists for immediate email responses are integrated into the Contact Manager’s filtering and segmentation tools (see below).
6.  Contact Manager: A best-in-class contact database with automated lookups to D&B and LinkedIn for additional information on each contact along with all historical cross-channel interactions with a contact across website visit history, email history, and previous form fills.
7.  Alerts: The ability to set alerts to individual users (often sales people) based on certain criteria such as company name, specific form completed, etc.

Admin tools: Optify’s administrative tools allow a system admin to move seamlessly between multiple sites with a single login.  This functionality is especially important for digital marketing agencies which manage many clients. These admin tools are highly differentiated against Hubspot and Infusionsoft, both of which were architected from the start to run in single instances against single sites.

FINANCIAL DATA IS PRESENTED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.  PAST PERFORMANCE MAY NOT BE INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.  THIS INFORMATION SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON TO MAKE FUTURE PERFORMANCE PROJECTIONS OF ANY KIND.  THE COMPANY DOES HAVE AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS THROUGH CALENDAR YEAR 2012 BASED ON AN AUDIT COMPLETED APRIL 2013. THESE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ARE AVAILABLE DURING DUE DILIGENCE AND SUBJECT TO AN NDA. (1)

Summary

1.  Strong SaaS Subscription Growth, High Gross Margins

2.  High Growth Industry – Fast growing segment of digital marketing, well-positioned to capitalize on major shifts in marketing strategies and media budget

3.  Mature and Award-winning SaaS Product Suite – Optify’s SaaS digital marketing suite provides a turn key lead generation and cross channel marketing suite, which broadly fits the needs of agencies as well as small to mid-size companies.

4.  Digital Marketing Agency Channel – More than 50% of Optify’s customer base is digital marketing agencies. They are a natural channel into the SMB segment for additional products or services.

5.  Diversified Customer Base with Low Concentration – Optify’s 350 SaaS subscription customers average $450 MRR.

6.  High Traffic B2B Website in Marketing Automation & Digital Marketing: Optify’s website received more than 15,000 unique visitors in July 2013.  Traffic grew more than 10% monthly in the past 2 quarters.

7.  Excellent Brand and Marketing Content within the digital agency space especially.  More than 50 proprietary white papers and other marketing content for lead generation and brand awareness.  Optify’s opted-in house list contains over 40,000 unique email addresses.                  The company twitter handle @optify has over 60,000 followers.

8.  Opportunity for Future Growth and Margin Improvement – The product can be sold through an alternate channel or into an existing customer base at scale.

9.  High Margin SaaS: Optify has been operating with SaaS gross margins in the 80-83% range the past 2 quarters.

The reasons why Optify’s assets are attractive are:

Optify has experienced strong growth of 141% during the past 12 months in its transactional SaaS subscription business.  This growth has been masked on the topline revenue due to a concurrent reduction in SEO services revenue since 2011 as that business become secondary in priority and the key consultants supporting those clients left the business.

Despite large SaaS subscription growth, recent working capital constraints and an overly leveraged balance sheet have created the opportunity for all or a portion of Optify’s assets to be sold.  The acquisition of these assets can enable the purchaser to realize significant short and long term value from the Optify assets as Optify maintains the ability to quickly scale within the context of sufficient working capital and a stronger balance sheet.

Robust SaaS Subscription Growth: Optify’s SaaS subscription revenue has increased 141% in the past 12 months with only 5 sales reps and a tight 25-day transactional sales cycle.  This success is due primarily to having an integrated product strategy in fast growing marketing with far too many point software solutions.

Market Position: The Company has a known brand and competes well with market leader Hubspot in providing a cross channel digital marketing suite for small and mid-sized businesses.  Optify established this position despite a small marketing team and very light marketing budget.  Optify’s position could very quickly be exploited via an existing go-to-market channel or larger installed base and moderate attach rate.

Proprietary Technology Platform and Simple, Proven Suite: Optify’s digital marketing suite is proven, and easy to use.  SaaS adoption has grown rapidly, with unique users logging in per week more than doubling in the past year, and the number of websites being tracked by Optify’s platform growing 164% during that same period.

Known Brand and Website Assets: Optify is a recognized brand name in digital marketing software.  The http://www.optify.net website receives more than 15,000 unique visitors per month.  Optify is known for high quality digital marketing content and studies, all of which are assets of ongoing value in terms of downloads, lead generation, and brand awareness.  Optify’s house list of marketers contains more than 40,000 opt-in names which recognize the Optify brand, as well as a Twitter handle with 60,000 digital marketing followers.

Diversified Customer Base: The Company has over 350 SaaS customers. More than half of these are digital marketing agencies, which provide a high leverage channel into the SMB market.  Optify’s other customers are engaged in a wide variety of primarily B2B industries. By establishing a broad customer base, the Company’s SaaS revenue is broadly diversified and not subject to large fluctuations based on changes at a few customers.

Digital Marketing Agency Channel: Optify possesses a critical mass of more than 180 digital marketing agencies in its customer base.  These agencies are a natural channel and point of leverage into the broad small to mid-sized business segment.  Nearly all paid media companies (search, retargeting, image advertising) are desiring access to this segment as either or both of an influencer channel or reseller.  Other software vendors also want access to this segment or an established brand like Optify in this channel.
 
Management Team at Optify (for information purposes only)[2]:

Rob Eleveld, CEO: Over 23 years of software sales, go-to-market, and management experience with proven success.  Previously, CEO of Shiftboard, a SaaS online scheduling business, and founder/CEO of Vykor, Inc, a provider of supply chain analytics and design-for-cost SaaS plus services solutions for heavy manufacturing.  Enterprise sales at Onyx Software (client-server CRM) and former submarine officer in the US Navy. MBA/MSE from Stanford and BA Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth.

Doug Wheeler, Chief Marketing Officer:  Over 25 years of experience in marketing from large public companies to startups. Previously CMO at Tappin (acquired by Globalscape), EVP Global Marketing for 3 years at DocuSign, EVP Marketing at Biopassword and Lockdown Networks.  Doug was the co-founder and CEO at ScriptRx.  He also held EVP of Corporate Marketing positions at both Citrix and Compaq. BS Computer Information Services from Purdue University and Executive Leadership program at Harvard Business School.

Chris Hundley, CTO: Started as VP Engineering in 2010, promoted to CTO overseeing engineering, product management, and customer support in 2012. Mr. Hundley was previously in Director of Engineering at Visible Technologies, also in the digital marketing space. He was a managing consultant at K2 Information Services and founder/president of Premiere, a development and system integration firm.  BS Computer Science from Minot State University.

Seeking a buyer of Optify’s assets
Optify’s Board of Directors is seeking a buyer of the Optify’s assets, in whole or in part.  Interested parties may bid on all or any part of Optify’s core technology, digital marketing content, pending patents, and customer contracts, enabling the purchaser to leverage Optify’s core technology, content, and customers and to obtain new sales, enhance revenue streams or accentuate or augment other software products.

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”). 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 Optify, Inc. 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 Optify, Inc. assets. Each sealed bid must be submitted so that it is received by Gerbsman Partners no later than Friday, October 4, 2013 at 3:00pm Pacific Time (the “Bid Deadline”) at Opitfy, Inc.’s office, located at 712 2nd Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98104.  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 Optify, Inc.).  The deposit should be wired to Optify, Inc.’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 Optify’s counsel.  Unsuccessful bidders will have their deposit returned to them within 3 business days of notification that they are an unsuccessful bidder.

Optify, Inc. 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.

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

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

Steven R. Gerbsman
steve@gerbsmanpartners.com 

James Skelton
jim@gerbsmanpartners.com

Kenneth Hardesty
ken@gerbsmanpartners.com

[2] THE BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CURRENT MANAGEMENT OF OPTIFY IS INCLUDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY.  ALTHOUGH THIS SALE IS BEING CONDUCTED WITH OPTIFY’S COOPERATION, THIS SALE IS STRICTLY AN ASSET SALE OFFERED BY OPTIFY’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS.  OPTIFY INC. HAS NO ARRANGEMENT PURSUANT TO WHICH BUYER OF THE OPTIFY ASSETS COULD BE ASSURED OF THE FUTURE SERVICES OF ANY OPTIFY OFFICERS OR EMPLOYEES.

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