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Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category

Interview with Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a good excerpt for Mercury News.

“One of the world’s pre-eminent venture capitalists, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, has picked winners like Flextronics, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, PayPal and Google by focusing on small teams or individuals that on first glance might appear to be unfundable. In a rare interview, Moritz spoke with the Mercury News about one of his latest long-shots, a call-center company founded in India, how he picks companies to back, and the silver lining in the financial meltdown. Following is an edited transcript.

Q How has the financial crisis reshaped the economy and affected the way you pick winners?

A I think tougher circumstances just serve to shine a brighter light on everything. The manner in which we pursue the business hasn’t changed.

Q Has it affected the way you view your portfolio companies?

A I think the managements of companies all across America understand that the sooner they don’t have to rely on the kindness of strangers to support their operations, the better off they are going to be. Again, I don’t think that is a startling new insight. It’s just when money is harder to get and credit is tight and investors are less giddy, I think companies and managements become much more disciplined. It means the people who start companies in times like these are people who are genuinely interested in starting companies. You have to be very determined to venture out into atmospheric circumstances like the ones that we’ve been through in the past nine months. Which means that the pretenders and posers and people who are really much more interested, if they are honest about it, in becoming rich than starting a company — those sorts of people will stay on the sidelines and wait for the weather to improve.”

Read the full interview by Elise Ackerman at at SiliconValley.com here.

Others covering this story: Reddit, Trading markets, MATR.

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Successful termination of “Prohibitive Executory Real Estate Contracts”

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Distressed IP, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Life Science, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Steven R. Gerbsman, Principal of Gerbsman Partners, announced today that Gerbsman Partners successfully terminated the executory real estate contracts for two US based life science companies. The venture capital backed companies, executed leases for space in Northern, California. Due to market conditions, both companies made a strategic decision to terminate its corporate space allocation. Faced with potential contingent liabilities in excess of $ 6 million, the companies retained Gerbsman Partners to assist them in the termination of their prohibitive executory real estate contract.

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. In the past 72 months, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in maximizing value for 52 Technology, Life Science and Medical Device companies and their Intellectual Property and has restructured/terminated over $780 million of real estate executory contracts and equipment lease/sub-debt obligations. Since inception, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in over $2.2 billion of financings, restructurings and M&A transactions.

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

For additional information please visit www.gerbsmanpartners.com

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Facebook accept investment, pull back IPO plans

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

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

Here is a story from Read Write Web.

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

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

It continues…

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

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

Zuckerberg commented this deal on the pressconference by saying…

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

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

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

Read the full article here.

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

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

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

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

The story is by way of Reuters.

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

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

The article concludes:

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

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

Read the full article here.

Others covering this story includes: Earth2Teach and Business Insider.

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Facebook Turns Down Funding at $8 Billion Valuation

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, FaceBook, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, Market research, Social Networks, Strategy, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Wireless 2.0, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I guess that the economic crisis only apply to some. Here is a report by way of Digital media Wire.

“Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook, the online social network with more than 200 million members, earlier this month turned down funding that would have valued the company at $8 billion, the blog TechCrunch reported on Tuesday, citing a source “with direct knowledge of the proposed transaction.” The company reportedly turned down the $200 million in proposed funding because of a stipulation that would have required it to give up a board seat, with founder Mark Zuckerberg intent on keeping control of the board, according to TechCrunch.

The blog also reported that “investors are now being told the company expects $550 million in 2009 revenue,” well above previous projections of up to $400 million”

Read the full article here.

Related article can be found here: TechCrunch, Blogrunner, Social Median, Seeking Alpha, Dintz,

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