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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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Hopes of bailout stall investments in cleantech

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a worrying story in regards to investments in the cleantech sector. As the bailout programs makes their way around unfit companies, cleantech investments have taken a dive.

One may think that boards and investors are looking to cash in on this crisis before orivate equity is put up. Here is  some quotes from a IBT article posted this week.

“Cleantech companies received less than half venture capital (VC) investments in the first quarter of 2009 than they did a year ago, but the industry looks forward for government funds for recovery, according to industry analysts.

During the period through March, venture capitalists invested in 24 clean energy deals raising $227 million, a decline of 63 percent in capital and 48 percent in terms of deals compared to the same period of 2008, according to an Ernst & Young LLP analysis.

“Despite the intense challenges of raising capital during the past four months, government initiatives and corporate commitments are points of light for cleantech companies,” said Joseph A. Muscat, Americas Director of Cleantech, Ernst & Young LLP.”

A quite possible reason for this might be the government plan of putting the TARP funds to use in this sector as well.

“Government funding from the U.S. stimulus package is expected to pour more than $100 billion dollars in direct spending, loan guarantees and incentives into cleantech in energy, water and environment, Ernst & Young noted.”

Read the full article here.

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Obama Declares War on Capital

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 4, 2009| 1 Comment »

Here is some interesting viewpoints from NationalReview.

“Obama’s first 100 days have occasioned a number of dispiriting moments, but yesterday’s attack on Chrysler’s bondholders represented a new low. In a speech announcing the company’s bankruptcy filing, President Obama blasted “a group of investment firms and hedge funds [that] decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” That is nothing short of a lie. The consortium wasn’t holding out for a bailout. It was holding out for a bankruptcy. The administration tried desperately to keep Chrysler out of bankruptcy court; in the process, it demonstrated exactly why that institution is so valuable.

Obama’s auto task force attempted to browbeat Chrysler’s creditors into taking a terrible deal in order to spare the United Auto Workers union as much pain as possible. The large banks, which owe their continued existence to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), caved and agreed to take a massive haircut on their secured Chrysler debt. But a group of smaller firms, calling themselves “The Committee of Chrysler Non-TARP lenders,” refused to play ball.”

And it continues:

For resisting this expropriation and following the law, the non-TARP lenders were publicly denounced as vicious Benedict Arnolds by a sitting American president. “I stand with Chrysler’s employees and their families and communities,” Obama said — not “those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices.” He stands, he said, “with the millions of Americans who own and want to buy Chrysler cars.” If millions of Americans wanted to buy Chrysler cars, the company wouldn’t need the president of the United States to be its pitchman.

Liberals took their cue from the president and immediately denounced the holdouts as “vultures,” too consumed with greed to think of the national interest. But the law compels these firms to act in their shareholders’ interest. Bank of America’s Ken Lewis ignored this responsibility and paid the price. Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke all but forced Lewis to go ahead with the acquisition of Merrill Lynch even after he learned that the firm was in deep trouble. Lewis finally broke his silence this month, and Bank of America’s shareholders promptly stripped him of his chairmanship.”

Read the full article here.

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The end of doom and gloom?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 30, 2009| 1 Comment »

Here is an interesting editorial by way of The Deal and David Broadwin, Foley Hoag.

“I like my doom and gloom as much as the next guy, but a whole year of unrelenting morbidity in the venture capital industry may be overdoing it just a wee bit. In some way, Sequoia Capital‘s famous “RIP Good Times” slide deck set the venture community off into a deep funk. How else to respond to the gravestone warnings to portfolio companies that they brace for a protracted slump, eliminate all but the most vital costs and learn to live without follow-on financings.

No less encouraging was the photo of a pig’s carcass with a butcher’s knife embedded into the animal’s fatty side.

Of course, there were many economic factors that were merely reflected in those slides. The lack of good exits (just five or six venture-backed initial public offerings for all of 2008), coupled with the steep drop in M&A activity and complete shut-down of the credit markets, significantly chilled investment activity, a frost that continues.”

To read the full article, click here.

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Invesco and Wilbur Ross Group to Purchase $1 Billion in Distressed Assets

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a short piece by way of Smarttrend.

“Invesco (NYSE:IVZ) and billionaire Wilbur Ross are leading a group of investors committing to purchase $1 billion in troubled bank assets through the government’s Public-Private Investment Program. In addition to Invesco and WL Ross (Ross’ investment fund), partners will include the LeFrak Organization, Assured Guaranty Ltd (NYSE:AGO), American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc, Muriel Siebert & Co, Williams Capital Group and Jackson Securities. On Monday Invesco CEO Martin Flanagan said, “The Public-Private Investment Program will help stimulate the mortgage market and provide individual and institutional investors globally with compelling investment opportunities in the legacy securities and legacy loan programs.”

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