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Archive for the ‘Venture Capital’ Category

DoJ, FTC Will Review Merger Guidelines, Seek Public Input

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Investments, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is an interesting piece on mergerlaw from IT Business Edge.

“More frequently than not these days, when two companies operating in the same market space agree to merge or to engage in a strategic partnership, the U.S. Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission, or even both agencies, are going to want a closer look. Take Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, and the Microsoft-Yahoo agreement in the search arena, for instance. The agencies want to make sure the merger, acquisition or partnership is not going to have an anti-competitive effect on the market such that consumers will be adversely affected.

The number of these inquiries has risen, and will continue to rise in the next few years, I’d imagine, because the Obama Administration has pledged to get serious about antitrust violations. That pledge has garnered mixed reviews, especially in the tech industry, as you can see in this post by our Rob Enderle. I don’t have Rob’s years of experience watching these things unfold, but I don’t know that I would go to such extremes. Yes, the new administration appears to be taking a more hands-on approach in enforcing the law, but at least the agencies responsible are also evaluating whether the guidelines they use to do so are still up to par.

Last week, Compliance Week’s Melissa Klein Aguilar reported that the DoJ and the FTC are considering whether the guidance they use in evaluating the anti-competitive effects of proposed horizontal mergers and acquisitions need updating. To that end, they are asking the public to respond to a 20-question survey on the matter.”

Read the full article here.

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GE to invest in cleantech

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Investments, Venture Capital, Venturebeat, tagged , , , , on October 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a good piece from WSJ Online.

It’s well known as a major investor in wind- and solar-energy projects. But General Electric Co. also hopes its growing role as a venture capitalist will give it an edge in a broader spectrum of emerging green technologies.

Since its first investment, in lithium-ion battery maker A123Systems Inc. in January 2006, the venture-capital group at GE Energy Financial Services has put $160 million into a portfolio of 20 companies focused on renewable energy, power-grid and energy-efficiency improvements, and, to a lesser extent, advanced oil and gas technologies.

GE sees these later-stage, clean-energy start-ups as a way to get a sneak peek at emerging technologies. Through its venture arm, it also gets a piece of the ones it believes will be ahead of the pack in the global shift to a reduced-carbon economy.

Kevin Skillern, the VC group’s managing director, says it’s too early “to tell if we’ve turned one dollar into two or three dollars.” But at GE, there’s another key metric: technology. Mr. Skillern says GE is also interested in how the portfolio companies can help its businesses.

“This is a vehicle that provides our larger company with a window into what could be a $15 billion to $20 billion industry in emerging energy technologies,” he says.

Mr. Skillern, who grew up in Houston and worked for more than a decade in the oil industry, got his M.B.A. at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. He went back to the oil patch after he graduated, at a time when many of his classmates were pursuing Internet start-ups. But the seed of venture investing had been planted, and GE Energy Financial Services’ venture capital was the perfect new patch to let it grow.

We met with Mr. Skillern at GE Energy Financial Services’ offices in Stamford, Conn., to discuss how the large conglomerate is influencing the clean- technology industry through its venture investing. Excerpts from that conversation follow.”

Read the full article here.

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Venture Funding Up 17.5%, M&A Rebounds Even More

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some good news from TechCrunch.

“Last quarter, based on funding and M&A data we collect in CrunchBase, we signaled that we were cautiously optimistic about the rebound of the tech sector. Q2 trends were no worse than Q1 09: venture financings were up 20% and mergers & acquisitions held steady (excluding Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems) in comparison to Q1.

With another quarter of data under our belts, we’re feeling even better about the health of technology startups. The number of new startups, venture fundings and M&A are all on the rise. In addition to decent stats, there are lots of new tech products launching across diverse categories, coming from companies both great and small. The Layoff Tracker and Deadpool have quieted down in our sector. In short, we’re feeling like there’s a more rational and focused market for startups and tech.

Strategic M&A Is Back: 3x Q2 Levels

One of the strongest signals of the quarter was the resumption of activity in mergers and acquisitions. The acquisition market really rebounded in Q3 09 to over $45 billion from 231 deals, 3x greater than Q2’s $15 billion. We haven’t seen M&A activity at this level since Q2 08, which recorded 275 deals totaling $59 billion.

…

Most encouraging, acquirers are adding strategically to their businesses (Amazon-Zappos, Facebook-Friendfeed, Google-On2, Yahoo!-Xoopit, VMWare-Springsource, RIM-Torch Mobile, Intuit-Mint, etc.) Some acquirers are returning to the market with multiple strategic deals (Adobe, EMC, IBM, Thomson Reuters, Yahoo!, Google, etc.) Deal making was well distributed across business segments (consumer web, retail, mobile, advertising, enterprise, biotech, cleantech)”

Read the full article here.

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Sign o´times – Cisco leads tech M&A charge out of downturn

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some news from Reuters.

“NEW YORK (Reuters) – When it comes to Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) and dealmaking, the prevailing sentiment in Silicon Valley is: You can’t predict what Cisco will buy next, but you can see why it fits.

The world’s largest maker of corporate networking gear is known for its voracious dealmaking appetite, buying dozens of companies every year and digesting them quickly and efficiently to broaden its already wide-ranging business.

Cisco has led the tech industry’s charge out of the recession-induced lull in mergers and acquisitions, announcing two big deals in two weeks: wireless equipment maker Starent Networks (STAR.O) for $2.9 billion and Norwegian video conferencing maker Tandberg for $3 billion.

Analysts expect the San Jose, California-based company, which ended the last quarter with a cash balance of $34 billion, to keep up the dealmaking pace, especially now that some stability has returned to financial markets.

“The ability to expand in markets where we have been strong clearly has been a big part of what we’ve done in the past,” Hilton Romanski, Cisco’s vice president of corporate development, said in an interview on Tuesday.

“But the other major element is new market entry,” said Romanski, a former JPMorgan (JPM.N) banker who joined Cisco in 2000 and runs its global acquisition and venture investment strategy.

Cisco, which was founded in 1984, has spent about $56 billion on 174 deals so far, according to Thomson Reuters data. Along with its in-house team, Cisco occasionally uses a range of outside financial advisers, from Barclays PLC (BARC.L) to Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N).

Many of the acquisitions were start-ups or private companies with assets that bolster Cisco’s core business of making switches and routers that direct computer traffic.

But as the networking business has matured, Cisco has forayed into several new interconnected markets, such as Web-based video conferencing and online video.”

Read the full article here.

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Venture Capital Fund Raising Hits A Six Year Low

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Investments, National Venture Capital Association, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is some not-so-exciting news from Businessinsider.

“The third quarter was rough for VCs, with 17 firms raising just $1.6 billion. That’s the fewest firms to raise money since 1994, and it’s the smallest amount of money raised since Q1 2003, says the NVCA and Thomson Reuters.

It’s an 81% drop from a year ago, and a second quarter of declines.

There were three big raises–Andreessen Horowitz with $58.5 million, Vinod Khosla’s fund raised $750 million, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson raised $196 million. Without those funds, it would be a nightmare.”

Read the full article here.

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