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Posts Tagged ‘IPO news’

Greylock Bats off Market Concerns, Calls Pandora an IPO Candidate

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, IPO news, Market research, tagged , , , , , , , on April 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Here is some Techcrunch news.

“Last week we invited Greylock’s David Sze and Reid Hoffman into the studio for a chat about the state of the venture market, with its odd mix of soaring valuations and horrible returns. As it turned out, these two might be the worst guys in Silicon Valley to ask. I don’t say that because they refuse to pay up to be in good companies. (See Sze’s 2006 investment in Facebook—considered shocking at the time due to the company’s $500 million valuation, now considered one of the top trades in Web 2.0 history.) I say that because their portfolio doesn’t seem to be hurting.

We’ll be posting the full interview soon, but first here’s a sneak peak, including this bold statement from Sze about the funds the firm has been investing over the last five-to-seven years: “We think those will be our best funds ever.” Ever? That’s a claim I can’t imagine many Silicon Valley firms making—especially those that were in business during the late 1990s when nearly anything could go public.

Later in the video below, Sze noted that Greylock had three of the five potential blockbuster Web IPO candidates on most bankers’ and analysts’ short list: Facebook, LinkedIn and Pandora. As you can see in the video that last one caught Arrington by surprise and with good reason: A little more than a year ago Pandora was still on deathwatch. We knew it was profitable but, if it’s being bandied about as an IPO-hopeful, things may be even better than people realize. The good thing about being the only online music company to live long enough to go public is you don’t have a ton of competition.”

Read the full article here.

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Tech IPOs filed so far have shades of dot-com bubble

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

Here is some IPO news from Marketwatch.

After recent optimistic comments about an upcoming rebound in technology initial public offerings by several Silicon Valley venture capitalists and investment bankers, I decided to see if the reality lived up to the hype — and hope — and trolled through several regulatory filings to see what technology companies are in the queue to go public.

Last week, wheeler dealers at the Venture Summit Silicon Valley conference said there were a slew of technology companies working on S1 filings, the core regulatory document for an IPO. At least 50 venture-backed companies could seek to go public next year, possibly as high as 100, dealmakers said. See column on venture capitalists’ optimism here.

“It’s certainly going to start a lot more robust than 2009, which was completely dead,” said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner of the IPO Boutique. “The last three months of 2009, though, have been quite busy.”

Currently, though, it’s a rather motley crew of tech companies that have filed S1s to go public, and nothing yet that might have the buzz — or shall we say hype — of some of the widely-anticipated Silicon Valley names like Facebook, Zynga, or Tesla Motors.

That said, many look to be solid citizens, with revenue growth and earnings, but some firms are still losing money, not exactly an example of the new, improved IPO. Sweet said two tech IPO names that have the most chatter in this batch are Calix Networks Inc. and Fabrinet, both of which were founded during — and survived — the dot-com bubble and bust.

Calix Networks develops broadband access equipment for network service providers. Revenue jumped in 2008 to $250.5 million, up from $193.8 million in 2007. It’s still losing money and lost $17 million in 2008, an improvement from its loss of $26 million in 2007. Founded during the boom in August, 1999, Calix is based in Petaluma, Calif., a farming area north of San Francisco, dubbed Telecom Valley, a once fertile area for telecom startups as well. Earlier this year, it raised $100 million in additional venture.

Fabrinet was also founded in August 1999 and started operating in January 2000. Its corporate headquarters are in the Cayman Islands. It offers contract manufacturing services for developers of optical communications components, one of the most-hyped hardware areas of the late ’90s. Fabrinet designs and makes products like application-specific crystals, prisms, mirrors and laser components for six of the ten largest optical communications components companies worldwide.”

Read the full article here.

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IPO VIEW-Tech deals lead IPO recovery

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Investments, IPO news, Market research, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here are some interesting stats on IPO´s from Forbes.

“More technology companies went public this year despite a world economy still trying to find its footing, and that is a good sign the pace of tech initial public offerings might accelerate in 2010.

Ten tech companies have gone public so far this year, raising $3.8 billion. In 2008, there were three offerings that raised $749.2 million, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Tech deals account for the biggest number of IPOs so far this year and are second only to finance deals in value.

‘We’ve been expecting an uptick in technology because it has really been underrepresented in the market over the last few years,’ said Paul Bard, a research analyst at Connecticut-based Renaissance Capital.

There could be 40 to 50 tech IPOs next year, raising $4 or $5 billion, Bard said.

Tech IPOs did well in 2007, but nearly shut down when financial markets collapsed last year. Getting more small, high-growth tech companies into the IPO mix would be a major engine for jobs and a boon for investors, analysts said.

‘If they’re done right, tech IPOs historically have had the greatest increase in revenues and profits of all IPOs,’ said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique.

Three technology companies filed for IPOs this week.

Netherlands-based Sensata Technologies Holding B.V. on Wednesday filed an offering worth up to $500 million. The firm, whose customers include BMW, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Samsung, makes sensors and other industrial technology.

Chipmaker Telegent Systems Inc filed for a deal worth as much as $250 million, and software maker RedPrairie Holding Inc said it would try to raise $172.5 million in its IPO.

‘There is an enormous amount of capital on the sidelines right now, in mutual funds and hedge funds, looking to make high-return investments as they would find in technology IPOs,’ said America’s Growth Capital Chief Executive Ben Howe.

Howe warned that investors have become more cautious and companies without strong balance sheets could meet a lukewarm response. A good idea used to be enough for a tech company to go public, he said, but the financial crisis has changed that.

Sensata, which filed for the largest IPO this week, posted revenues of $796.9 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30, down 31 percent from $1.2 billion a year ago. In the same period it narrowed its net loss to $41.6 million from $82.3 million.”

Read the full article here.

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Cleaning House Before Its IPO Will Cost AOL $200 Million And Up To 1,000 Jobs

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, IPO news, Market research, Technology, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on November 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

As AOL prepares to spin off from Time Warner in an IPO, it wants to gussy itself up so that it looks as appealing as possible tp ublic investors. Today, AOL disclosed that it plans yet another restructuring which could cost as much as $200 million. The biggest cost savings from any restructuring is usually through layoffs, and the latest round has already started at AOL, with 100 let go this week and as many as 1,000 of its 6,000 jobs at risk of being eliminated.

Despite new leadership under CEO Tim Armstrong, AOL has yet to turn around financially.  Last quarter, revenues sank 23 percent to $777 million.  The biggest drop came from subscription revenues to its legacy Internet access business, down 29 percent, but advertising revenues also took a hit, down 18 percent.  AOL depends on display advertising, which has not yet rebounded like search advertising appears to be doing.

By cleaning up house and removing as many costs as possible before the IPO, Armstrong is trying to make AOL as lean as possible. But eliminating salaries and benefits can only go so far. He has to show that his new content strategy can create actual growth as well.

Article @TechCrunch

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A123’s IPO Already Bringing Hope to Other Cleantech Startups

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on September 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a cleantech story by way of Bnet.

“Hours ahead of battery maker A123 Systems‘ initial public offering, optimism is already running high that the company will crack open a stagnant market and convince investors that they should also buy into other stock offerings.

A123 made an 11th-hour call yesterday to raise the price its opening price by 23 percent, to a range of $10 to $11.50. If the company gets traction it will bring in about $250 million. That’s not bad, for a firm that lost $40.7 million in the first half of the year. Its revenue was only slightly higher, at $42.9 million.

But A123 is well positioned. It started off selling batteries into the power tool market. That led to electric cars — which are not yet common on the road, by any means. The expectation is that electric vehicles will multiply rapidly in coming years; even if they don’t, A123 is also starting to make batteries for utilities, to store excess capacity from solar or wind power farms.

Battery technology also takes a long time to perfect, meaning newer competitors could take years to catch up to A123, offering some stability. So as startups go, it’s a good company to attract attention from the stock markets during a protracted downturn. The question is whether others can follow in A123’s footsteps.

I’d say “yes”, and here’s why: Investors seem to be wising up to what actually works in cleantech. When A123 first filed for an IPO last year, it was in a group of other renewable energy companies, including Imperium Renewables, a biodiesel maker. That company burned through a massive amount of cash very quickly, and is now in no position to have an IPO, or do much of anything else.

Ditto for dozens of other biofuel companies, including corn ethanol busts that did go public, like Verasun and Pacific Ethanol. But, as with the internet boom, all this simply meant that investors were still getting their bearings. It wasn’t yet evident which areas of cleantech would make for the best bets.”

Read the full story here.

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