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Posts Tagged ‘restructuring’

Restructuring provides a new start

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a interesting article posted at WSJ Venture Dispatch.

“Wallenstein, one of the first four employees and former vice president of sales at Recordant, a provider of sales analytics technology, said he purchased the company’s patents, software and trademarks at a bankruptcy auction last month for $1,000.”

The article continues…

“Recordant took in $12 million in venture capital before filing for bankruptcy in February. It raised $3 million in Series A financing from Kodiak Venture Partners in 2005 and 2006, followed by a $9 million Series B round led by FirstMark Capital, which was then called Pequot Ventures. Aurora Funds also participated in the later round.

Recordant sold a device, about the size of a small iPod, that could be worn by sales and customer service representatives to record their interactions with customers. The company also sold software to perform analytics to help its customers identify key words associated with a sale.

Founded in 2003, with its first products on the market in 2006, Recordant focused on retail, automotive, banking and hospitality industries. It fell victim to longer-than-expected sales cycles that became too much to bear when the economic crisis hit, and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February.”

With no plans to raise money the company stands a good chance to run on a bootstrap.

“After extensive use of Recordant’s products by the U.S. National Guard, the U.S. Army had a contract to put the technology to use in their recruiting centers, but that fell through when the banking crisis hit, May said. It was also set to follow up a pilot program with an undisclosed insurance company to put the technology in 10,000 of its offices, he said. That company later declared a $1 billion loss, putting the project on hold indefinitely, he said.

May still remains confident about the potential of the business. “Somebody is going to do this someday, because there is a need for it,” he said. “We saw and heard things that were absolutely amazing in good ways and bad.”

Read the full article here.

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Crisis provide opportunity for “Angels”

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Investments, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , on May 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Here is a excerpt from San fernando Business Journal, that provides som good news.

“We’re seeing at least a 50 percent increase in deals choosing us over VCs for various reasons,” says John Dilts, founder and president of Maverick Angels in Westlake Village. The group has 25 members who screen and invest in companies monthly.

The economy has forced many VCs to slow their investment pace and focus on existing companies that are not able to exit their portfolios because of the shuttered IPO window and weak acquisitions market, said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, in the MoneyTree Report.

While many angels remain cautious, the downturn has resulted in higher quality entrepreneurs looking for early stage capital, says Dilts. Some have raised previous rounds of capital and developed their companies to the point of generating revenue.

Company valuations have also dropped, which is an appealing point of entry for angels. “As angels we’re seeing higher quality deals and lower valuations,” says Dilts. “We fill a unique void in the emerging growth finance universe. We provide speculative capital.”

Read the full article here.

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As founders step down, MySpace face big challenges

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, FaceBook, Social Networks, Web 2.0, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 23, 2009| 1 Comment »

Widely covered, this story may actually indicate something big – Social Networking sites are in for some changes. The big buy out may be the goal for many, but is likely to provide stagnation or decline.  While Facebook has grp1-ap606_myspac_ns_20090423002610own rapidly the last few years, MySpace have stagnated.

Here are some good tidbits from Wall Street Journals coverage.

“People familiar with the situation said News Corp., was completing a deal to name former Facebook Chief Operating Officer Owen Van Natta as chief executive to succeed Mr. DeWolfe. He would report to Jon Miller, the former AOL chief executive who was recruited to join News Corp. this month in a newly created position of chief digital officer. Charged with all News Corp.’s stand-alone digital properties, he was particularly given the mission of shoring up MySpace.”

“More broadly, MySpace, like other social-networking sites, still must overcome doubts about the medium’s viability. Advertisers, for one, remain leery. “Advertising doesn’t fit so neatly into a conversation that people are having among themselves,” says Tom Bedecarre, chief executive of independent digital-ad firm AKQA. “The interruptive model of advertising hasn’t been successful.””

“Three top MySpace executives, including Amit Kapur, former chief operating officer, left the company in March to work on a start-up. MySpace has yet to name successors for those positions. Mr. Miller began discussing the job with potential candidates including Mr. Van Natta, but hadn’t finalized anything when the news of the talks leaked, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Van Natta helped expand Facebook but stepped into a less prominent role as chief revenue officer as the site grew, ultimately leaving the company in February 2008. At MySpace, he could serve as a bridge between Silicon Valley and MySpace, which has struggled to match Facebook’s technology prowess. Hearing of the talks, Mr. DeWolfe offered to resign, these people said.”

Its most often not a pretty site when things hit the fan. As far as MySpace goes, one may only wonder if the corporate culture of News Corp. will be able to uphold the indie status that draw traffic in the first place.

Read the full WSJ Online article here.

Comprehensive coverage can be found at these sites: Stephen Laughlin, Tech Blorge , SoCal Tech ,

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Successful Date Certain M&A of “Business Unit and Intellectual Property”

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Distressed Intellectual Property, Distressed IP, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , on April 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Steven R. Gerbsman, Principal of Gerbsman Partners, Kenneth Hardesty and Dennis Sholl, members of Gerbsman Partners Board of Intellectual Capital, announced today their success in maximizing stakeholder value for a venture capital backed medical device company that developed a new minimally-invasive treatment option for patients with emphysema.

Gerbsman Partners provided Crisis Management leadership, facilitated the sale of the business unit, associated Intellectual Property and assets and recovered receivables. Due to market conditions, the senior lender and 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:

  • Crisis Management and medical device expertise in developing the strategic action plans for maximizing value of the business unit, Intellectual Property and assets;
  • Proven domain expertise in maximizing the value of the business unit and Intellectual Property through a targeted and proprietary “Date Certain M&A Process”;
  • The ability to “Manage the Process” among potential Acquirers, Lawyers, Creditors Management and Advisors;
  • The proven ability to “Drive” toward successful closure for all parties at 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 52 Technology, Life Science and Medical Device companies and their Intellectual Property and has restructured/terminated over $770 million of real estate executory contracts and equipment lease/sub-debt obligations. Since inception in 1980, 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, San Francisco, Europe and Israel.

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More Tech Start-Ups Call It Quits

Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, boic, Business models, Distressed Intellectual Property, Distressed IP, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Strategy, Venture Capital, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

mk-au416_shutdo_ns_20090211185403WSJ reports: As Funding Dries Up, Fledgling Silicon Valley Firms Are Shutting Down; Fears of Chill on Innovation

“Many start-ups survived last year by slashing costs and deferring development projects. But as demand for their products continues to deteriorate and funding dries up, these young firms are now running out of lifelines. Many are calling it quits, recalling the dot-com bust earlier this decade.

…

Venture capitalists pulled back sharply in the fourth quarter as credit markets seized and stock markets collapsed. Venture capitalists invested $5.54 billion in U.S. start-ups in the fourth quarter, 27% less than the third quarter, according to data compiled by VentureSource.”

Another excellent take on the same theme is Stacey Higginbotham´s analysis at GigaOm:

“The crisis in the financial market is coming home to roost for startups of all kinds. Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article detailing the death or firesale of several startups in the last few weeks. It’s grim, but this is only the beginning for many venture-backed companies, as we reported back in October. Over the next few months, we’ll see continuing news of businesses giving up the ghost as their venture backers take a hard look at upcoming cash needs and decide to prune.

…

Venture capital is a cyclical business that follows the fate of the stock market, so it depends on where a startup is as the cycle turns from boom to bust. Unfortunately, many of these unlucky startups are getting crushed under the wheel as it rolls through the downturn. Right now is a good time to work on an idea, but a bad time to be selling things.

However, innovation won’t just stop.VCs are still making selective investments in early stage startups at newly reasonable valuations, hoping those deals are ripe by the time the economy reaches the next boom.”

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 60 months, Gerbsman Partners has been involved in maximizing value for 51 Technology, Life Science and Medical Device companies and their Intellectual Property and has restructured/terminated over $770 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, San Francisco, Europe and Israel.

For more information on Gerbsman Partners, please visit our website at www.gerbsmanpartners.com

By way of Stacey Higginbotham article at GigaOM. For the full WSJ article, please click here

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