Connie Loizos
Small-market investors might be decrying the ongoing dearth of small-market IPOs, but PE firms’ top assets have taken flight onto equities markets in 2011. According to newly-released, first quarter data from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, IPO proceeds in the first quarter of this year hit $12.4 billion. That’s the highest figure we’ve seen in the U.S. since the […]
When it comes to keeping track of and referring potential deals, some VCs will never give up their coffee meetings, phones, or good old-fashioned spreadsheets. But CapLinked, an eight-month-old platform startup based in Santa Monica, is betting that a younger generation of investors will want to use new tools that allow them to more easily exchange […]
As a little boy, Philip Kaplan, the serial entrepreneur long known as Pud, was “force fed” Ritalin. Kaplan says this with a laugh, but even today, the 35-year-old admits to having trouble focusing for too long on any one thing. “My wife says I’m like a kitten with a ball of yarn,” he shrugs. Kaplan’s […]
Recently, I asked a number of LPs the question: When VCs buy secondary shares in hot companies like Facebook and Twitter, why doesn't it infuriate them? After all, LPs have historically chosen to invest in VC because it is the only way to gain access to private companies with huge growth potential. The secondary market, on the other hand, provides the same capability to nearly anyone with enough zeros in their bank account. I also asked the LPs why they're willing to pay management fees for the service, when seemingly, they could invest in the companies directly.
I wound up writing a column on the topic, but I wasn't able to use much of the feedback of one very thoughtful and high-profile institutional LP, who asked not to be named. For readers interested in the perspective of the LP -- an investor in pretty much every so-called top-tier fund --here's what I was told:
Last week, the New York Times dropped quite a news bomb, reporting that General Electric, the country’s biggest corporation – the CEO of which heads President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness – paid nothing in U.S. taxes last year. Its worldwide profits were $14.2 billion, $5.1 billion of which came from its U.S. operations. Reported […]
Lou Kerner has dabbled in real estate, worked as a cable and satellite analyst at Goldman Sachs, and headed numerous companies, including two domain companies: the now defunct Tuvalu domain registrar dot.tv and WildSites. Yet Kerner has seemingly found the role he was born to play as the self-described “first social media analyst on Wall Street.”
He’s attracted quite an audience. Kerner has been quoted as an expert on social media valuations in the mainstream press, including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the L.A. Times, no fewer than 120 times so far this year. He’s also cited regularly in online properties such as Business Insider and has appeared on television numerous times. In fact, Bloomberg may give him his own weekly show.
“I’m building the Lou Kerner brand,” Kerner told me
Every once in a while, investors meaningfully innovate on how deals get done. Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi pulled it off a to stunning effect with their AngelList. Now, venture capitalist Ben Black is trying his hand at altering the early-stage investing landscape with a nascent project called Momentum Index, a list that tracks the strength of more […]
Peter Levine is heading back into the world of venture capital. Sort of. The operating executive-turned-VC-turned operating executive has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a venture partner, where he will be leading occasional investments and taking board seats. As part of the arrangement, Levine gets a salary and other “incentives” relating to the investments he shepherds; […]
After rumors swirled last week that Yahoo had sold social bookmarking property Delicious for $5 million, peHUB sources now suggest the buyer is the social discovery platform StumbleUpon. Asked for comment just now, StumbleUpon’s Mike Mazel said simply that “we are not commenting on the rumor,” the sort of non-denial that typically hints a deal could be announced imminently. […]
It’s become something of a bromide in Silicon Valley that pouring as much money into a relatively few break-out companies as quickly as possible is the only way to win in venture capital. In an interview with this reporter in 2009, Marc Andreessen made a strong case for this winner’s circle school of investment. He […]