Dan Primack
Maurice Gunderson is looking to become a roots investor. This is different from a seed investor or early-stage investor, since both of those refer to the age of prospective portfolio companies. What Gunderson wants to do is examine the root causes of an energy industry dilemma, so that the larger market can flourish in the […]
I have been a skeptic of venture capital involvement with podcasting companies since day one, even if day one wasn’t all that long ago. I just struggle to see venture-type ROI for most of these deals, unless they can be flipped before Yahoo, Google, etc. put down their tall glasses of content Kool-Aid. This isn’t to say that the […]
The buyouts market is expected to record its third-straight year of record-breaking deal volume, according to Q3 numbers released this week by Buyouts Magazine. The first three quarters of 2006 saw U.S. firms participate in a total of 770 control-stake deals valued at $181 billion in disclosed value (including leverage), compared to $198 billion for […]
Sevin Rosen Funds has indefinitely postponed fundraising for its tenth fund, which had been scheduled to hold a first close this week. This is being treated as big news in VC circles – particularly among the battering blogbobs – because SRF is not citing the typical excuses of partnership strife or fundraising difficulties (i.e., Mobius, […]
Cortina Systems yesterday announced that it had raised $132 million in fourth-round venture funding, in order to help finance its $115 million acquisition of Intel Corp.’s optical network components business. Since this is the third-largest VC deal of the year — following ClearWire and Cilion — a few notes are in order: I initially assumed that […]
It’s an age-old story: Entrepreneurs meet VCs. VCs fund entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs’ get washed out. VCs get sued by entrepreneurs. The latest chapter is being written by two co-founders of Rapt Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of price optimization and profitability management solutions. They are suing Rapt backers Accel Partners and Levensohn Venture Partners – plus […]
True Ventures has closed its inaugural fund with $155 million, which should prompt rejoicing from those still hung over from last week’s TechCrunch party (and from those unable to get an invite). The San Francisco-based firm was well oversubscribed from its $125 million target, and is among a burgeoning class of first-time fund managers focused […]
The extraordinarily-amicable divorce between Jeffrey Drazen and Sierra Ventures is in its final act, as Drazen’s new firm has closed its inaugural fund with $250 million. Named Bertram Capital, the firm will formally open on Sept. 5 and will focus on growth capital opportunities in the business services, tech, healthcare (non FDA-track) and industrial manufacturing […]
Last month, this space reported that HuffingtonPost.com was close to securing $5 million in VC funding. Yesterday came the official word, so it’s probably worth discussing further. I’ll be doing so in notes form, so as to avoid the requirements of competent cohesion: 1. For the uninitiated, HuffingtonPost.com is a multimedia website launched last year […]
Venture capital firms often change their investment strategies, whether it be in terms of industry focus, geographic focus or company stage focus or deal size. The basic VC fund structure, on the other hand, seems to be timeless. For the uninitiated, this typically means: (i) A certain amount committed capital; (ii) An annual management fee charged on committed […]