Lawrence Aragon
Javelin Venture Partners has closed on a second fund totaling $105 million, the San Francisco-based firm announced today. Javelin — headed by Managing Directors Noah Doyle and Jed Katz — says it expects the fund to back about 20 companies over three years in seed and Series A rounds ranging from $500,000 to $3 million. […]
What is Twitter worth? It was a simple question, but it produced no clear answer. A total of 101 people weighed in with their opinion in peHUB’s survey, which presented would-be respondents with a dozen valuation ranges. But no single range stood out above the others. Early on, voters were leaning toward a range of […]
The biggest winners in AOL’s purchase of Huffington Post for $315 million are Greycroft Partners and Softbank Capital, both of which will walk away with about $75 million, for an estimated return of 6x each, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of this blog).
Alan Patricof, co-founder of Greycroft, confirmed to peHUB that the firm will see a return of about 6x on its investment, but he said investment details from Thomson Reuters (see below) are incorrect. He declined to disclose detailed financial data.
Thomson Reuters reports that Huffington Post, a political news website, pulled in $35 million in venture funding over three rounds: a $5 million Series A valued at $22.84 million from Greycroft and Softbank in 2006; a $5 million Series B valued at $31.6 million from Greycroft, Softbank and the Pilot Group in 2007; and a $25 million Series C valued at $111.4 million from Greycroft, Softbank and Oakstone Venture Partners in 2008.
The great thing – and the bad thing – about the Internet is that we have all sorts of newfangled tools to measure things. But, as Albert Einstein once said, “Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts.” Which brings us to the latest list making the rounds: the […]
Am I the only one who was disappointed with LinkedIn's financials when it filed its S-1 today?
The first thing I did when I opened its S-1 was to look at the stock holdings of Reid Hoffman (pictured), its founder. Wow, I thought to myself, Hoffman owns about 19 million shares, making him the company’s largest shareholder, with a 21.4% stake. Assuming – conservatively, I thought – the stock goes to 100 bucks within six months, Hoffman is sitting on just under $2 billion. (Note that LinkedIn has not priced its shares yet.)
The company’s VC backers would also make a mint under my initial thinking, most notably Sequoia Capital, with 16.8 million shares, or an 18.9% stake; and Greylock Partners (where Hoffman is a general partner), with about 14 million shares, or a 15.8% stake. (Bessemer Partners holds about 4.6 million shares, or a 5.1% stake.) (See table below.)
Then I looked at LinkedIn’s financials and I felt deflated.
Emerging markets continue to be top of mind for both venture capitalists and private equity investors. In the January issue of Venture Capital Journal, we took a close look at four markets with increased VC/PE activity — the somewhat mature markets of China and India, as well as the new hot spots of Africa and […]
Bob Kagle tells Venture Capital Journal that he and Alex Balkanski won’t be managing general partners in Benchmark Capital’s seventh venture fund, confirming what VCJ suggested was the case yesterday. “I just want to have more flexibility than the role of a managing general partner would provide,” says Kagle, 55, who helped found Benchmark in […]
Two longtime Benchmark general partners, including one of its founding members – Bob Kagle, who led the firm’s massively successful investment in eBay – are not listed as “managing members of the general partner” in an SEC filing for the firm’s latest fund, suggesting that they are phasing out of Benchmark. PeHUB was the first […]
Well, it's actually a holiday video from Josh Kopelman and the gang over at First Round Capital. Clearly a lot of time and effort went into it -- even if it fell short on production values. If the VC thing doesn't work out for Kopelman, he might just have a future as a TV pitchman. One of the most amazing things about the video is the number of startups represented. Makes sense, given that First Round does seed investments, but it's quite impressive to see all of those founding teams in one place.
To see the video, click here.
Daily deals site Groupon Inc. has turned down an acquisition offer from Google Inc., as first reported by Chicago Breaking Business, which cited “two sources with direct knowledge of the situation.” AllThingsD was the first to report that the two companies were in discussions. Citing anonymous sources, Kara Swisher of AllThingsD reported that Google was […]