Luisa Beltran
David Cameron, the U.K.'s prime minister, has joined LinkedIn and Foursquare, according to a blog from the PM's office. The social media move is part of the PM's effort to "engage further with with citizens and businesses using digital communications." According to the blog, Downing Street will use LinkedIn to connect with people and businesses that the prime minster meets regarding UK business, enterprise and manufacturing.
The iPhone 4S, as expected, is a hot seller.
Today, people across the world lined up to buy the latest installment from Apple. The iPhone 4S went up for sale at 8 a.m. after setting pre-order records.
The release is the first since Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, passed away last week. In New York, fans created a memorial to jobs that included apples, flowers and photos, according to CNN (I was touched when some said that 4S stands for "for Steve"). Steve Wozniak, Apple's other co-founder, was first in line in Los Gatos, Calif., news reports said.
Quench said Wednesday that it has closed on roughly $30 million equity and debt financing. Existing investors such as Element Partners, Virgin Green Fund and Douglas Brown were joined by new backers ORIX Venture Finance, Advent-Morro Equity Partners, Potomac Energy Fund and The Pohlad Companies. Quench, based in King of Prussia, Pa., provides filtered water coolers in North America.
Comcast Venture has named Tina Warner head of communications based in San Francisco. Comcast Ventures is the VC affiliate of Comcast Corp.
Northern Light Venture Capital said Tuesday that it has closed its latest fund at $400 million in committed capital. NLVC, of Hong Kong, is a a China-focused venture capital firm. NLVC will continue its focus on information technology, consumer services and clean-technology opportunities, as well as expand its interest in China's healthcare sector.
Runa Capital Fund I L.P. is providing more capital to BigTime Software's Series A round of funding which totals $2.7 million. LTC Partners, Geneva Venture Investment Management, Hickory Grove and Howell Capital were initial subscribers. Big Time develops cloud-based productivity tools for professional services firms and licensed OEM partners.
As expected, third quarter VC-backed IPO results were dismal.
Only five VC-backed companies went public in third quarter, raising $442.9 million. This is down roughly 64% from the same time period in 2010 when 14 IPOs raised $1.2 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association.
In fact, Q3's results are the worst time period for VC-backed offerings since Q4 of 2009, when four IPOs totaled $349.3 million. Four of the IPOs--Tudou.com, Zillow, Tangoe, and Carbonite-- were in the IT sector, Thomson Reuters/NVCA said. Only Horizon Pharma, which raised $49.5 million in July, was the sole non-IT offering.
Summit Partners is expected to close its latest growth equity fund at $2.5 billion in a week, several sources say.
Boston-based Summit began fundraising for the fund in March with a $3 billion target. The firm decided to reduce the size of the pool long ago, one person says. Summit has enough dry powder from a current PE fund that it felt it had enough capital, the source says. An LP says that Summit's past performance has been strong.
However, one PE exec says Summit was seeing insufficient demand for the fund at $3 billion. Summit's last growth equity fund also raised $3 billion in 2005. The fund, Summit Partners Private Equity VII-A LP, has generated an IRR since inception of 1.3%, according to Sept. 30, 2010 data from CalSTRS.
Will Amazon’s new Kindle Fire “kill” the iPad?
Naw.
That’s the question we asked you this week. Amazon, on Wednesday, set the world on fire when it unveiled its long-awaited tablet. The Kindle Fire will run on a unique version of Google’s Android operating system but it doesn’t have all the nifty stuff that comes with the iPad. For example, it doesn’t have a camera and there are no cellular options, no built-in GPS and no Bluetooth. The software options are minimal and, at 7-inches tall, it’s smaller than an iPad.
But at $199 it’s mighty cheap. The iPad, with all its nifty gadgets, starts out at $499. Because of this, some are claiming the new tablet will be an "iPad killer."
The Psilos Group, a healthcare focused VC, is looking to raise $400 million with its latest fund, three sources say.
Psilos held a first close in December of roughly $50 million, one of the sources say. The target for fund IV is $450 million, that person says.
Founded in 1998, Psilos currently has $585 million under management. The firm's third fund, Psilos Group Partners III LP, raised $303 million in 2007.
Psilos, which has offices in New York, Corte Madera, Calif., and Santa Fe, N.M., invests in healthcare services, healthcare information technology and medical technology. The VC firm typically puts in from $8 million to $15 million per deal and expects to invest up to $20 million to $25 million over the life of an investment, according to the Psilos web site.