Luisa Beltran
Triago, the global placement agent, is out with its quarterly report.
The publication is usually good for some noteworthy finds. This time, Triago doesn't fall short.
Deal multiples, which were up in 2010, may top out or decline going forward if the economy doesn’t improve, Triago said. Current high multiples (large corporate buyouts were going for an average of 9.1X EBITDA in third quarter, according to S&P LCD) are being fed by GP's belief that profit levels will rise as the economy rebounds. But a near record amount of dry powder--$433 billion for buyouts as of February—and GP’s strong incentive to invest may also be driving up competition for assets, Triago said.
There’s a lot of snarky tweets this morning about AOL’s planned $315 million buy of the Huffington Post.
“You know what always works out spectacularly well? Flashy mergers of two large media entities”
“HuffPo, the Florida Marlins of blogs, bought by AOL, the Chicago Cubs of mergers."
“Not to be outdone by AOL/Huffington Post combo, Drudge Report announces its merger with the phone book & Miss Pac Man.”
Deal making and refinancings are off to a very strong start this year. January posted the fastest month in mergers since 2000, according to Dealbook, citing data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). Globally, M&A rose 69% to $309.6 billion in January from the same period a year earlier, DealBook reported. In the United States, […]
Brian Morfitt was promoted to partner of Frazier Healthcare's growth equity team. Ben Magnano was also named a principal with Frazier's growth equity team, according to a statement Wednesday. Frazier, with offices in Seattle and Menlo Park, Calif., provides growth equity and VC funding to healthcare companies.
SolidFire, an Atlanta-based cloud computing storage platform, said Wednesday that it has closed an $11 million round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates. Valhalla Partners and Novak Biddle Venture Partners participating, current investors in SolidFire, also participated.
Seattle Bank said Monday that it has received a more than $50 million investment from local entrepreneurs and VCs. J.D. Delafield, the chairman, CEO and president of Delafield and Hambrecht Investors, led the $50 million round. Other investors include: Nicolas Hanauer, a partner with Second Avenue Partners; Rich Barton, the founder of Expedia and co-founder of Zillow; and, McCaw Cellular's John McCaw. Seattle Bank, the parent of Seattle Escrow Co. and Seattle Mortgage Co., had $450 million in total assets at the close of the deal.
Adknowledge said Wednesday that it has raised over $200 million in debt and equity financing. JMI Equity led the equity investment while Bank of America led the debt financing. Adknowledge is a Kansas City-based provider of behavioral online advertising solutions. In 2006, the company secured $48 million in funding from Technology Crossover Ventures.
Interlace Medical, which was backed by Baird Venture Partners, has been sold to Hologic for $125 million. Additional earn-out payments can take place over the next two years, a statement said. Framingham, Mass.-based Interlace is a medical device company that has developed the MyoSure, which is used to remove intrauterine fibroids and polyps. Interlace received $20.5 million in Series C financing in 2009 from investors including BVP, Spray Venture Partners and New Leaf Venture Partners. Baird Venture Partners is the U.S. VC fund of Baird Private Equity.
Groupon, the daily coupon site, issued a corrected release late Monday that made changes to its investor list. Mail.ru did not participate in the current investment round that raised $950 million in financing. However, DST did, according to the release. Earlier Monday, Group issued a statement listing a slew of investors contributing to the near $1 billion round, including Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures.
Foodspotting has raised $3 million in Series A funding.
Blue Run Ventures has led the round. Jay Jamison, a Blue Run venture partner, will join Foodspotting’s board. Several early stage VCs from Foodspotting seed round also invested, said Alexa Andrzejewski, Foodspotting’s CEO.
“We see great market potential in having the Foodspotting service provide guides, recommendations and information to people to help them figure out what they should eat,” Jamison said in a statement.