Reuters News
(Reuters) – Two of eHarmony Inc’s main backers stand to gain extra leverage over the online-dating company in early November when redemption rights from its last financing round kick in — an unusual development in the venture capital business. The rights come into play after Nov. 5 for Technology Crossover Ventures and Sequoia Capital, which […]
(Reuters) - The bubble in mobile phone technology patent values may just have popped.
Now that Google Inc. has agreed to a $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. -- scooping up a trove of 17,000 phone-related patents to give itself some ground to defend its Android operating system -- the most motivated buyer looks to be off the market.
"The game is completely changed as a result of Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The arms race is essentially over," said John Amster, chief executive of RPX, a company that advises customers on patent purchases. "They have basically created through acquisition what they needed."
Google's move was widely seen as a response to its loss in the auction of 6,000 Nortel patents to a group led by Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc. and Research in Motion, which fetched an unprecedented ...
(Reuters) – The latter part of the third quarter is shaping up to be a weak period for U.S. initial public offerings. Market panic has scared many companies into postponing their IPOs, and lingering economic and political uncertainty raises the possibility that deals may not be revived at all this quarter. “Given the current environment, […]
TORONTO, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Venture capital investment in Canada slid 2% in the second quarter and new commitments to venture capital funds continued to fall, data showed on Tuesday. According to figures compiled by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and research partner Thomson Reuters, publisher of this blog, C$328 million ($334.7 […]
(Reuters) - Three initial public offerings were postponed on Tuesday, the latest casualties of volatile market conditions.
Offerings by Portuguese mobile marketing and payment services provider TIM w.e. SGPS SA, which was expected to raise $146.3 million, and 3-D motion-sensing company InvenSense Inc, a VC-backed company due to raise $99.8 million, were postponed, underwriters said. The $180 million IPO of Seattle-based lender HomeStreet was also sidelined, an underwriter said.
Invensense, founded in 2003, raised a total of $53 million in venture capital between 2004 and 2008, according to Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB). The company's backers include Artiman Ventures, DoCoMo Capital, Partech
(Reuters) - Partners Jim Kim and Alex Kinnier will depart Khosla Ventures Aug. 15, leaving the firm short of two partners just months after it said it was raising a $1.05 billion fund, Reuters has learned.
Both specialized in renewable energy, a focus of Khosla Ventures, but one that has been slow to reap big returns.
Kinnier will start his own company, a move founding partner Vinod Khosla called "standard." It was unclear what Kim intends to do upon leaving the venture capital house, which has backed Jawbone-headset makers Aliph and biofuels company Kior.
"Junior folks join for three years typically and then start companies," he wrote to Reuters in an email. "We have our core set of five partners and though we don't preclude junior partners becoming senior partners, we expect the majority of them to leave to
(Reuters) – Intermolecular Inc. filed with U.S. regulators on Friday to raise $200 million in an initial public offering of its common stock. The company develops proprietary technology and intellectual property through paid collaborative development programs with its customers in the semiconductor and clean energy industries. Intermolecular said in its S-1 filing that it has […]
(Reuters) - Shares of real estate site Zillow Inc. skyrocketed in their market debut on Wednesday, the latest to ride a wave of dot-com exuberance while stoking fears of lofty Internet valuations.
The 6-year-old, loss-making real estate website, which recorded $30.5 million in revenue last year from providing housing value appraisals online, soared to as much as $60 -- a three-fold increase from its IPO price of $20.
Investors shrugged off the company's dependence on an uncertain advertising and housing market. Zillow's initial pop in value bested social media player LinkedIn, which doubled in value in its first day of trade in May.
"The mere fact that LinkedIn and HomeAway did so very well only helped [Zillow], and put even more euphoria into
(Reuters) - Real-estate investments propelled Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to strong profits in the second quarter, but the giant private equity firm warned that deals in general were becoming expensive.
Private equity firms have seen the value of their portfolios recover as stock markets have risen, and Blackstone said the improvement in valuation and increased fee income boosted earnings.
"The star performer in the quarter was real estate," Blackstone's President Tony James told reporters on a conference call. "Purchasing assets from distressed sellers has been the dominant focus of our real estate activities over the last year."
Early today, following their public market debut, shares of real estate and housing data company Zillow tripled in value, reaching $60 after being priced at $20. By mid-afternoon, the shares had fallen sharply but were still trading at roughly $38 per share as investors, buoyed by a wave of successful internet IPOs, shrugged off its […]