PALO ALTO, Calif. – Accel Partners’ last health-care specialist is planning to leave the firm sometime in the first half of the year because Accel has all but completely turned away from the medical sector. But while Gene Hill will resign from Accel, Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corp., will be settling in as […]
MENLO PARK, Calif. – New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has hired Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist and technology businessman Arno Penzias as a part-time venture partner who will work from his home in San Francisco scouting communications companies and evaluating deals. Dr. Penzias, who worked informally for NEA throughout 1998 to become acquainted with the firm’s portfolio companies […]
HERTFORDSHIRE, U.K. – United Kingdom innovation specialist TTP Group – originally The Technology Partnership – is in the process of raising a maiden venture fund to be managed by its new subsidiary, TTP Venture Managers. TTP is targeting as much as ecu 71 million ($83.85 million) for the TTP Venture Fund, slated for investment across […]
MILAN, Italy – Italy’s private equity market should receive a welcome boost when the government passes new closed-end fund legislation in January to create more efficient structures for international institutional investors. This year might also signal the beginning of a long-awaited spring for the country’s underdeveloped early-stage high-technology investment sector. The first signs of a […]
To use a roller coaster as a metaphor for the 1998 initial public offering market would be a cliche. But sometimes the reality of the market leaves no other option. Although 1998 produced just 77 venture-backed IPOs – a 42.5% drop-off from 1997 and the lowest year-end output since the measly total of 42 in […]
REDMOND, Wash. – Concur Technologies Inc., a provider of intranet-based business applications that extend automation to employees and partners, held an initial public offering December 16. The company offered 3.1 million shares at $12.50 apiece, its proposed offering price. The offering, which left 16.5 million shares outstanding, was underwritten by BancBoston Robertson Stephens, Hambrecht & […]
SAN JOSE, Calif. – AboveNet Communications Inc., a provider of outsourced Internet hosting and connectivity services to companies that use the Web, went public December 10, offering 5 million shares at $13 apiece. The stock priced at the high end of the company’s $11 to $13 filing range. Underwritten by CIBC Oppenheimer and Volpe Brown […]
WELLESLEY, Mass. – Ampersand Ventures, founded in 1988 as a spin-off from PaineWebber Inc., focuses exclusively on investments in the specialty materials and chemicals (SMC) industry. The firm invests in a variety of sectors, including health care, telecommunications, electronics, industrial process control and building materials, and has no geographic or stage preferences. Ampersand seeks to […]
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Kingsbury Associates, L.P., founded in 1994, focuses on early-stage health care investments in the San Diego and Orange County regions. Preferring to take the role of lead investor, the firm looks for companies whose products help solve problems in the health-care industry and that have a strong management team, General Partner […]
John Barry, managing general partner of Prospect Street Ventures, recently lost a few promising Internet deals just because he couldn’t snag the hot companies quickly enough. Sprout Group’s Patrick Boroian, who reviews information technology companies, occasionally finds himself running into the same problem. It’s been almost three years since VCs got swept up in the […]