NEW YORK – Nine months after venture capitalist John Barry of Prospect Street Ventures bought out his partners and revamped the firm’s focus, Prospect is considering adding new investors to its flagship vehicle, the $75 million New York City Discovery Fund. Mr. Barry, who kept news of the buyout quiet until now, had been a […]
NEW YORK – In a mild surprise to some observers, venture capital firms put equity to work at a record pace in the third quarter of 1998, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree Survey released in November. The $3.77 billion investment total surpassed the previous record of $3.73 billion set in the second quarter. “The pure […]
NEW ORLEANS – Advantage Capital Partners in November relaunched the firm’s first “traditional” venture fund under a new name and expects an initial closing around the beginning of the year. The firm also hired Elliot Fishman to head its new New York office and was scheduled to recruit one or two investment professionals for its […]
PHILADELPHIA – The University City Science Center, an organization that promotes science and technology entrepreneurship in the Philadelphia region, in November began preparing the launch of one or two venture funds totaling approximately $200 million that will back health care and information technology businesses spawned from the area’s 31 colleges and universities. The Science Center […]
BOSTON – When private equity general partners market their funds to limited partners, much is said about performance, but the underlying operating practices get barely a word. The results of the 1998 survey of private equity compensation conducted by William M. Mercer Inc. indicate that private firms play a more active role in the development […]
NEWARK, N.J. – In a third quarter that saw venture-backed initial public offerings drop to 20 from 31 in the second quarter, venture firms increasingly turned to mergers and acquisitions as an exit strategy in 1998, according to statistics released in November by Venture Economics Information Services. The quarter began with a hot venture-backed IPO […]
Political pundits who often disagree on virtually everything appeared to agree on one issue in 1998: The just-completed 105th Congress was short on legislative accomplishments and long on political bickering. While we may agree that political posturing occupied a major portion of Congress’ time and energy last year, it also was true that Republicans and […]
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Communications Ventures exclusively invests in early-stage communications and networking companies across the United States. The firm focuses on network management, data networking, Internet infrastructure, computer telephony, voice processing, mobile communications, fiber optics and high capacity switching. Communications Ventures’ most recent vehicle, Communications Ventures III, was launched last summer and held a […]
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Menlo Ventures primarily invests in early-stage and emerging growth companies in the communications, software, Internet and health-care industries in the United States. The firm’s latest vehicle, Menlo Ventures VII, closed in 1996 at $250 million, bringing in a few new institutional investors, as it has with previous funds. Each fund typically […]
WELLESLEY HILLS, Mass. – Network-1 Security Solutions Inc., a designer of software products that provide security for computer networks and their information resources, went public November 12, offering 1.7 million shares at $6 apiece. Stocks priced at the company’s proposed offer price. The initial public offering, which left 4.9 million shares of common stock outstanding, […]