A recent study by Pitchbook and Grant Thornton has discovered that Private Equity groups are holding on to their investments for longer, 4.8 years is the median "hold" time as discussed in "Private Equity Exits Report: 2012 Annual Edition".
December 7, 2011
Entrepreneurs are passionate about their business. Sometimes overly so. Read this terrific article on how to avoid several common mistakes that will ruin an otherwise successful pitch meeting. From FastCompany, by FC Expert Blogger Josh Linkner, 12/6/11
September 23, 2011
Venture capital performance continued an upward trajectory as of the first quarter of 2011, the improvements were seen across all time horizons, with the exception of the 15-year numbers, and were driven by the strong one-year venture capital return of 18.5 percent.
May 10, 2011
Over a six-month period, Mr. Andreessen tapped his formidable network of Silicon Valley connections to snag stakes in Facebook Inc., micro-blogging service Twitter Inc. and deals-site Groupon Inc. Other investments include social-game developer Zynga Inc. and Internet-telephone company Skype SA. In the process, he helped to ignite Silicon Valley's latest Web boom and the burgeoning market for private-company shares.
May 5, 2011
This is an insightful blog post by Chris Dixon (www.cdixon.org)... "Having raised a number of VC rounds personally and observed many more as an investor or friend, I’ve come to think there are a set of dominant best practices that entrepreneurs should follow..."
April 14, 2011
From Jesse Eisinger at ProPublica: "Investors are punishing funds that have engaged in questionable behavior and balking at ever-escalating fees. Regulators are showing uncharacteristic backbone, insisting that they will not merely fight the last war when it comes to new rules."
April 13, 2011
In March, U.S. companies raised more money through stock offerings than any month since March 2000. And it's not just tech companies these days. Bond offerings are also occurring at a record pace thanks to low interest rates.
April 13, 2011
From WSJ: "The stock market's strong gains since its 2009 meltdown low have buoyed investor demand for stocks, helping global common-stock underwriting surge 16% to $174.4 billion in the first quarter, Dealogic said. Investors who had previously sought more-stable bond funds have grown "steadily more confident" about stock mutual funds this year, said Alastair Borthwick, co-head of global capital markets at Bank of America Corp.'s Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "
April 5, 2011
Banks have again started to provide large bridge financings for deals, and in some case keep all of the lending business for themselves rather than spread the risk over a syndicate, an indication of just how competitive the world of corporate and commercial lending is becoming. Take for example the JPMorganChase $20 billion unsecured bridge loan to fund AT&T's $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom.
March 29, 2011
Overall, Cooley's data pointed to a year marked by slow but steady improvement in the financing environment. In 2010, deal volumes reached a level not seen in the last five years. Median pre-money valuations increased across all deal stages and saw a significant increase in "up rounds" versus flat/down rounds. Up rounds represented 60% of all financings in 2010, a level not seen since 2008. Additionally, the percentage of recapitalization transactions fell in 2010, though the number of tranched deals remained flat from prior years.
February 21, 2012
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