Michael Greeley: Ring Out the Old Year
On the heels of the fundraising data for 2011, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the NVCA released the 4Q 2011 and full year VC investment data. It was yet another year when VC’s invested ($28.4 billion in 3,673 companies) meaningfully more than we raised ($18.2 billion by 169 funds) – and as I have said in the past,...
David Finnigan: Cotton Industry Provides Intriguing Investment Opportunities for Private Equity
When global yarn spinning equipment manufacturers say that the US is the lowest cost producer of open-end cotton yarns in the world, listeners scratch their heads in disbelief. People normally think of textile manufacturing as the domain of low labor cost countries. But, due to low labor requirements of highly automated yarn manufacturing plants, the...
Tom Klaff, Ben Smith: A New Spin On Corporate Venture Capital; How Big Businesses Can Encourage Innovation
Corporate venture capital comes and goes in waves. In good times, money flows easily into startups. When times turn bad, most corporate investors disappear, and the waves they create crash violently on the shore.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Corporations have the resources and potential to make venture a long-term strategic asset. The breadth...
Steve Blank: Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA
This year the movie industry made $30 billion (1/3 in the U.S.) from box-office revenue.
But the total movie industry revenue was $87 billion. Where did the other $57 billion come from?
From sources that the studios at one time claimed would put them out of business: Pay-per view TV, cable and satellite channels, video rentals, DVD...
Doug Kilponen, Ben Smith: First They Ignore You, Then They Want To Buy You: Managing The Startup-Big Company Relationship
Every entrepreneur has met them. Big company executives with big company swagger. They ignore you. They dismiss the business problem you spent your life solving. They think they can crush you.
Then the tables turn. They push for strategic relationships. They want to give you money, frequently at irrationally high valuations. Finally they shell out enough...
Coco Kee: China Looks to Regulate PE industry
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced its guidance on PE fund registration, operations and information disclosure in Circular 2864, which became effective earlier this month.
Circular 2864 is the Chinese government’s first attempt to regulate the PE industry and protect investors in the face of the increasing number of PE funds being established in...
Coco Kee: China Looks to Regulate PE industry
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced its guidance on PE fund registration, operations and information disclosure in Circular 2864, which became effective earlier this month.
Circular 2864 is the Chinese government’s first attempt to regulate the PE industry and protect investors in the face of the increasing number of PE funds being established in...
Jaime Romero: AxialMarket’s Deal Update
The industrials space represented 32% of all opportunities, with 818 companies coming to market through November 2011, ranging in company size from $0 to more than $430 million in revenue, according to AxialMarket data.
Opportunities represent companies across each US region, and are broken down by industry, revenue, and EBITDA. Investment banks, business brokers, and M&A...
Victor Belfor, Ben Smith: Why Startups Innovate Better Than Big Companies
With all their resources and talent, why do big companies have trouble innovating? How can a Blekko exist when there is a Google? Or a Tapulous when there is an Electronic Arts?
Even more puzzling, why couldn’t Yahoo create Facebook with Yahoo 360 instead of losing out to a 20-year-old kid from Harvard? A lot of...
John Backus: On Women
A few months ago on peHUB, I engaged in a lively debate about the state of entrepreneurship and venture capital, here and here. One of the issues I addressed, the absence of women in the venture capital, technology and startup worlds, was revisited last week at the TEDx Global Woman’s Entrepreneur event. At minute 11,...
Nadim Malik: Assessing Dealflow at Year-End
In the private equity world, if you’re not scrambling around trying to close a deal before the end of the year (as if for some reason the world would end if the close slips into January), this is when you spend some time evaluating what is working well and what needs to be improved in...
Nat Goldhaber: CleanTech Remains Hot In A Post-Solyndra World
Pessimism about the clean tech space has been on the rise recently, thanks in part to a pair of high profile failures of government-backed companies. Congress and the media have pounced on the carrion like starving scavengers.
In the frenzy of sensationalism, it is hard for the public to derive a reasoned understanding of the...
