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Redpoint Backs Heroku

Heroku, a San Francisco-based provider of Ruby on Rails application tools, has raised $3 million led by Redpoint Ventures. www.heroku.com ...

Buyout Deals

Court Preps for Clear Channel Trial

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The iconic New York State Supreme Court house, a popular backdrop for movies and television shows, was busy preparing for Monday's showdown over the $20 billion buyout of Clea...

PE-Backed IPOs

Aldagen Files for IPO

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - Biopharmaceutical company Aldagen Inc filed with regulators on Friday to raise up to $80.5 million in an initial public offering of common stock. Aldagen said in a filin...

PE-Backed M&A

PlayPhone Buys Pitch Entertainment

PlayPhone Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based mobile media and entertainment company, has acquired Pitch Entertainment Group, a UK-based provider of mobile entertainment content. No financial terms were di...

PE Exits

BS PE Sells Klopman

Indian fabric manufacturer S Kumars has acquired Klopman, an Italian fabric manufacturer, for a sum of EUR 70m (US$107m). The deal represented an exit for private equity group BS Private Equity, which...

Firms & Funds

Pappas Targets $200 Million

Pappas Ventures is raising its fourth fund with a $200 million target, according to VentureWire. The Durham, N.C.-based firm focuses on early-stage life sciences companies. www.pappasventures.com...

Human Resources

Madison Capital Staffs Up

Grant Haggard and Bill Kindorf have joined Madison Capital Funding as senior vice president and vice president, respectively. Haggard previously has worked at such firms as Antares Capital, Linsalata ...

	Facebook's Valuation Problem Dan Primack
posted on: 05-09-2008

The WSJ recently reported that Microsoft is sniffing around Facebook, less than seven months after investing $240 million in the social network at a $15 billion valuation. It was largely discounted as the hopeful fumblings of Steve Ballmer, in his search for a rebound acquisition after being dumped by Yahoo. But it got me to thinking: Microsoft’s initial investment may be one of the worst venture capital deals of all time.

Longtime readers know that the current title-holder is Hummer Winblad, for its Napster investment in the midst of that company’s legal morass. And it will remain that way, as Microsoft’s Facebook deal presents neithe...

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	Venrock Looks Late Dan Primack
posted on: 05-09-2008

Major update after jump Earlier this week I chatted with Venrock partner David Siminoff, who led the firm’s $3 million investment in SlideShare (the YouTube of Powerpoint presentations).

Part of our conversation was about the deal, including: (A) How it plans to make money, (B) If it can be sticky or just an embeddable application and (C) Why the site is often real slow when I try to upload items for peHUB. The answers were: (A) Contextual advertising, (B) He thinks yes, and challenges us all to browse the site without staying on it for a while, and (B) Growth out-pacing active servers, but they’re working on it.

The sub...

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	peHUB First Read Dan Primack
posted on: 05-09-2008

* Citi may sell $400 billion in assets.

* Are private equity firms buying rent-controlled apartment properties in New York, and then pressuring tenants to move out? That's the accusation in today's New York Times. As an aside, I like the term "predatory equity" more than "vulture capitalists."

* Josh Kopelman on how to ask for the order.

* Foot-in-Mouth Flu: Yesterday it wa...

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	5 Degrees of O.G. Dan Primack
posted on: 05-08-2008

Once per month I do a "Six Degrees of Separation" item for Buyouts Magazine, linking a private equity pro with a similar-sounding celebrity. This morning I received a press release that just screamed for the 6 Degrees treatment (actually 5 Degrees, because that's the way it goes sometimes), so here goes:

O.G. Greene today was named an operating partner with Navigation Capital Partners. The mid-market firm's other operating partner is...

1. Craig Kirsch, who was CFO of Kinko’s when it was owned by Clayton Dubilier & Rice. During that time he got to know CD&R president and chief executive…

2. Donald Gogel, who al...

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	peHUB First Read Dan Primack
posted on: 05-08-2008

* Winning by losing? That's how Blackstone feels about not ending up with Clear Channel. Kind of ironic, because that's how Clear Channel buyer THL Capital feels about a whole host of overpriced deals it lost out on in 2007 (U.S. Foodservice, etc.).

* Avista Capital Partners has written down its investment in the Star-Tribune by 75% -- just fifteen months after taking it private for $530 million (including $100m of equity from Avista). Just further evidence that PE firms should f...

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	In Over Your Head - The Life of an Entrepreneur... Jeff Bussgang
POSTED ON: 05-09-2008

Being an entrepreneur means figuring out how to survive and thrive when you often find yourself in way over your head. An ambitious entrepreneur is always pushing and stretching beyond their comfort zone -- creating a company from scratch, evangelizing a new category, taking risks way out of any rational person's comfort zone. They rarely want to admit vulnerability, particularly to their management team or board, and so sometimes cover up their anxiety with bravado. This is the exact wrong way to approach this common situation.

Believe me, I know the feeling. In my late 20s, I was promoted to the executive team at Open Market -- a billion-dollar market capitalization, publicly traded company -- and found myself in way over my head. I would come home at night, shake my head as...

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