Angela Sormani
Early stage investor Grotech Ventures has promoted Lawson DeVries to general partner. Prior to joining Grotech, Mr. DeVries was an associate in the equity research division of Deutsche Bank and an associate at financial research firm Buckingham Research Group. DeVries has a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
There were only a handful of U.S. buyouts completed by the largest European buyout funds in 2010/2011, but we thought it might be interesting to see who was active and who had money to invest. pe.HUB takes a look at the most active European buyout funds investing in the US in the last year, in order of largest fund size, based on data from Thomson Reuters.
UK private equity house Exponent Private Equity has formed a new company following OFT approval of the BBC Magazines deal. Immediate Media Co combines the newly-acquired magazine business from BBC Worldwide with Origin Publishing and Magicalia, Exponent’s existing digital platform and media companies.
GA|PRC Group, an advertising agency that designs and executes integrated retail marketing programs has been acquired by RFE Investment Partners along with its equity partners Caymus Equity Partners and Starboard Capital Partners, and with debt financing provided by Fifth Third Bancorp and CapitalSouth Partners.
Potential buyers of Yahoo Inc are balking at the Internet company's demands for confidentiality that would prevent them from discussing joint bids, Reuters wrote.
Investors including a fund managed by Morgan Stanley and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp are in separate talks to buy a Mumbai property from Indian textiles firm Alok Industries for about $200 million, Reuters reports.
Redwood Shores, California-based Qwilt, a provider of pioneering video-infrastructure products that are enabling the online-entertainment revolution, has raised $24 million in two rounds of funding from Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Crescent Point Group and other investors. The company, founded in 2010 by veterans of Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, helps Internet-service providers more efficiently deliver high quality video to their customers.
BlueStacks has secured funding from AMD, Citrix Systems and other investors. In addition to the strategic investors, current investors also participated in the round, bringing the total investment in BlueStacks to $14M. BlueStacks will use the new financing to accelerate product development and support its fast-growing community of users.
Marketo, a provider of Revenue Performance Management (RPM) solutions, has appointed Roger Siboni to its board of directors. Siboni brings more than 25 years of technology leadership and guidance to Marketo's Board. Marketo is venture capital-backed by Institutional Venture Partners, InterWest Partners, Mayfield Fund and Storm Ventures.
Interactions Corporation, provider of natural, conversational automated systems for customer care, has appointed David Parkinson has chief operating officer. Parkinson, who brings more than 25 years of executive experience, will be responsible for end-to-end client relationships, which includes professional services, sales, and client relations. Interactions Corporation is backed by Sigma Partners, North Hill Ventures, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners and Updata Partners.