Dan Primack

I wrote here yesterday that a seed-stage fund called MentorTech Ventures just closed its inaugural fund. This was done in the context of today’s jaunt down to Philly (I should leave soon, since my plane does), because MentorTech focuses primarily on IT and medical device companies that originate within the University of Pennsylvania. But it also […]

The largest leveraged buyout in history may have just gotten larger. Vornado Realty Trust just announced that it has offered $52 per share for commercial real estate giant Equity Office Properties Trust, with Starwood Capital and Walton Street Capital also participating. This tops an existing $48 per share bid from The Blackstone Group, and would […]

Just clearing off the desktop… * A client letter from law firm Debvoise & Plympton on the SEC’s narrowing of who may invest in private equity and hedge funds: DebvoisePlympton.pdf * Year-end 2006 M&A Briefing from The Corum Group, which is focused on the software and IT markets. I’m actually using some info from this […]

Just one day away from heading down to my old hometown – or at least my old college town – of Philly for the Wharton Private Equity Conference. During last year’s event, I met a former Wharton faculty member named Michael Aronson. He was running a business incubator on the U Penn campus, and was […]

VantagePoint Venture Partners is not closing its Israel office, as reported earlier today by VentureBeat. Why? Because it never opened one. VPVP spokeswoman Christine Hinton says that the firm had been evaluating an Israel office for the past two years, but that it never actually pulled the trigger. A review of VPVP’s cached website since 2003 supports her […]

Venture capital firms raised less fund capital in Q4 2006 than in any other quarter since Q1 2004, according to new data released today by Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association. The results are particularly surprising because fund-raising usually spikes in fourth quarters, as limited partners work to finish off their annual allocations. […]

I spent the first half of today watching SportsCenter reruns (Troy Brown sure is swell), followed by a bit of research for a VC Investment in Digital Media panel I’m moderating this Friday at the Wharton Private Equity Conference. Among my reference materials was a 2002 BusinessWeek Q&A with Morgenthaler Ventures partner — and Wharton […]

The 19th Annual Buyouts Symposium East will take place on April 16-18, at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. And today I’m pleased to announce that our first two keynote speakers will be Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor and presumptive presidential candidate, and Dan D’Aniello, co-founder and managing director of The Carlyle Group. Giuliani and […]

I-banking botique Evercore Partners today announced that it has hired Jim Matthews, formerly with Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, as its new co-head of private equity. The private equity group currently manages over $1.2 billion, which it invests in both venture capital and buyout transactions. So let’s play 5 Questions with Austin Beutner, Evercore’s co-CEO, […]

The sky is gray, we finally have a nickname for private equity pros and my Sunday will include three hours of the Pats pounding the Chargers, and two more of Jack Bauer pounding the bad guys (plus some misguided good guys). In other words, it’s time for Friday Feedback. Most correspondance this week concerned Monday’s […]