We now have more than 70 firms participating in our 7th Annual Internship Rodeo, which will kick off later today. I put about a dozen listings in the MBA Forum last night, and plan to get the rest in by around 1pm this afternoon (which doubles as the deadline for listing submissions).
MBA Candidates: To view the listings, you must become an MBA Forum member. This is free, but you need to have your school code. Just ask your peers or career office. If that fails, send an email to accessrequest@pehub.com (which is basically emailing me, so preemptive apologies for the slow response time). Good luck to all…
*** Not too long ago, Congressfolk were talking about how both private equity and venture capital funds would be required to register themselves, as part of proposed financial reform legislation. Then came the House bill, which exempted all VC funds and any PE fund with under $150 million in capital under management. Yesterday, Chris Dodd introduced a Senate version that keeps the VC exemption, but also adds a PE exemption (leaving hedge funds in the registration mix).
The big catch in all of this, however, is that both the House and Senate bills leave the definitions of “venture capital” and “private equity” up to the SEC. The SEC also would be allowed to set certain reporting requirements for PE firms, although no clarity on what that may entail.
Kind of a cowardly move, really. Congress originally said the umbrella language was because it was too difficult to legislatively define VC and PE firms, and that firms would simply use semantic skirts to avoid qualifying. That reality hasn’t changed, but is now the SEC’s problem while elected officials get to tell big donors about how they fought the good fight.
Speaking of Washington: The Department of Energy yesterday announced that Jonathan Silver will start work Monday as executive director of the DoE’s loan program. This came just hours af! ter President Obama announced that he will nominate Joshua Gotbaum, an operating partner with Blue Wolf Capital Management, to be director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
These are just the latest in a long string of VC/PE pros who have gone Fed since January. Others include:
Jeffrey Goldstein (Hellman & Friedman) as Treasury’s under secretary for domestic finance; Matthew Kabaker (Blackstone) as Treasury’s Deputy Assistant Secretary; Jason Tepperman (Baker Capital) in the office of Treasury’s chief investment officer; Karen Gordon Mills (Solera Capital) as head of the Small Business Administration; and David Danielson (General Catalyst Partners) as an ARPA-E administrator for DoE. Plus, there’s always former auto czar Steve Rattner and members of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board like John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins) and Mark Gallogly (Centerbridge Capital).
Am I missing any?
*** Quiz Time: Can you name the VC firm that has two partners quietly having exploratory meetings with LPs about spinning out on their own? Hint: The firm itself is a spinout.
*** A Call for Help: Alan Cohen, the head of credit and distressed debt investing at York Capital Management, is suffering from leukemia and is in need of a blood stem cell match. There will be a match drive on Nov. 19 in New York City. Please go here for more details.
Top Three
Logitech International (Nasdaq: LOGI) has agreed to acquire LifeSize Communications, an Austin, Texas-based provider of high-definition video communication solutions. The deal is valued at $405 million in cash. LifeSize had raised around $90 million in VC funding, from firms like Austin Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures and Tenaya Capital.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) has signed an agreement with Bothell, Wash.-based Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc., for the development and commercialization of a novel biologic that has completed Phase IIa development for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The deal includes an $85 million up-front cash payment, and up to $764 million in additional milestone payments. Alder Biopharmaceuticals has raised around $67 million in VC funding from firms like Delphi Ventures and TPG Biotech co-led the round, and were joined by return backers Sevin Rosen Funds, Ventures West, H.I.G. Ventures and WRF Capital.
Jonathan Silver has been named executive director of the Department of Energy’s loan program. He had been a co-founding managing director of Core Capital Partners, before leaving in 2008. His first day on the job at DoE is this coming Monday.
VC Deals
Stretch Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of software-configurable processors, has raised $10 million in “mezzanine” funding. Return backers include Worldview Technology Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Menlo Ventures. The company previously raised nearly $115 million.
Six Degrees Games Inc., a Marina Del Rey, Calif.-based video game and virtual world publisher, has raised $7 million in SeriesB funding. Time Warner Investments led the round, and was joined by return backers Clearstone Venture Partners and Prism VentureWorks. The company has now raised $14 million. www.sixdegreesgames.com
Workcast Corp., a UK-based provider of webcasting solutions for the enterprise, ha! s raised £850,000 from NorthStar Equity Investors.
XtremeIO, an Israeli developer of solid-state drive data storage systems, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from JVP and Giza Venture Capital.
Prosper, a San Francisco-based operator of a peer-to-peer lending marketplace, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from QED Investors. QED managing partner Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One, will join the Prosper board of directors. Prosper previously raised around $40 million, from firms like Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Ventures, DAG Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners and Omidyar Network.
Buyouts Deals
The Carlyle Group is among those submitting a first-round bid for Info Group (Nasdaq: IUSA), a B2B marketing firm whose current market cap is around $483 million. Other bidders reportedly include Dun & Bradstreet and Acxiom Corp. Evercore is running the process.
Invest AD, a state-owned fund in Abu Dhabi, has agreed to invest nearly $75 million for a “significant” minority stake in Turkish logistics firm EKOL Lojistik AS.
Montagu Private Equity is heading into the second round of its auction for portfolio company British Car Auctions. Prospective buyers include Bridgepoint, Cinven, BC Partners and Clayton Dubilier & Rice.
TPG Capital may partner with American Airlines on a minority investment in Japan Airlines, according to comments by American’s CFO.
PE Exits
Cavium Networks (Nsdaq: CAVM) has agreed to acquire MontaVista Software Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of Linux operating systems and development tools. The deal is valued at $50 million, including $16 million in cash and around $34 million in Cavium stock. MontaVista has raised over $90 million in VC funding since 1999, from firms like Alloy Ventures, Aplix, NEC,US Venture Partners andSiemens Venture Capital.
Ingenix has agreed to acquire CareMedic, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based provider of healthcare revenue management software. No financial terms were disclosed. CareMedic has raised over $25 million in VC funding, from firms like Wellmark, CB Health Ventures, Oak Investment Partners, Pappajohn Capital! and Iowa Seed Capital Corp.
Lake Capital has sold Stamford, Conn.-basedArchstone Consulting to The Hackett Group Inc. (Nasdaq: HCKT). No financial terms were disclosed.
Life Technologies Corp. (Nasdaq: LIFE) has agreed to acquire BioTrove Inc., a Woburn, Mass.-based maker of instruments and consumables for genomic analysis, high-throughput screening and molecular diagnostics. No financial terms were disclosed. As part of the transaction BioTrove will spin out its RapidFire massspectrometry system into an independent company supported by existing investors. BioTrove late last year withdrew registration for a $75 million IPO, after having raised over $43 million in VC funding from firms like Catalyst Health &a! mp; Technology Partners, CB Health Ventures, Vox Equity Partners, Biof rontier Partners, Fletcher Spaght Associates and Pfizer.
TDC, the Danish telecom group owned by five private equity firms, is meeting with banks to help it sell part of the firms’ 88% stake (valued at around $7.4 billion). TDC backers are Blackstone Group, KKR, Permira, Apax Partners and Providence Equity Partners.
PE-Backed M&A
Tiburon, a Gores Group portfolio company focusedon automated public safety and security solutions, has acquired the data applications business of Positron Public Safety System. No financial terms were disclosed.
Firms & Funds
Fubon Financial and China’s State Development & Investment Corp. reportedly have agreed to partner on a $440 million private equity fund aimed at the Fujian province.
Human Resources
James Collins has joined Roark Capital Group as a vice president focused on franchise investments. He previously was a principal with Stone Tower Equity Partners.
Erik Engstrom has taken over as CEO of publisher Reed Elsevier, following the resignation of Ian Smith after just eight months on the job. Engstrom has been CEO of the company’s scientific-publishing division Elsevier for the last five years, before which he was with private equity firm General Atlantic.
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