Random Ramblings

A common question from you to me is: What are these regulatory filings of which you speak? They are Form D, or Regulation D filings with the SEC. They are not available via Edgar, and instead are relayed to me via a Thomson worker down in Washington DC . As someone who once spent a day cooped up in the SEC reference room, I can assure you that its a thankless task.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up today is because both Boingo Wireless and Blurb announced final closes on their latest funding rounds ($65m and $12m, respectively). Both deals were first reported here based on information in the filings, but the final info is a bit different. Boingo, for example, I wrote had closed on $60 million and would keep ex-NEA pro Stewart Alsop on its board (hes being succeeded by Paul Hsiao). This is a pitfall of using documents that: (A) Often are filled out by outside counsel instead of by CEOs and (B) Are often filled out before rounds are completed.

I once considered stopping my practice of using regulatory filings, but feel its in your best interest to know whats in market, even if some of the final details work out differently. So any time I say according to a regulatory filing, be sure to understand that its not yet the be-all and end-all.

*** There also have been a lot of questions about the PE Week report that Chris Noble plans to leave Bay Partners (like, why he’s still on the Bay website). Noble had been unavailable for comment prior to the original publication time, but since has said the following: “I am an active GP at Bay. That is the end of the story.” He would not respond to a variety of questions along the theme of: Are you going to leave soon? or Will you be making new investments? Sources close to Bay continue to insist that our original story was accurate.

*** YouTube was apparently down for a few hours yesterday. And somehow life went on…

*** Keep them LinkedIn requests coming. My network is now over 500 readers, andthey’re already using it to connect with one another.