November 2006

Lucky YouTube investor to buy Andre Agassi's estate for $20 million [Posted on November 29, 2006 - 2:00 PM]

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That was fast. The trickle down effect from YouTube's sale to Google is already being felt. Stuart Peterson, president of San Francisco hedge fund Artis Capital Management, has purchased one... Continue Reading

Maybe the Good exit wasn't so Bad [Posted on November 22, 2006 - 6:10 PM]

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As one of the biggest technology exits of the year, it's worth spending some more time on this one. Bill Burnham makes a strong case as to why Good... Continue Reading

Crosspoint and Mobius escape from Comergent [Posted on November 22, 2006 - 3:10 PM]

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Any eight figure exit achieved by a company that announced a $53.7 million Series B financing on March 7, 2000 is impressive. The lucky investors at that time were... Continue Reading

Check Point embarks upon an acquisition spree [Posted on November 21, 2006 - 2:07 PM]

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Good news for security software startups. A new prospective buyer has emerged and is armed with $1 billion in cash. Check Point Software Technologies has long eschewed acquisitions. It... Continue Reading

Interview with Evan Williams, Blogger and Odeo co-founder [Posted on November 20, 2006 - 12:37 PM]

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Web 2.0 pioneer Evan Williams was at Play, the Berkeley Digital Media Conference, on Saturday participating in a panel discussion on user generated content. As the co-founder of Pyra Labs,... Continue Reading

Hank Barry's futile search for compelling consumer Internet startups [Posted on November 19, 2006 - 12:37 PM]

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During yesterday's venture capital panel held at Play, The Berkeley Digital Media Conference, Hummer Winblad's Hank Barry quizzed the crowd on which consumer Internet startups they think are offering... Continue Reading

VCs outsource digital media due diligence to children [Posted on November 18, 2006 - 9:57 PM]

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When Mayfield general partner Raj Kapoor asked his fellow venture capitalists during a panel at the Play conference held at UC Berkeley today what their relevance to the new... Continue Reading

That's more like it; Yahoo buys VCless-MyBlogLog [Posted on November 17, 2006 - 2:31 PM]

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Update: TechCrunch is reporting this is not a done deal. The two sides are just in early stage discussions. After writing how puzzling it is for a venture-backed startup... Continue Reading

Is Bix.com a good exit for Sutter Hill and Trinity Ventures? [Posted on November 17, 2006 - 1:10 PM]

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I don't know what Yahoo paid for online contest web site Bix.com, so it's hard to make an informed judgment about this deal. But, working under the assumption the... Continue Reading

Interview with Saints Capital founder [Posted on November 16, 2006 - 2:25 PM]

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Saints Capital founder and managing partner Ken Sawyer thinks he's on the crest of a wave. Today, less than 1% of venture capital portfolio companies are sold to other... Continue Reading

Rare solar exit shines on JP Morgan-managed fund [Posted on November 15, 2006 - 3:52 PM]

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The JP Morgan-managed Bay Area Equity Fund is the only venture capital firm to profit today from one of the largest solar energy startup exits ever. The fund, which... Continue Reading

61 billion reasons why security startups remain hot [Posted on November 15, 2006 - 1:24 PM]

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High levels of IT security spending by industry and government continue to attract venture capitalists to even the weaker entrants in the sector. Take yesterday's $5 million second round... Continue Reading

What Sequoia Capital looks for in a startup [Posted on November 14, 2006 - 7:11 PM]

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Sequoia Capital exited another investment this week when Greenfield Networks was sold to Cisco for an undisclosed amount. While the return was probably not particularly impressive, Sequoia is on... Continue Reading

Google closes YouTube, watch my initial take of the deal [Posted on November 14, 2006 - 3:58 PM]

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Google closed its YouTube acquisition faster than I could figure out how to upload the video from my appearance last month on CNBC. No online video site would take... Continue Reading

China VC investment peaking? [Posted on November 14, 2006 - 3:22 PM]

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Venture capital investment in China rose 47% to $361.1 million in the third quarter of this year from the same period in 2005, according to VentureOne. Interestingly, deal volumes and... Continue Reading

Interview with Revolution Partners co-founder [Posted on November 14, 2006 - 2:52 PM]

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After the Four Horsemen disappeared in the late 1990s, new boutique investment banks emerged to fill the void. One of those firms was Revolution Partners, a Boston-based M&A and... Continue Reading

Valhalla closes second fund at $260 million [Posted on November 13, 2006 - 12:33 PM]

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Four-year old venture capital firm Valhalla Partners received a vote of confidence when it recently closed its second fund at $260 million. The Northern Virginia-based firm closed its $174... Continue Reading

Good Technology sale to Motorola bad for VCs [Posted on November 10, 2006 - 4:48 PM]

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Bad news for the investors in Good Technology. After pouring in more than $200 million since May 2000, investors in the enterprise mobile e-mail company can't be pleased with... Continue Reading

Sequoia stays hot with Topio exit [Posted on November 10, 2006 - 12:29 PM]

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After reaping profits in the hundreds of millions from its YouTube investment, Sequoia Capital struck again this week when Topio said it agreed to be sold to Network Appliance... Continue Reading

Demand Media: The anti-Web 2.0 startup [Posted on November 9, 2006 - 6:24 PM]

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There's a lot of talk about the ease of starting a Web 2.0 company with some spare change. There has been this talk for a while and there will... Continue Reading

Veoh's $1.65 billion mistake [Posted on November 9, 2006 - 5:49 PM]

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During a panel at today's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, John Battelle asked the panelists what was the biggest mistake they had made over the past year. Most... Continue Reading

Interview with Turn CEO [Posted on November 9, 2006 - 4:59 PM]

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Paradoxically, as Google's influence over the advertising industry grows by the day, the number of advertising startups increase. It's the way of the startup world that as the incumbents... Continue Reading

Austin Ventures' CreditCards.com recap jeered [Posted on November 8, 2006 - 1:44 PM]

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Austin Ventures' recent $6 million recapitalization of CreditCards.com is being met with skepticism. Here is one Silicon Valley denizen's take: Wow . . . who knew an affiliate spammer,...