Opinion

In a white hot M&A market, we are often asked about sectors where investors can buy a business at a “reasonable” value. While the overall market continues to be strong, there are pockets of opportunities created in sectors where investor sentiment or underlying market trends don’t appear to be favorable – as has been the case […]

I need to learn by doing. It’s an inefficient approach, but information gleaned from news and blogs doesn’t usually penetrate my thick head. I’m developing a mobile collaboration (or “social networking”) application. Though the piece that actually runs on the “mobile” is by far the simplest component of my system (a small Java/BREW program that […]

Harvard Business School’s Josh Lerner provided some interesting academic insights this week in a WSJ piece titled “Private-Equity Deals Alter the Market.” He wrote that private equity-backed IPOs may do well because, when private, company managers are free from quarterly earnings pressure and can focus on long-term goals. Executives have also been pressured, typically, to aggressively cut […]

Today’s interim report from the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation confirmed several of the premises that NVCA has been asserting for some time.  First, the benefits of SOX 404 are uncertain. Second, the costs of implementing 404 have been dramatically higher than originally estimated. The Committee estimates the cost at 35 times higher. Finally, SOX 404 has […]

So “children” is my metaphor for small-cap public companies, and Rule 415 is an SEC regulation that I hadn’t even heard of until two weeks ago. It turns out that the SEC appears to be looking to crack down on some of the more punitive PIPE structures when microcap companies (under $75 million market cap?) […]

With the private equity world evolving at a rapid pace, it brings to mind one central issue: The debate centering around the proper objective/measure of investment return or GP performance. A recent Business Week coverstory entitled “Gluttons at the Gate” (October 30th Edition) spoke judgmentally about the amount of fees charged by Private Equity funds in […]

It’s no secret that America is no longer the sole dominion of innovation and entrepreneurship. You’re just as likely to find an enthusiastic power point-wielding entrepreneur in the Starbucks of Shanghai, Mumbai or Beijing as you are in Silicon Valley. This is no protectionist rant. I believe global investing is the next step in venture […]

Many of you are familiar with the term “Phase I.”  Do you also know (your attorneys do) that the standard (I tend to call it a procedure) we use to develop Phase I’s was first written in 1996, rewritten in 2000, and as of November 1 there is a new “standard” in place. So what? […]

Lean venture capital returns are in their seventh year but, barring force majeure-type events, we should enjoy more positive results starting in 2007. Why? Because we’ve largely cleared the bubble wreckage, the second wave of the Internet is upon us and new disruptive technologies are emerging to create new industries.   During the bubble, the VC […]