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Competition and Humor Drive Groupon CEO Andrew Mason
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 Now, he joked to a crowd of investors and analysts this week, he just thinks of them as the competition. The 30-year-old executive's light touch belies the serious threat that Google, LivingSocial and any other company with a daily deals website poses to Groupon, which on Thursday filed to go public. But it is also the sort of quip that helped Mason win Read more »
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Job Moves: Kleiner Lures Huang from Vivo, CalPERS Gets Real, Founders Fund CFO Moves On, More
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 KP HIRES HUANG FROM VIVO Just a few days after Vivo Ventures announced the promotion of a partner to head its China operations, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced that it has hired former Vivo partner James Huang to advise on life science investments as a partner in its Shanghai office. Huang was a managing partner at Vivo and, previously, Read more »
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peHUB Second Opinion 6.3
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 The makers of Angry Birds have a flock of revenue streams, too. The private equity industry to Washington: Kindly stay away from our pay. An Open Letter to the Gentleman Blow-Drying His Balls in the Gym Locker Room. Jon Stewart's offers his beleaguered pal some advice: "You gotta keep it cleaner, Wiener." “Mr. Blagojevich, you are a convicted liar, correct?” "Yes." The Blagojevich circus starts anew. Forbes takes a quick look at the money behind John Edwards: heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. If Groupon has to keep spending to attract customers the way it is now, then it will likely never be profitable. Read more »
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Onswipe, a tablet publishing company said Friday that it had raised $5 million in a series A or "Awesome" round. Spark Capital led the round. Read more »
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New Feature! Most Popular Links Shared by VCs on Twitter
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 We’re not making the Tweetminster service live just yet. We want to give the company’s algorithm more time to identify experts and analyze their tweets to identify key trends. If you’d like to check out the service and share your feedback with us, please let me know and I will shoot you a password. I’m at Lawrence.Aragon@ThomsonReuters.com or you can DM on Twitter @laragon. In the meantime, here are the top 5 most popular links being shared by our experts right now. Let us know what you think. 1. Spark, Lightbank And Yuri Milner Get In On OnSwipe’s $5M ‘Series Awesome’ (TechCrunch) 2. Slideshow: Top 10 Winners in pre-IPO Cash-Out at Groupon (peHUB) 3. Windows 8: The Beginning of the End of Windows (MobileOpportunity blog) 4. Let's Not Get Too Cocky About the Bubble (TechCrunch) 5. Pandora Sets IPO Terms; VC Shares Are Potentially Worth Over $950M (peHUB) Read more »
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Slideshow: Q2’s Most Active Buyers
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 ... Read more »
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Serial Entrepreneur Firdaus Bhathena on His Newest Startup, Ziptr
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 So who is Bhathena, and what is he doing? As many in the Boston area already know, Bhathena most recently founded Relicore, ...
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VCJ Report: VCs Show Their Healthy Pursuits With Fitness Startups
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 Is he crazy to invest in his hobby? Gretsch, managing director of Sigma Partners, recalls that when he joined the firm in 2000, a colleague quietly pulled him aside and gave him a piece of advice. “If you ever have the urge to invest in a sailing company, just buy the sailboa...
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Poll Results: 65% Think Goldman Will Dodge Criminal Charges
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 Yesterday, Goldman received a subpoena from the Manhattan District Attorney, which is investigating GS's role in the financial crisis. The subpoena stems from a Senate subcommittee report released in April. The report accuses Goldman of making a huge bet against the housing market, misleading investors, mismanaging conflicts of interests and putting its interest ahead of its clients, according to the Wall Street Journal. We asked you whether the Feds may slap Goldman with some criminal charges. A majority, or 64.6%, doesn’t think the IB will get hit with anything. But a significant number, or 35.4%, think Goldman may finally get charged. What have we learned? There's still a lot of hate for Goldman, which became public enemy No. 1 during the financial downturn. The Goldman conspiracies were numerous: it had a role in Bear Stearns’ collapse, it has had undue influence on the Fed, and it benefited from the financial crisis (GS got $13 billion in AIG CDOs repaid — on top of the $10 billion in TARP funds it received). Read more »
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Apollo Global Management has named Michael Ducey to its board of directors, and also to the board’s audit and conflicts committee. Ducey was most recently with Compass Minerals International, where he served as president, chief executive and director. He retired from the company in May 2006. Earlier in his career, Ducey worked for nearly 30 years at Borden Chemical. Read more »
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Attends Healthcare Inc., a portfolio company of KPS Capital Partners, has completed its second recap in the past 14 months, the firm announced Friday. The $133 million recap was funded by a combination of upsizing the company’s term loan, cash on hand and asset based revolving credit facility, KPS said in a written statement. The money was used to refinance outstanding debt and fund a $35 million distribution to stockholders. Read more »
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Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has added James Huang as a partner in its Shanghai offices. Huang will advise on life science investments. Huang joins from life science-focused Vivo Ventures, where he was a managing partner. Earlier in his career, Huang was president of Anesiva, a biopharmaceutical company focused on pain management. Read more »
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Raising capital to develop its new Model X crossover vehicle, Tesla Motors said it will sell 5.3 million shares in an offering the company priced at $28.76, equal to the stock's most recent closing price, Reuters reported. Chief Executive Elon Musk will buy 1.42 million shares in the offering. Daimler affiliate Blackstar Investco will buy 637,475 shares. Read more »
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CIT Group Inc. has led a $204 million credit facility to support refinancing of Ernest Health, the firm announced Friday. Ernest Health, which is backed by private equity firm Ferrer Freeman & Co., is a provider of post-acute care services. CIT Healthcare served as sole bookrunner, joint lead arranger and administrative agent on the $150 million first lien debt, and as sole bookrunner and lead arranger on the $54 million second lien debt, the firm said in a written statement. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed. Read more »
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Hercules Technology Growth Capital said Friday that it has added Paul Enderle, Chad Norman and Brad Pritchard as managing directors. Enderle joins the technology and lower middle market group in Hercules' Boston office. Norman joins in Palo Alto, Calif., as a managing director in the life sciences group. Pritchard joins the cleantech group and will also be based in Palo Alto.
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peHUB First Read
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 Next To Go Public: Zynga is close to hiring Goldman for its IPO. No More: PayPal cuts ties to Alibaba. Going Legit: How 7 black hat hackers landed regular jobs. A Deal: Vangent is up for sale and may fetch $1 billion. Prediction: Android will overtake the iPad just the way it did the iPhone. Getting Smacked: John Edwards is expected to be indicted today on criminal charges for trying to cover-up his extra-marital affair. Cure Possible: The man who had HIV and now he doesn't. With Certitude: Rep. Anthony Weiner, of New York, now goes quiet about the "photo" after talking endlessly about it. Read more »
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Mandarin Capital Partners is pouring 40 million euro ($57.9 million) into Italian textile group Miroglio, Reuters reported. The deal comes as part of a more than $700 million fashion sector investment by the Chinese-European private equity firm, Reuters wrote.
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Tuffieh Private Equity Fund will buy an 85% stake in Czech logistics firm CS Cargo, Reuters reported Friday. Financil terms of the deal were not released. CS Cardo hired JP Morgan last year to prepare it for a potential IPO. Read more »
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Private equity firm Symphony Technology Group has wrapped up its $165 million acquisition of Shopzilla. The deal included $150 million in cash, and $15 million in deferred payments. Wells Fargo Capital Finance and Tennenbaum Capital Partners provided debt financing for the deal. Shopzilla’s online shopping brands include Bizrate, Beso and TaDa. Symphony bought Shopzilla from Scripps Networks Interactive. The deal was first announced in April. Read more »
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