Gawker
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lawsuits
The New Penthouse Letters: HR Exec Files FriendFinder Suit
FriendFinder Networks, the publisher of Penthouse and operator of adult-classifieds websites, is facing a sexy legal scandal. A former top executive who went public with her grievances has now filed a lawsuit. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by doggotmyshoes: It must be really confusing to the not=so=smart porn workers (or Penthouse Pets or whatever their correct title is) what... 7 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
Penthouse Magazine Closing? CEO Says No, COO Says Yes
Internet porn has devastated old-fashioned smut rags. We now hear a top executive at FriendFinder Networks, the publisher of Penthouse, wants to close the money-losing magazine down. But his boss denies it.
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By Owen ThomasComment by TedSez: So other than going to a liquor store and surreptitiously asking the sleazy guy behind the counter for a creepy... 5 Responses | Other threads
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lawsuits
FriendFinder's Latest Scandal Sexier Than a Penthouse Letter
A porn star draping boobs over an employee's head. Lapdances on the company dime. $50 million in back taxes. These are just some of the charges Penthouse publisher FriendFinder Networks is facing from an ex-employee.
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By Owen ThomasComment by michaellamb: how can someone get hired to for penthouse and expect to have an HR by-the-books company. Come on. If you... 17 Responses | Other threads
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jackpot
Penthouse Porn IPO to Pay for Adult FriendFinder Founder's Car
Andrew Conru, a geeky mechanical engineer turned porn baron who founded one of the Web's raciest personals site, made out well when Penthouse bought Adult FriendFinder. He even unloaded a $125,000 car on the operation.
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By Owen ThomasComment by adrianscott: Andrew Conru freakin' rocks and I'd buy his next car along with his next startup. What puzzles me is why the... 2 Responses | Other threads
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web 2.0
The bubble that wasn't
Jason Calacanis, the mop-haired founder of Mahalo, an overfunded Web directory, is musing on Twitter about "tickers and rallies past" — a Proustian substitution of stock markets for madeleines. But what, exactly, does he have to be nostalgic for?
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By Owen ThomasComment by JasonCalacanis: JCAL still in the game 4.87m uniques last month & Knicks got $40m in cap space 2010 LeBron coming December 15th Project A threads the... 4 Responses | Other threads
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ipo
Survey says: No IPOs until late next year
Among a group of tech executives and venture capitalists, 9 out of 10 respondents to a survey commissioned by law firm DLA Piper say they do not expect the tech-IPO market to return until the end of 2009. [DLA Piper]
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By Owen ThomasComment by macbeach: Translation: We don't know what 2010 will look like but we sure as hell aren't going to get rich... more » | Other threads
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vish makhijani
Yandex nixes IPO, which sucks for that Yahoo it just hired
This summer's no-brainer career move now looks like a headscratcher. Vish Makhijani left his job as Yahoo's head of search in June to join Yandex, a Russian search engine which had filed for a $3 billion public offering the month before. Getting pre-IPO stock options, with the exit in plain sight? Much better than watching Yahoo shares sink from $34 to below $13. But Yandex has postponed its IPO plans. Anyone want to take bets on how long Makhijani will stay as CEO of Yandex Labs, the company's U.S. outpost? Memo to Vish: Microsoft may still be hiring. -
meltdowns
Nasdaq tumble stops LinkedIn stock sale plan
Conventional Valley wisdom: The chaos in the public stock markets won't affect private companies, right? Wrong. In August, LinkedIn had set plans to let employees sell some of their shares to investors. Interest in the company had been keen, given its stated plans to wait to IPO rather than sell out. But the stock-sale plan was conditioned on the Nasdaq index staying above a certain level. It has since fallen through that floor, meaning employees will no longer be able to sell their shares. And we hear Bain Capital, a major LinkedIn investor who's backing the stock-sales plan, has the right to walk away if the Nasdaq doesn't recover by mid-October.
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By Owen ThomasComment by michaellamb: what about facebook? aren't they set to start selling soon too? more » | Other threads
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fluidigm
Lehman-backed biotech startup to IPO this week — why?
Later this week, San Francisco biotech startup Fluidigm plans to become only the seventh venture-backed startup to go public this year. 86 venture-backed startups pulled the trick last year. “This is terrible timing for this company,” said Scott Sweet, a senior managing partner at specialty research firm IPO Boutique, to the New York Times. Fluidigm, which makes a rubber-based circuit for life-science research, should be intimately aware of that. It's backed by bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers' Healthcare Venture Capital division. Fluidigm wants to raise between $70 million and $85 million. Sweet doesn't think it's going to happen. “In this environment, when people are feverishly babysitting the little profits they have left in their core positions, why would they want to take a risk on Fluidigm?” (Photo by azrainman) -
Advanced Equities
The worst VC firm you've never heard of
Venture capital is a game of hits. That's part of the reason why the industry is so secretive — most startups fail, with the few successes paying back investors, if the're lucky. Sunshine, venture capitalists feel, would merely serve to highlight the awkward in-between stages. That's what's so curious about Advanced Equities, the Chicago-based VC firm which has sprung up out of the blue, and is now talking about going public. As Forbes amply documents, it's a rotten business. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by RyanDowell: As a former broker for AEI I can assure you that every allegation in the Fotrbes article is 100% on... more » | Other threads
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ipo
Rackspace IPO's lesson? Rackspace shouldn't have gone public
One's tempted to praise Rackspace, the San Antonio-based Web-hosting provider, for having the bravery to try an IPO at a time when most tech companies are doing everything they can to avoid the public markets. But with its stock closing the day at $10.01, almost 20 percent below the offering price, Rackspace's IPO was a crashing disappointment. As has the service to its customers. Rackspace once promised "fanatical" customer service. But the company's management seem most fanatical about taking care of themselves. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by mtkd: Getting an IPO set up is very expensive, they were probably too committed to back down when the markets soured. Also,... more » | Other threads
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spinoffs
Even eBay wishes PayPal weren't part of eBay now
PayPal's CEO is talking up the company's business handling payments on websites other than eBay. Where have I heard this before? Oh yes: In April 2002, when I had coffee with Peter Thiel, then the CEO of PayPal as an independent concern. He talked up the prospects of growing PayPal's business on other websites. He agreed to sell PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion that July, and left three months later. And then I heard the story again, and again, and again, as eBay pushed a number of forgettable executives through the revolving door of PayPal's executive suite. More » -
lise buyer
There were no tech IPOs last quarter and that's a good thing
“I get cranky when talk turns to an IPO ‘drought,” says Lise Buyer, the former Wall Street analyst who took Google public in 2004, in an interview with Private Equity HUB. There were zero tech IPOs last quarter. July 2008 had the fewest IPOs of any July in the past four years. Buyer's not sure all that is such a bad thing. More »
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Comment by Passerby: "but I also said, don't value businesses on eyeballs, and if the fundamentals aren't there and you want to invest... more » | Other threads
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lise buyer
Banker who helped take Google public wants to do the same for Facebook
Here's a worthy contrarian to pop the bubble in Facebook bears. In 2003, former Wall Street analyst Lise Buyer wrote Google CEO Eric Schmidt and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin a note reading: “I don’t know if you’ll ever want to go public but I bet that, having been on the other side of the table, I could be helpful to you if so.” Now, four years after Schmidt, Page and Brin said yes and Buyer helped take Google public in 2004, she's got the same message for Facebook. "To be candid," Buyer told Private Equity HUB, "I’d love to work with them." She said why: More » -
jackpot
LinkedIn employees also allowed to sell some stock
At a recent company meeting, management told LinkedIn employees they would soon be allowed to sell as much as 20 percent of their vested options at a $500 million valuation. Word leaked yesterday that Facebook plans to allow its employees to do the same. Both LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg want to take their companies public — and thereby get their employees paid — but it won't happen soon. LinkedIn expects to earn about $100 million in 2008, but VentureBeat reports that bankers want to see that number hit $200 million before bothering to file papers. The public markets aren't hungry enough for anything less. In July, only 56 companies went public, raising $5.6 billion in their IPOs. During the same month last year, 190 companies raised $31.7 billion on their initial foray into the public markets.
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Comment by Shadowlayer: @DanLar75: I was just going to mention that. On an equivalent scale, FB should be making at least $1 billion (1/5... more » | Other threads
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exits
Why Mayfield's Allen Morgan is Web 2.0's biggest flameout
"Investing $5 million in a company that gets bought out for $25 million isn't going to get me into the VC Hall of Fame," Mayfield Fund VC Allen Morgan told Wired in 2006. "That's not why I got into this business." But that is why he's getting out of the business. Morgan was a champion of the Web 2.0 movement, suavely predicting that now-forgotten startups he funded like Pluck and JotSpot would soon go public in splashy IPOs. He bet that the spread of broadband would resuscitate business ideas which failed in the 1990s. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ddenhart: I would like to add to this more positive trend/theme that several of the more recent posts have created. ... more » | Other threads
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bad ideas
Why LinkedIn's getting into the insider-trading business
You'd think LinkedIn management, which has made no secret of its plans to take its automated schmoozefest public, would be trying to avoid trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Not so. They're aggressively marketing the company's latest moneymaking scheme, LinkedIn Research, to hedge fund managers. The premise: Traders can use LinkedIn to find "experts" with "unique input" on public companies in their portfolio. What LinkedIn marketers delicately phrase as "input," SEC investigators might well call "inside information." And the only thing actionable about the whole affair might be the insider-trading charges that result. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by steve94301: I think the author misses a major point. Talking to people at a public company is perfectly okay--as long as... more » | Other threads
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stocks
Rackspace irons out accounting kinks as it dresses up for IPO
With four different CFOs in only five years, Rackspace has had to take a fine-toothed comb to the books in advance of the server farm's IPO. According to documents filed with regulators, the company disclosed a "material weakness" in its accounting. But if you believe IPO Boutique analyst Scott Sweet, this is all very typical and the deal is still very much in demand. Investors like Sequoia Capital could probably care less whether or not Rackspace cooked the books — once it goes public, they're liquid and Rackspace's spotty uptime, customer dissatisfaction and financial office revolving door is no longer their problem. However Chairman Graham Weston, pictured here, should probably keep that hard hat on just in case. (Photo by Robert Scoble)
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By Jackson WestComment by Owen Thomas: @dgolding: Thanks for the catches, name and title corrected. more » | Other threads
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clips
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman explains his IPO jitters
"We think we could go public on our numbers," LInkedIn founder Reid Hoffman tells Tech Ticker's Sarah Lacy in a video interview (excerpted below). But the company, which just raised $53 million, won't IPO because it would rather reinvest its profits and because the U.S. public markets are too turbulent right now. Hoffman says LinkedIn will use the money in part to buy "good, small tech teams." In the clip, Hoffman says the race with Facebook toward an IPO isn't much of a race. It's more like, "No, you go first," he explains. Hoffman and his handpicked CEO, Dan Nye, shouldn't grow too cautious. Hoffman himself helped PayPal go public during the last downturn, so he knows a strong company can thrive in a poor market. But more importantly, for a professional's social network like LinkedIn, we can't imagine much better free marketing than the nonstop coverage CNBC would give consumer tech's first major IPO in years. More »
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Comment by dingdongditch: The dude already did an IPO....of a different type I Porked Out more » | Other threads
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ipo
Why Wall Street would be happy to work with Naveen Jain again
Naveen Jain, InfoSpace's sole founder (and don't you forget it), is back in business and angling for another IPO with Bellevue, Wash.-based Intelius. The consumer-information broker's business practices are pretty scammy according to details unearthed by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington — and the unsavory parts of its business are the only ones growing appreciably. But where Arrington goes wrong is in thinking that news of the racket will dissuade investment bankers and traders from doing business with Jain. More » -
search
Sergey Brin wants to milk Mother Russia
One place Google is losing the battle for Web search market share is in Russia, the ancestral homeland of Google founder Sergey Brin. The company has developed better Russian word and language processing, but still trails Yandex, which is planning an IPO on an estimated company value of $3 billion. Why doesn't Brin just embrace his inner oligarch and buy Yandex? That seems easier. -
ipo
RealNetworks to spin off its games business
RealNetworks' games business grew revenues 33 percent since the first quarter of 2007. CEO Rob Glaser thinks it could grow even faster on its own. RealNetworks announced today it plans to spin off the casual games business and "may precede the spin with an initial public offering and sale of up to 20 percent of the shares," according to a press release. RealNetworks will also buy back $50 million worth of stock.
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Comment by BobDope: He looks lie he took a dump that made him feel like he just slept 12 hours. Hoo-ah! more » | Other threads
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ipo
Rackspace applies for a $400 million IPO
Managed-hosting service Rackspace has filed with the New York Stock Exchange to raise $400 million in an initial public offering. Investors Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and company chairman Graham Weston stand to profit from the exit. Rackspace reported $18 million in 2007 profits on $362 million revenues. We called the IPO in January, but we're not sold on its merits. More »
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Comment by racker: Hello all, I have read all of the posts above and am disappointed from what is perceived about Rackspace outside the... more » | Other threads
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ipo
Visa drops $18 billion IPO, the largest ever
Shares of San Francisco-based Visa jumped more than 30 percent today in the largest initial public offering in U.S. history. Visa issued 406 million shares at $44 each to raise almost $18 billion. More than half of the IPO take is going to its shareholder banks, which include Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. Convenient: While the IPO has long been planned, the cash will come in handy right now. (Photo by AP/Richard Drew)
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Comment by Fidel on the Roof: @Jordan Golson: Wow. That doesn't sound like a lot of work at all. Going public for existing shareholders makes sense. more » | Other threads
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adult friendfinder
Penthouse plans $250 million public offering
Financier and CEO Marc Bell plans to take Penthouse Media Group public in a $250 million IPO. If investors take the bait, it'll likely be on the strength of Adult FriendFinder and the rest of the Web properties Penthouse bought from Andrew Conru last December for $500 million. After the acquisition, Penthouse projected its 2007 revenues would reach $340 million — most of that from Adult FriendFinder. Some of the proceeds from the IPO, if it succeeds, will go to pay off debt from the acquisition.
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Comment by rumourone: Andrew is doing well. He feels a little tramatized by the adult industry-imagine the hours he has worked and imagine... more » | Other threads
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ipo
Tesla Motors wants another $250 million
Tesla Motors, which finally shipped its first electric car earlier this month, hopes to raise $250 million in equity and debt to fund its mass production push, over the next two years. Chairman Elon Musk wants to conduct an IPO in New York or London, raise money privately and apply for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build a U.S. production plant for Tesla's forthcoming electric sports sedan. Tesla has raised $145 million in venture capital, including a $40 million round that closed last week. Elon, don't spend it all in one place.
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Comment by PhilDewey: If they can figure out a way to make the motor sound like a top fuel dragster engine I'll buy... more » | Other threads
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loser-generated content
Al Gore's Current files for $100 million IPO
So much for the notion of cheap, user-generated content. Current Media, the operator of the Current TV cable channel and Current.com, hopes to raise $100 million in an IPO. Last year, the company, cofounded by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, had revenues of $63.8 million and lost $17.1 million. Current's website isn't generating significant advertising, and the company makes most of its money in an old-fashioned way: fees from cable providers. The company is desperately short on cash; as of December 31, it had $2.2 million, and this month, it opened up a $50 million line of credit from JPMorgan Chase, in exchange for the right to take the company public. But the most puzzling thing in the prospectus is this: Current spent $31.4 million on programming and production in 2007. Isn't it supposed to run entirely on submissions from viewers?
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By Owen ThomasComment by Fidel on the Roof: It is like a facebook for tv. Bulls___ hype with no real valuation, purpose and long (heck... short) term viability more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Rackspace going public, according to source's friend's neighbor
Besieged managed hosting service Rackspace will go public "sooner rather than later," an anonymous poster claims on Web Hosting Talk. The source cites "a close friend who is neighbors with one for the bankers working the deal" so the source is rock solid. Or actually its not. It's gossip. Which is what we do around here, 'kay? -
ipo
LinkedIn chairman hints at IPO in 2009
LinkedIn is off the block, cofounder Reid Hoffman told the Sydney Morning Herald. "We have had (buyout) conversations with all the usual suspects, but I think an IPO is by far and away the most likely outcome," Hoffman said. He suggested, however, that such a public offering might not happen for at least another year or two. One ex-LinkedIn exec said that's much too long a wait. More »
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Comment by johnderby: hmmm...they used to say 2008 revenues would be $100mn, now they are cranking that down to $75-100 million. What gives? more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Is Slide prepping for an IPO?
BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy has more details on Slide's new funding round: Max Levchin's Web widget factory is now valued at $550 million, after raising funds from the likes of Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price. While the company is mum on IPO prospects, such big institutional investors typically come in during a so-called "mezzanine" round — a company's final private financing before a public stock offering. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by dula: wow how stupid are these investors? theyre just asking to go broke more » | Other threads
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ipo
Kayak and Sidestep merge, plan for IPO
Travel search engines Kayak and Sidestep will merge to form a new company, according to reports. As part of the deal, Kayak raised another $196 million from current investors Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Accel Partners as well as from Sidestep investors Norwest Venture Partners and Trident Capital and new investors Oak Investment Partners and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. The merger will create the fifth largest online travel destination. That sad boast might make you wonder, how'd they get so many VCs on board? More »
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Comment by calbear81: Metasearch travel sites get several sources of revenue, mainly from Adwords style text ads that are contextually targeted to your... more » | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
NetSuite files corrections for the New York Times
The SEC's website is the new location of the New York Times' corrections page. NetSuite stock is up 12 percent today after its $26-a-share IPO debut, a long-awaited victory for the Larry Ellison-backed software company, as the Times noted earlier this week. But it appears that the paper got several things wrong. More » -
ipo
NetSuite, the online business-software company based in San Mateo, has priced its IPO, selling 6.2 million shares at $26 a share to raise $161 million. Its first trading day may not see a big pop, however, as the company has warned: Its auction-based offering sets the price, in theory, at what the market will bear. Conventional IPOs are typically underpriced, allowing for more of a rise. NetSuite has already seen a boost: Expectations were for an IPO in the $16 to $19 range. [Reuters] -
stocks
NetSuite IPO not good for a quick buck
Web software provider NetSuite's IPO, set for this Friday, should be one of the last of 2007. Despite losing $20.6 million on $76.8 million in revenues — wait, isn't Web software supposed to be more profitable than desktop software? — expectations are running high. Get-rich-quick artists may be disappointed. More »
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Comment by Princedudi: Netsuite will have tough times justifying their price over the next 24 months simply because of the fierce competition by... more » | Other threads
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classmates.com
United Online is withdrawing its proposed IPO of Classmates.com, perhaps the world's most annoying social network. An FTC probe, a weak stock market, weaker financials, and even weaker comparisons to the current crop of social networks means the discount ISP will need to find another way to unload its $100 million purchase. Our suggestion: Just close it down. [CNNMoney]
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By Tim FaulknerComment by Rock tha Hizzee: The intelligence of withdrawing the IPO is dwarfed only by the stupidity to try an IPO in the first place. more » | Other threads
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followup
Facebook founder faces shareholder revolt
I was duped on a scoop. Word had reached me, from multiple sources, that Mark Zuckerberg had sold $40 million worth of shares in Facebook's $300 million financing round. Not so, we hear: All of the $300 million Facebook raised from Microsoft and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing is in the company's bank account, not Zuckerberg's. So why the rumor? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by iAlex: You can not prevent someone from selling there vested shares. This becomes a liabilty for the company. Though, companies will... more » | Other threads
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conflicts of interest
The selling of NetSuite
In every startup's life, before it can go public, there's a ritual called the roadshow. NetSuite, an online-software company backed by Larry Ellison, may begin its run as soon as Thursday, having filed an updated prospectus with the SEC detailing its plans to issue shares to the public. The total: As much as $99 million from the sale of 6.2 million shares. One unlikely buyer has already put his money in: Salesforce.com board member Craig Ramsey, who bought $3.5 million from company CEO Zach Nelson and founder Evan Goldberg. Silicon Alley Insider reports that Ramsey's son works at NetSuite, but the purchase is still curious. Also playing the field: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who put money into Goldberg's NetSuite and Benioff's Salesforce.com.
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By Owen ThomasComment by gettingback: This has nothing to do with IPO? or does it? Zach should be paying close attention to the NetSuite class... more » | Other threads
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ipo
Aliba-what? Profit-taking drops Alibaba.com share price almost 20 percent
Alibaba.com, the most anticipated IPO since Google, dropped almost 18 percent to HK$32.60 as quick-trading investors captured profits. Yesterday, on the first day of trading, Alibaba.com shot up 300% from HK$13.50 at open to HK$39.50. Perhaps investors who bought at the peak paused to look into Alibaba.com's real business. The Chinese B2B site matches up industrial buyers and sellers — want to buy 50,000 metric tons of Brazilian soybeans? Parent company Alibaba Group runs Yahoo China, which I suspect at least some retail investors thought they were buying. But no — Yahoo China wasn't part of the IPO deal.
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Comment by mandarin: HK Stock Exchange is known for that. A lot of those clowns who trade there trade in margin so dont... more » | Other threads
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ipo
Alibaba.com triples IPO price
Alibaba.com, perhaps the most anticipated IPO since Google, nearly tripled in price to HK$39.50 after opening at HK$13.50. If you weren't able to catch any shares, you may get some vicarious plesure from analyst quotes about the company. Hong Kong investors "trade stocks like they're playing at the baccarat table." "There is a total absence of reason and cause" for the high price of the stock. "It's irrational and foolish." Yahoo, which owns 39 percent of parent company Alibaba Group, bought an additional $100 million in Alibaba.com shares. I'm betting they're happy. -
ipo
Alibaba.com, the business-to-business unit of the Alibaba Group, raised $1.5 billion with its IPO, breaking a record for Chinese Internet companies. The $1.5 billion also makes the public offering the largest tech IPO since Google raised $1.66 billion in 2004. Alibaba's PE ratio, around 55, is a bit Googly as well. Google's shares price it at 52.9 times earnings. One wonders if investors realize that Alibaba's search business wasn't part of the package. [WSJ]
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Comment by Nicholas Carlson: @brkm76: If our facts are wrong, blame the Wall Street Journal story. The lede: "Alibaba.com Ltd. raised US$1.5 billion in... more » | Other threads
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