Gawker: valleywag, fidelity

Fidelity mutual funds dump their Google stake

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Fidelity mutual fund managers sold around 1.1 million Google shares in February. Fidelity's Contrafund owned $3.63 billion worth of Google stock at the beginning of the month and, after selling about 170,000 shares, $2.95 billion at the end. After selling 1 million shares, the $38.4 billion Magellan fund saw its Google investment drop even more drastically — 42 percent — from $1.81 billion to $1.04 billion. SAI notes that some of that investment decline resulted in Google shares dropping 16.5 percent in February. Cold comfort, indeed.

Fidelity and Oppenheimer dump Take-Two shares

Jordan Golson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:13:37 EDT

The two largest shareholders in Take-Two Interactive dumped a huge percentage of their holdings according to SEC filings Monday. Oppenheimer Funds sold 8.4 million shares, roughly half its holdings, lowering its stake from 23 percent to 11.5 percent. Fidelity sold 7.5 million shares — almost its entire stake. It now owns 2.75 percent, down from 14.7 percent. It's telling that the big mutual funds are willing to cash out now for a few dollars below the $26 buyout price offered by EA. Oppenheimer and Fidelity's moneymen think the deal may fall apart — at least, they're not sticking around to find out. The other possibility? They think the deal IS going to happen and don't want their money stuck in Take Two stock for a year while the details are worked out. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

Is Slide prepping for an IPO?

Owen Thomas — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:00:10 EST

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.

Lacy, citing an internal Slide presentation, says the company ranked ninth in reach on the Web, after Amazon.com, and now has 150 million users for its MySpace slide shows, Facebook apps, and other Web applets. That's an increase of 142 percent from a year ago, when Slide's valuation was reportedly a mere $80 million. A nice trick: Just double your user base, but see your valuation grow sevenfold.