Global Entrepreneurship Institute

Danger Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of software and services for mobile handsets, has withdrawnits registration for a $100 million IPO. The move is related to Microsoft’s recent agreement to acquire Danger for approximately $500 million. Danger has raised around $142 million in total VC funding since 2000, including a Series E round in late 2006 at a post-money valuation of approximately $187 million. Shareholders include Mobius Venture Capital (17.6%), Redpoint Ventures (14.8%), T-Mobile (12.6%), Softbank Capital (12.7%), Motorola (11.2%), Meritech Capital Partners (7.8%) and VSP Capital (6.2%).

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Discussions About Creating An Exit Strategy

 Here are some of comments we have shared with some entrepreneurs. Your exit strategy is important because it helps you define success in business. When entrepreneurs have not thought through an exit strategy, it may be an indicator that they are not focused on the eventual transition of the venture. Continue reading ‘Why is an exit strategy so important?’ »

Setting Exit Goals and Triggering Events for Harvesting

A number of events may trigger a decision to sell your venture—since selling at the right time can provide substantial liquidity for you and your investors. And how important is the timing of the exit? Just like the window of opportunity for getting a venture launched, the window of opportunity for exiting and harvesting a venture opens and closes quickly as well. Continue reading ‘What are triggering events for an exit? (harvest)’ »

Briefing on Getting Acquired

In Solving the Merger Mystery, Deloitte Consulting suggests that you should plan and structure for integration early on and focus on speed only when the opportunity to be acquired comes along. This is true because all things being equal, the faster you can get acquired, the better. Being prepared increases not only the probability of your deal going through, but also the probability of success. Continue reading ‘How do we get acquired?’ »

Discussing Mergers and Acquisitions

The M&A market has changed considerably since the Perfect Storm. Around 1995, the new economy prompted a reallocation of capital previously unseen in the corporate world and drove M&A activity to record levels from 1995 on to 2000. In 2003, considered the worst economic downturn in a decade, M&A activity had not ground to a halt, however. For many ventures that are unable to arrange for an IPO, or for whom conventional bank financing during these uncertain times becomes a stretch, M&A deals still remain one of the few viable options for raising capital. They also allow venture capitalists and others to cash out their investments. Continue reading ‘What’s an M&A? (merger and aquisition)’ »

Discussing Initial Public Offerings

Looking at the 9,796 start-ups that were venture-backed between 1992 and 2001, there were 1,331, or about 14 percent, failed outright; 1,902, or 20 percent, were acquired or merged; and 5,706, or 60 percent, are still privately held. Of the latter, some may not be good enough to sell, some are too young, and some are classified as “walking dead,” which means there have not been any returns to the investors and none are really expected any time soon. The balance, 857, or 9 percent, went to initial public offerings (IPOs). Continue reading ‘Why should a company go public? (IPO)’ »

Your exit strategy is important because it helps you define success in business. When entrepreneurs have not thought through an exit strategy, it may be an indicator that they are not focused on the eventual transition of the venture. There is a saying among venture capitalists, “It’s easy to get into an investment, but how do we get out?” Continue reading ‘Case In Point: Intel Capital’ »

Understanding the Types of Securities

There are two types of financial offerings available to entrepreneurs, equity and debt. In exchange for private equity investments, the venture issues equity securities. There are three basic types of securities. Continue reading ‘What’s the difference between equity and debt?’ »

Harvesting from Your Venture’s Value

This Article supports our belief that having a harvest goal in mind and creating an exit strategy to achieve it are what separate successful entrepreneurs from the rest. Clearly, the main objective of professional entrepreneurs is to create economic value. It is unfortunate that little attention in the entrepreneurial world has been given to exiting a business venture, or what has come to be called harvesting the business. Continue reading ‘What is an exit strategy?’ »

Employee ownership and its newly coined cousin “shared capitalism” might sound like concepts straight out of the Communist Manifesto, but they’ve built a largely unnoticed niche in the U.S. economy. An estimated 20 percent, and possibly more, of the private workforce holds some form of direct ownership in the company it works for, up from almost zilch little more than three decades ago. An even larger percentage of workers receives add-on compensation based on company earnings—a quasi-ownership claim to profit from a firm’s good performance.
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