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Week In Review
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 Questioning the Fanboy Fascination with Andreessen Horowitz In the last few weeks, I’ve friended an employee at Andreessen Horowitz, who I consider a smart guy and someone worth knowing and who always has smart tweets. By no fault of his own, he may be working at an overhyped firm. Or, at the very least, it’s a firm that has not yet generated the cash-on-cash returns that justify the amount of attention it has been getting. At least that was my takeaway from reading a story about the firm from my colleague Connie Loizos, who took a look at the media frenzy surrounding Andreessen Horowitz since it was launched in mid-2009 with a $300 million fund. Connie talked to social psychologist Amy Cuddy of Harvard Business School, who recently produced research suggesting that people are likely to see someone as competent if they’ve demonstrated expertise in just one area, even if they later display incompetence elsewhere. So whereas Andreessen and Horowitz are great technologists, the jury is still out on whether they’re investment geniuses. You be the judge on whether they’re overhyped. The post drew 17 responses, most of them in agreement with Connie's assessment. Reader Eric wrote: "Nice balanced article, Connie. It’s good to have at least one rational voice out there willing to do their own thinking, rather than simply serving up the pre-packaged PR flak that we seem to be getting from others. Kudos to Andreessen Horowitz for the savvy to tap the LP’s while they are enthusiastic for the unproven product, rather than waiting for the (possibly good, possibly bad) performance to manifest itself." Read more »
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Mobile Commerce Is The Future, But Customer Acquisition Is Street By Street
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 So how does a tiny next generation startup compete with today’s more entrenched players? That seemed to be the unanswered question at the Under the Radar conference today in Mountain View, Calif. The conference brought together more than two dozen young companies eager to promote mobile commerce and change consumer behavior around the world. Some were just getting off the ground. CheckPoints, a...
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peHUB Second Opinion 11.12
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 Carl Icahn has more than one interest in the Dynegy dispute. Expect Facebook's "Gmail Killer" to enter your life on Monday. Sequoia Capital lands Tumblr, in the second aggressive West Coast bid for an East Coast startup this week. No wonder Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson is feeling troubled. Wait, a startup scores $5 million to deliver pet food to your door. Now I'm feeling troubled, too. Clearly, Y Combinator means business. Apparently too impatient to wait until December, Time compiles its "Top 50 Best Inventions of 2010." It began with real estate, but now, the economy is impacting swinging parties and clubs in New York, too. (Sad.) Read more »
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Ceasar’s Entertainment, Backed by Apollo and TPG, To Go Public Late Next Week
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 Ceasar’s is expected to price its deal on Thursday, Nov. 18 and trade the next day, a person says. The company is selling 31.25 million shares at $15 to $17 each. It will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol “CZR.” Citi and Credit Suisse are joint bookrunners on the deal. Other underwriters include BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. Read more »
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First Round’s Charlie O’Donnell on What’s Right/Wrong with NY Tech Scene
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 It’s a ways from where O’Donnell thought he would be not so long ago. In the summer of 2009, O’Donnell’s startup, Path 101, was running on fumes, unable to attract Series A funding. When he ran into Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital at a popular event that O’Donnell organizes, both spotted a match. First Round had sewn up a dozen deals in New York but wanted to be better plugged in. O’Donnell -- who worked in junior roles at both General Motors Pension Fund and Union Square Ventures before starting Path 101 -- needed a job. Read more »
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Energy Powerhouse Eyes Asia Expansion
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 The plans are in their earliest stages and no office openings or personnel changes are imminent, Krueger said. Three spots where the Greenwich, Conn.-based firm is focusing for a possible office are Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore, for now, Krueger said. "We are actively talking about what the best location is," he said. Read more »
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NEWS |
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Paul Ghaffari was named CIO of Vulcan Capital, which is the investment arm of Vulcan Inc. Ghaffari is a founding partner of FrontPoint Partners and was most recently a portfolio manager at Palatine Hill Partners. He will be responsible for managing Vulcan Capital's investment activities. Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, started Vulcan Inc. in 1986 to manage his philanthropic and business endeavors. Vulcan Capital was formed in 2003 and has invested in Charter Communications and DreamWorks. Read more »
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Mobile Startup Retailigence Attracts Top Pedigree Investors In $1.5M Seed Round
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The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company has developed an application program interface, or API, to link mobile shopping applications to backroom data, such as inventory records. It also works with location-based services to help drive foot traffic and opportunities for local businesses. Read more »
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Super Angel Considers LP Fundraising, But Why Share The Profits?
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“We’ve kind of contemplated it,” says super angel Marcus Ogawa, managing partner of Quest Venture Partners. But “I’m a little hesitant to do an LP-based fund.”
That’s because the financial incentive isn’t there. Why split the investment carry 80/20 when you can keep it all yourself? ...
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peHUB First Read
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 Deals: Amazon's acquisitions make sense since its stock is trading so high, says Jeff Bailey. Seeking an Exit: Blackstone UK exec calls on buyout industry to go to war to convinces investors that PE-backed IPOs aren't complete busts. FB's Monday Event: Facebook's secret Project Titan, which is supposed to kill Gmail, is expected to be unveiled during Facebook's special event Monday. Selling Shares: Yuri Milner says his investments give companies an alternative to selling shares to the public. Read more »
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NEWS |
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TDC’s private equity owners are looking to sell some of their stake in the Danish telecommunications group, Reuters said. Apax Partners, Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Permira Advisers and Providence Equity Partners own nearly 88 percent of TDC. Two sources familiar with the matter said the private equity owners would sell about $2.9 billion worth of TDC stock. The sellers will remain significant shareholders in TDC after the transaction.
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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn increased his stake in Dynegy Inc. to 12.9 percent from about 9.95 percent and will offer a $2 billion credit to the Houston,Texas-based electricity producer, Reuters said. Icahn also plans to oppose Blackstone Group LP’s offer to acquire the Dynegy for $543 million, or $4.7 billion including debt.
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peHUB Second Opinion 11.11
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Bloomberg BusinessWeek profiles Baidu, the search engine that kicked Google's butt out of China. When a pissed-off developer emailed Steve Jobs about his rejected iPhone app, he wasn't looking for a personal phone call back. But you know how Steve Jobs is -- full of surprises! Amazon's shares are so overvalued, it'd be qwazy not to be on a shopping spree, according to YCharts. Viacom is done jamming to the music video game "Rock Band." Four years after paying $175 million for its parent company, Harmonix, it's up for grabs. Healthcare reform is driving nervous hospitals into one another's arms. Don't bet against the fed creating another asset bubble, says hedgie David Einhorn. The Donald shares his thoughts on grooming successful kids. Read more »
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