Peter Thiel’s initial claim to fame was as the CEO of Paypal.
Today he runs Clarium Capital Management and the Founders’ Fund. The former is a hedge fund with $2B under management, the latter is a $50M venture capital fund that has raised the ire of uber angel investor Ron Conway, mainly for allowing entrepreneurs to partially cash out when they sell equity to VCs in funding rounds. continue reading...
To estimate how much a company is worth, you can look at:
1- comparables amongst publicly traded companies
2- recent merger and acquisition deals
3- estimate its future earning power, discounted to today
4- forecast what an asset would fetch in an auction or sale, be it in an M&A or an IPO. continue reading...
The last time we heard an M&A rumor involving Microsoft, Yahoo!’s stock shot up 18%, only to come crashing down when nothing materialized. In fact, by the time the markets closed on the very same day the rumor crept up [again], that rumor was squashed.
Today, the rumor mill began again with Facebook being the latest company within Microsoft’s cross-hairs. If there’s one thing I learned involving MSFT is I’ll believe it when I see it. continue reading...
Less than 48 hours ago, I laughed-out-loud when I read that Bay Partners would be setting up a separate fund to invest in Facebook Application Developments (which incidentally spells fad, but that’s really just a coincidence). Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely bullish on Facebook (Facebook 100M users, a matter of when, not if) and if I were a part of the company I could envision a dozen ways to create an Ad Sense-esque revenue stream… but the fact remains, Facebook Apps is no brass ring for third parties. I’ve written on this here: Facebook OS: Be careful what you ask for.
In fact, by now it’s quite obvious that this is Facebook’s way to not only drum up excitement amongst developers but mainly a way to try to find that diamond in the rough product or application that it can then either develop itself, partner up with or outright acquire in the hopes of it becoming what Ad Sense was to Google: a $10B annual revenue stream within 4 years of launch. continue reading...
