Overnight Startup Successes, Unfair Advantages and VC Pile-Ons
The nature of really breaking out of the startup pack these days is becoming a viral or word of mouth (WOM) overnight success. Outside of Facebook’s social graph anaconda, Twitter has been parlayed forward by Ashton, Oprah, Britney and many of the other known-by-one-name celebs into the next Digg/Facebook/etc.
If American Idol is a barometer of talent – or Susan Boyle, an example of instant stardom (even if it took xx years to get there); then Twitter and now FourSquare are showcases of how to enter the media fray successfully. Read more >>
Digital Sky Technologies Aims $1B Digital War Chest at Asia, Australia and UK
Yuri Milner, Digital Sky Technologies’ CEO, continues to raise successive funds around digital investments, following money into Facebook, Groupon, Zygna and the recent April acquisition of AOL’s ICQ. With a new $1B war chest – or warhead – as its next stage of funding, DST will likely be adding $10-$100M+ to digital companies that do not have the same media cache as digital brands in the States.
Strong in the social space already, expect DST to pursue digital companies who are already profitable, partner well with the Facebook mothership, and scale very well. Read more >>
The Fight Over Miramax
Harvey and Bob Weinstein want to buy back Miramax, their parents’ namesake film catalog which they sold to Disney during the Eisner years for $80M.
With Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa and Fortress Financial backing them, the Weinstein’s had entered into an April exclusive buy with Disney for $625M.
However, Disney is reportedly reopening the bidding, including the Gores’ Platinum Equity Group.
Via LAT: The Weinsteins and Burkle had been in exclusive negotiations with Disney after beating out two other bidders in April: investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores and an offshore entity organized by troubled financier David Bergstein and his partner, construction magnate Ron Tutor. It’s believed that Disney plans to approach the Gores about restarting talks. Read more >>
Google TV – Game Changer for DVRs and Television Consumption
From the guys who brought you search, here’s the “Virgin Airlines” pre-flight animatic on Google TV – yes, their official two minute introductory video. This hardware/software jawdropper potentially open sources your TV, freeing you from multi-devices and esoteric program guides.
Plus, it kills the Apple TV and puts a general hurt on all set-top devices including indie notables like Boxee. I think Google has figured out TV – separate from their early Dishnet advertising beginnings – now to see what the ad ratios and overlays look like on your HD tv (those screenshots are thankfully not animated…yet). Read more >>
Saban Re-Brands Transmedia Brands with $500M in Capital
Just when you thought IP/patent libraries and protection only covered technology – with allusions to Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures and its patent aggregating history – Haim Saban’s capital group has jumped into the brand valuation business, and it’s a rather ingenious play.
With enough capital to carve out real brands and bring them to life via transmedia (i.e., across all media), Saban is creating value separate from the media/technology base that most look at for in IP.
His recent “Power Rangers” buy-back from Disney allows his team to reinvigorate brands that, in this case, Disney bought from Saban. Read more >>
Inception: Renovating The Matrix
DiCaprio has jumped on the “subconscious security” bandwagon with Warner Bros’ Inception film. Part Matrix reboot, part step-off from The Dark Knight for director Nolan, the film promises to create interesting comparisons between past Matrix travestologies (yes, a travesty in the trilogy mashup).
Christopher Nolan reinvigorated the cop flick with Memento, and of course reclaimed Batman from the Burton/Schumacher fiasco-sequels, but his latest WB initiative could create the next individual, filmmaker innovation, a la Peter Jackson, James Cameron and even Michael Bay’s box office reawakening with Transformers.
Vicious Capital: 15 Snap-On, Start-Up Acquisitions by Big Tech Firms Last Week
The thrust of new acquisitions has been increasing interest in what many believe is a next wave of tech acquisitions – primarily around cloud computing and mobile, some might argue – yet as this trends, it promotes another wave of utility offerings.
With FourSquare walking away from Yahoo (or the converse), Zynga walking away from Facebook and other start-ups looking at sales instead of IPOs, it appears a good time to look at the big tech players and see where there is complementary utility or opportunity.
I.e., if Cisco can go after ad-based social networks (Eos) and flash video devices (Flip cams) and HP can go after mobile handsets (Palm), what does this portend for other big tech players looking to diversify their tech offerings?
Per GigaOm: Technology companies over the last few years cut costs to the point that they now have cash surpluses — which they haven’t been shy about spending to acquire venture-backed startups. The Wall Street Journal has picked up on this trend with a story this morning that cites data from Venture Source showing that 15 startups were acquired in the last week alone, and another 14 have gone public in the last year.
If the era of select IPOs – with musings on Facebook, Demand Media, Groupon or Zynga – creates volition for a round of quick M&A sales, all the better for the industry. As we’ll report, venture capitalists (like big tech co’s) are feeling the heat of not making investments in new companies over the past two years.
Now that LPs are putting pressure on VCs to show some ROI, it will be interesting to watch the force of M&A that feeds the “vicious capital” cycle.
Venture Capitalists and their LPs will push for a lot of M&A sales which will ultimately feed the bigger tech companies need for snap/strap-on investments and company growth. Consolidation, M&A and diversification will service all parties. Read more >>