Twitter, which will list on the NYSE on November 6, just posted a video presentation of its roadshow on Retail Roadshow.com. In case you don't have 37 minutes to view the whole thing, here's the deck.
(Reuters) - Pinterest has raised a new $200 million round of funding that gives it a valuation of $5 billion, the photo pin-up site said on Thursday. Pinterest, which allows users to create online bulletin boards based on various themes such as travel, decorating, or sports, said in a statement it would use the capital to invest in technology, develop its advertising program further, and expand internationally. Pinterest said it raised money from existing investors SV Angel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Fidelity, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Capital, and Valiant Capital Partners. The company last raised money in October 2013 at a $3.8 billion valuation in a round led by Fidelity Investments.
Tim Fernback's insight:
With this $200M capital raise, Pinterest is worth $5B. This is a dramatic increase from the $3.8B valuation it had in Oct 2013.
In total Pinterest has raised $764M since inception.
Could this be the end of the line for Twitter? While no one’s writing a eulogy for the popular microblogging service just yet, the rush of shareholders heading for the exits over the past week strongly suggests growing doubts surrounding … Continue reading →
E-commerce company on path to becoming global giant after ending months of speculation about where it will list
Tim Fernback's insight:
Alibaba's valuation is close to $150 billion and it is reported that they could raise up to $15 billion on the IPO alone. Big numbers. This compares to Facebook's $16B raised and a then valuation of more then $100 billion.
Chinese social media company Weibo Corp. has filed plans for a potential initial public offering of its shares in the U.S. Weibo was launched four years ago by parent company Sina as a microblogging service. The Twitter-like service allows users to post a feed of up to 140 Chinese...
Tim Fernback's insight:
Weibo, China's Twitter, is planning on listing on Nasdaq. Exact valuation of the company will be determined within the next 30 days or so while the registration takes place, but they are planning on raising $500M. With 61.4 million average daily active views and with Twitter at $28.3B in value, it could be a fairly healthy valuation that is being proposed. Stay tuned.
HootSuite Labs has the potential to be a great. Ideas generated and harvested here could add real value to the overall organization and shape its future or could be a big distraction / waste of time and money. It really depends on how it is managed and if HootSuite managers have any cross functional team experience amongst some of the rapid growth they are experiencing (going from 300 people to 500 people in less than a year). Being involved in many cross functional teams in prior years, I know that the trick is to get buy-in from divergent groups right away in the process and have an organization that can deal with outcomes/ideas generated in a timely and efficient way. Not effectively managing marketing, software developers, finance, corporate development, etc. agendas on one team can lead to frustration and poor results if not done correctly. #HootSuite #Crossfunctionalteam
The tech giant buys another company, this time a startup that lets people create infographics and videos out of social data. Read this article by Richard Nieva on CNET News.
Tim Fernback's insight:
Yahoo acquires Visify, a social media data analysis company for a undisclosed amount. This follows the trend that of social media data analysis companies being acquired, with Apple acquiring Topsy and HootSuite acquiring uberVU.
The Israeli company helps measure how well mobile marketing campaigns work -- and that's important when your app's at risk for app store burial.
Tim Fernback's insight:
Profitable Isreali startup AppsFlyer just raised $7.1M and has the backing of Pitango Venture Capital and Magma Ventures Partners. This company is interesting, it offers a mobile advertisers toolbox. Using this service (or a competitors) will increase advertising's mobile reach, something that is important for overall valuations of companies in the social media space.
They have a great stable of clients (Sega, Baidu, Foursquare etc) and claim that using their service can grow traffic to its mobile clients by 80 times. They offer analytics and have some stiff competition with other startups like AD-X, Apsalar and Kochava to name a few.
For the past couple of years, Zynga's problem was clear. The social gaming giant dominated the charts on Facebook, but not on mobile. And as mobile gaming takes off around the world, Zynga has to b...
Tim Fernback's insight:
Social gaming company Zynga is going mobile. Join the crowd. Got to love Zynga and CEO Don Mattrick (former EA). Candy Crush's King (my kids love that game) is profile alongside Zynga. Looks like Don Mattrick has to pull some more rabbits from his hat even with more than a $1B in revenue.
HootSuite Launches Managed Social Media Security & Compliance Service for Enterprises. Press release distribution provided by EIN News
Tim Fernback's insight:
This is a smart and timely service for HootSuite to launch and adds to its overall enterprise value. As a gateway to may different social media feeds, managed security becomes more and more important. As HootSuite becomes the social media SaaS vendor of choice for many Fortune 1000 companies, compliance services become more and more important. The plan at HootSuite is to become the premiere source of communication both internally and externally to an organization and this branded and managed service helps it accomplish this goal.
SAN FRANCISCO -- LinkedIn is launching a Chinese language website to expand its presence in China, which boasts the world's largest Internet population.
Tim Fernback's insight:
Going from 4 million users in China to accessing a market of 4 billion Chinese language users internationally. What took LinkedIn so long to penetrate and access this market. Other social networking companies take note.
More than a few people were surprised when Facebook said it would pay $19 billion for messaging app startup WhatsApp, but today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg..
Tim Fernback's insight:
Did you really think he would say that it was worth less than $19B???
Twitter faces growing pressure to attract new users and dramatically increase engagement on the platform. Can it ever rival the numbers and growth of Facebook?
Tim Fernback's insight:
Is Twitter not growing fast enough. Well the honeymoon appears to be over, and Twitter is now having to account to its shareholders and investors about why it is not growing as fast as Facebook (even when Facebook was younger). Facebook is 5 times larger than Twitter in terms of usage, and it appears to not be hitting its own targets for growth. This WILL affect its valuation going forward, it is just a matter of how long the hardcore believers will hang on at higher and maybe over-valued prices.
(Recasts with analyst comment and background)By Gerry Shih and Supantha MukherjeeApril 15 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc said on Tuesday itbought social data provider Gnip for an undisclosed amount,signaling
This article deals with the question of valuation generally, and as a finance professional, the relationship between interest rates and enterprise value is paramount to what people are currently willing to pay for certain high growth stocks.
Here is the single best explanation of the effect of low interest rates on valuation. I really like it because it is stated in very simple terms and very easy to read. This is a must read for the entrepreneur, the investor and even the investment banker.
Surfingbird’s free service attracts 100,000 daily active users. The company is not profitable yet, he conceded, but close to break-even point.
Tim Fernback's insight:
Russian company, Surfingbird closes a $2.5M round for a pre-money valuation of $7.5M. With 100,000 daily active users Surfingbird is similar to StumbleUpon and is growing to become a major traffic provider for Russian language blogs and sites.
Facebook is expanding from the cyberworld to out of this world. Facebook is buying drone-making company Titan Aeronautics for $60 million, according to TechC...
Tim Fernback's insight:
Very interesting. If these drones can hover in near space for up to 5 years, it does open up the possibility to really improve internet connectivity to remote places on the planet. $60M investment.
Much has been made of WhatsApp's growing presence in key emerging markets such as India and Brazil, but most of its users are thought to be in Europe. The messaging service is ideally suited to life on the Continent, where there is a Eurozone but no unified telecommunications zone—meaning that historically it's been absurdly expensive...
Tim Fernback's insight:
Great article on why Facebook paid so much for WhatsApp. Take a look to what is happening in Europe when WhatsApp is successful. It displaces incumbent messaging traffic in a large way.
Foursquare -- the app that has shifted its business model from a place to track where your friends are going to the go-to place for people searching for local..
Tim Fernback's insight:
Foursquare is profiled. The 5 year old company is looking at its value in the wake of the WhatsApp acquisition and social company valuations generally. They are experiencing 500-600% growth in revenues, have 45 M regular users and 5 B check-ins since starting its business. How much is that worth?
Colin Donald assesses the struggle between east and west for tech sector dominance in the wake of Facebook's WhatsApp acquisition
Tim Fernback's insight:
Nasdaq listed Tencent (600 M registered users, 450M in China alone) and KakaoTalk app (downloaded to 93% of phones in South Korea, this South Korean company forecasting $200M in revenue for 2013).
Line (formerly NHN Japan) has 300M users and could have 500M in 2014. These companies are profiled and make you wonder if WhatsApp is $19B, these companies are likely larger in value given their user base and global location. What do you think?
The WhatsApp acquisition makes it clear: Facebook and Google have no intention of remaining dependent on the caprices of the telcos.
Tim Fernback's insight:
All Facebook needs now is a cheap device ($20 or less) that connects to WIFI and you have effectively wiped-out every telco's profit center (text messaging). It is only a matter of time.
Veteran professional social network LinkedIn grew up on the desktop and is in the midst of retooling its 277 million-user strong business for a mobile-focused..
Tim Fernback's insight:
LinkedIn, like every other social network, is being accessed via mobile devices on an increasing rate. It is important for social to have a mobile strategy. This is why Facebook and others are so active in this space.
China's Weibo microblogging service has changed the country's social landscape, offering Chinese citizens an alternative to government-operated media properties. Now its owner, Sina Corp., is repor...
Tim Fernback's insight:
A Chinese competitor of Twitter, Weibo (owned by Sina Corp. the Chinese Online Media company traded on Nasdaq) is looking to go public in the US and raise $500M doing so. Weibo is very popular in China, and reported ly has $43M/quarter in Online Revenue which is roughly 1/4 - 1/5 of Sina's total revenue.
The last venture financing for Weibo, Alibaba bought 18% for US$586 million (value US$3.66B) last year.
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