Exclusive: Fanatics raises $300 million from Silver Lake (Fortune)
No word on valuation, which was last reported to be $3.1 billion in 2013.
Fanatics is majority-owned by Michael Rubin's Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC.
Showing posts with label Kynetic LLC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kynetic LLC. Show all posts
Exclusive: Fanatics raises $300 million from Silver Lake (Fortune)
No word on valuation, which was last reported to be $3.1 billion in 2013.
Fanatics is majority-owned by Michael Rubin's Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC.
Wall Street Journal's billion dollar startup club; no Philly companies, but several with connections here
Tom Paine
Follow @phillytechnews
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday published its list of so-called "unicorns", privately held startups that have established reported valuations of $1 billion or greater.
Seventy-three companies made the cut and the number of billion dollar startups has almost doubled over the past year. None were from the Philadelphia area, though I counted several with ties to Philadelphia investors.
Four are in First Round Capital's portfolio: Uber ($41.2 billion), Square ($6 billion), AppNexus ($1.2 billion) and Fab ($1.2 billion). Most of FRC's stakes in these companies are relatively small, though some reports I saw a few month ago when Uber was valued at $17 billion suggested that its stake might worth upwards of $1 billion at the time. Fab, according to founder Jason Goldberg, was never actually valued over $1 billion ($875 million was tops, according to him), although it was widely reported to be. Fab is expected to be sold off soon at a fraction of that value. AppNexus is said to be looking toward an IPO, though the market for adtech IPOs is shaky right now. No one seems quite sure of what to make of Square's prospects at the moment. There has been IPO talk but also speculation that it was seeking buyers.
Also making the billion dollar club is Fanatics, the Jacksonville-based ecommerce retailer of sports apparel ($3.1 billion) that Michael Rubin spun out from GSI Commerce into his Kynetic Group when GSI was acquired by Ebay. It achieved that valuation through a $170 million round led by Alibaba and Temasek Holdings in 2013, and would probably be worth more today. Fanatics still has some staff in King of Prussia. Another GSI Commerce spinout to Kynetic, ShopRunner, reached a $600 million valuation through Alibaba's $200 million investment in 2013, but it has moved its headquarters to Silicon Valley though it still has people here.
Comcast Ventures had three investments in startups valued at $1 billion or more: Houzz ($2.3 billion), Instacart ($2 billion) and DocuSign ($1.6 billion). Sapphire Ventures (the renamed SAP Ventures) is also in DocuSign in addition to Nutanix ($2 billion). Susquehanna Growth Equity (Bala Cynwyd) has a stake in Credit Karma ($1 billion).
Fortune published a similar list last month, and Fortune's Dan Primack points out a few of the contrasts between the two. Fortune's list is really quite different near the bottom, and it includes MediaMath, a New York adtech firm in which Safeguard Scientifics was an early investor.
As for the Philadelphia area, the top three candidates I can think of now are iPipeline, SevOne, and Monetate, but I wouldn't harbor a guess as to how close to billion dollar valuations they could be. Of course, there may be others on the Life Sciences side; for example, CHOP-developed Spark Therapeutics busted past the $1 billion mark after its IPO late last month, though it did not achieve that valuation as a private company. An article in Insurance Journal from November, discussing possible iPipeline IPO plans, cited sources as saying that iPipeline could be valued at $500 million.
Update 3/4: Add Nextdoor to Comcast Ventures' Unicorn list, according to a new round announced today.
Ebay to explore sale or IPO of King of Prussia-based Ebay Enterprise unit (formerly GSI Commerce)
Tom Paine
Follow @phillytechnews
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
 |
| GSI Commerce becomes part of Ebay, June 2011 |
Ebay said today in conjunction with its earnings announcement that it may explore a sale or an IPO of its Ebay Enterprise unit, which is based in King of Prussia.
Ebay acquired the company, then known as GSI Commerce, in March 2011 for $2.4 billion in debt and cash. GSI founder Michael Rubin, who started selling sporting goods as a teenager in Devon, retained stakes in Fanatics (a phenomenal success), ShopRunner (a high valuation) and Rue La La (perhaps less successful) as part of his Conshohocken-based Kynectic LLC holding company.
Ebay tried to position the unit, later renamed Ebay Enterprise, as part of its overall strategy, though progress was hindered by several factors, including the insider trading conviction of former Rubin deputy and GSI Commerce/Ebay Enterprise CEO Christopher Saridakis in 2014 and the pressure on Ebay to split up.
There are 2800 Ebay Enterprise employees on LinkedIn, but the number varies dramatically seasonally.
Ecommerce software unit Magento was also folded into Ebay Enterprise under Ebay.
Ebay also announced today plans to cut 2,400 positions across all divisions of the company.
The big deal: Alibaba leads $206 million round in ShopRunner
Tom Paine
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
Alibaba has led a $206 million round in Amazon Prime competitor ShopRunner, which has offices in Conshohocken, San Francisco and New York, the Wall Street Journal reports. American Express also participated in the round, which values ShopRunner at $600 million. Reports in August had suggested the size of Alibaba's investment would be in the $70 to $75 million range.
As part of the transaction, the Journal says EBay, which had about a 30% stake in the venture, exited at a profit. This explains my confusion, as I reported last week, about EBay testing its own Amazon Prime competitor without ShopRunner's involvement. It may also reflect increasing competitive pressures globally between Alibaba and EBay.
A part of GSI Commerce founder Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC holding company, ShopRunner's CEO is Scott Thompson, who briefly served as Yahoo CEO before being pushed out last year due to a resume discrepancy. Prior to that, he served as President of EBay's PayPal unit.
Alibaba also has a PayPal-like payment platform outside the US and there is a chance it could introduce it here. The Chinese internet giant is expected to file for an IPO in the US.
No word on whether EBay also exited its stake in Rue La La, another Kynetic holding.
A majority of ShopRunner employees listed on LinkedIn are based in the Philly area, although several of its senior executives are located in the Bay area.
permalink
Reports: Alibaba making large investment in Kynetic LLC's ShopRunner
Tom Paine
Follow @phillytechnews
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba is reportedly set to make a major investment in ShopRunner, said to be in the $70 to $75 million range, for a minority stake in the two-day shipping service, according to both the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. There has been no confirmation from either company.
ShopRunner is a part of Michael Rubin's Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC, and was spun off along with Fanatics Inc. and Rue La La from GSI Commerce when eBay acquired that company in 2011, although eBay maintained a stake in ShopRunner and Rue La La. ShopRunner is an alternative to Amazon Prime for other retailers. Although some of its client roster is shown here, little information has been released on its financial performance or number of subscribers.
Alibaba also recently invested in another Kynetic company, Fanatics Inc., in a round which valued the sports apparel retailer at $3.1 billion.
Ironically, the deal would reconnect ShopRunner CEO Scott Thompson indirectly to Yahoo, since that company owns about 25% of Alibaba. Thompson was forced out as Yahoo CEO due to a resume discrepancy in 2012. Alibaba is in the process of preparing for an IPO.
ShopRunner in the past called Conshohocken its headquarters, but its website now says it has a "seasoned team based in San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York," and the Wall Street Journal says it is based in San Mateo. A look at ShopRunner's LinkedIn page suggests that a majority of its employees are based in the Philadelphia area, although most of the senior management team is in the Bay area.
A little more background on the deal from All Things D.
Looking at Kynetic LLC, with new Fanatics Inc. valuation
Tom Paine
Follow @phillytechnews
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
If I included all the holdings of Michael Rubin's Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC as one Philly-based company, it would easily top Philly Tech News' Young Companies to Watch based on Fanatics Inc.'s remarkable new valuation of $3.1 billion ( as reported by the Wall Street Journal) alone. The Journal, citing Rubin and other sources, said that Fanatics had just raised another $170 million at that valuation, doubling the valuation at its last capital infusion one year ago. The new funding came from Singapore's state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Rubin said. He expected the online giant of licensed sports merchandise to achieve revenue of about $1 billion in 2013, up from $800 million last year.
However, Fanatics is based in Jacksonville, FL, though it may have a few people in Kynetic's Consohocken headquarters (actually, almost 80, a Fanatics spokesperson tells me). The Journal's article initially mistakenly said Fanatics was based in Conshohocken.
Rue La La, the flash sales shopping site, is based in Boston, and was on track for about $400 million in annual sales in 2012, Rubin told the Business Insider last year. However, early this year the Boston Business Journal reported that Rue La La had laid off about 11% of its 550 employees, perhaps indicating some issues there.
ShopRunner, the third unit of Kynetic, is based in Conshohocken, and also has offices in California and New York. ShopRunner offers a competitive option to Amazon Prime for other retailers, providing two day delivery with free shipping for an annual membership fee. Its CEO is Scott Thommpson, who's brief reign as CEO of Yahoo ended over controversy about an inaccuracy on his resume. Of course, Thompson had previously served as President of eBay's PayPal unit. Thompson still makes California his primary residence so commutes to Conshohocken; in fact, the company had a helipad built next to the Schyulkill to speed Thompson's commute from the airport, though the publication More than the Curve recently reported that the borough's council was still debating operating hours for the helipad.
So for my purposes, I considered ShopRunner the only Philly-based startup of Kynetics' holdings, and am not sure how high to rank it on Young Companies to Watch (though it is #30 for now) because of the lack of much definitive data. Kynetic is basically a holding company who's two largest units are based elsewhere
So how is ShopRunner doing? Hard to say, exactly. The company did issue a release earlier in the year that said that orders across the network increased 2.5 times over 2011 in 2012, but no mention of what that 2011 base was. Nor have they publicly disclosed (to my knowledge) its membership numbers, which would be a meaningful benchmark. Amazon Prime has over 10 million members, according to reports. My guess is that ShopRunner has had to compete to match the constant promotional pricing of Amazon Prime. There have also been reports that Google is readying an Amazon Prime competitor.
Kynetic LLC grew out of Rubin's $2.4 billion (cash and debt) sale of GSI Commerce to eBay in 2011. ebay spun off 70% of GSI properties ShopRunner and Rue La La to Rubin's ownership group,and all of the sports licensing business (Fanatics). Prior to this most recent transaction, Rubin had sold 10% of Fanatics to Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz a year ago for a $150 million investment. This latest investment presumably involved the sale of slightly more than a 5% stake in Fanatics.
permalink
WSJ: Kynetic's Fanatics.com raises $170 million at $3.1 billion valuation
Tom Paine
Follow @phillytechnews
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
Fanatics.com has raised $170 million, the Wall Street Journal is reporting (subscription required) , quoting Michael
Rubin, Chairman & CEO of Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC, which owns a majority stake in Fanatics.com
The Journal cites a source as saying the round doubles Fanatics.com's valuation to $3.1 billion.
Rubin told the Journal he expected Fanatics to reach about $1 billion in revenue this year, up from about $800 million last year and $600 million in 2011.
Fanatics.com is a leading online retailer of licensed sports merchandise. It is based in Jacksonville, FlA.
Today in Philly Tech History 3/28/2011: eBay announces it will acquire GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion
Follow @phillytechnews
Subscribe in a readerSubscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email
On March 28, 2012, eBay announced it would acquire King of Prussia-based ecommerce company GSI Commerce for $2.4 billion, or $29.25 per share.
As part of the deal, eBay agreed to spin off 100% of GSI Commerce's sports licensing business and 70% of flash sales site Rue La La and delivery service ShopRunner, into a newly formed holding company to be led by GSI Commerce founder and CEO Michael Rubin, later to be named Kynetic LLC and based in Conshohocken. eBay also agreed to loan Rubin's new company $467 million.
In an interesting move, First Round Capital's Josh Kopelman, a former eBay executive for a period after it acquired his company Half.com, joined GSI Commerce's board less than two months before the deal was announced.
At eBay's analyst day this past week, the company indicated its expectation for GSI Commerce was for its revenue to grow at about a 14% annual rate to between $1.5 and $1.7 billion in 2015, with a direct segment profit margin of 16 to 18%.
permalink
Daily Links 9/14/2012: Google Fiber sets KC buildout schedule
Alteva offices here have Apple-esque ‘innovation center’ (slideshow) (Philadelphia Business Journal)
Audio: Kynetic LLC CEO Michael Rubin on Bloomberg Radio (Bloomberg)
WCAU Exits LNS Content Share
NBC's Philly outlet going its own way, getting its own helicopter (Broadcasting & Cable)
iNovo Starts Its Run at Cisco & Motorola
(Light Reading Cable)
Building 180 fiberhoods—construction order and signups (Google Fiber Blog)
Exclusive: Some Comcast Users Will See 500 GB Cap
Company to Scale Cap Size With Tier Speed (Broadband Reports)
Ad of the Day: Comcast Setting up Xfinity service is a lot easier than body-waxing Sasquatch (Adweek)
Epicor acquires specialized midmarket ERP vendor Solarsoft
The deal gives Epicor a stronger play in manufacturing and distribution (Network World)
Epicor has some operations in Yardley dating from Activant's (now part of Epicor) acquisition of Prophet 21.
Blitz Package: My One-on-One With the CMO of the Philadelphia Eagles (Social Media Today)
Conshohocken-based ShopRunner brings in ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as its CEO
Tom Paine
ShopRunner, the Conshohocken-based unit of Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC online retail holding company, this morning announced that it has hired Scott Thompson as its CEO. Thompson left Yahoo in May after a brief tenure as its CEO when it was revealed that his biographical information as it appeared in some places included a computer science degree he never earned. He also had a cancer scare, which apparently has been successfully treated. Prior to Yahoo, he ran eBay's PayPal unit, and certainly had the reputation of being an astute and successful executive. eBay, by the way, owns a 30% stake in ShopRunner, which it retained after acquiring GSI Commerce and spinning off the rest of ShopRunner to Kynetic. There was no discussion this morning by either ShopRunner execs or Thompson about the resume flap.
ShopRunner was launched in 2010 by Rubin and Mike Golden originally as a part of GSI Commerce, to offer an alternative to Amazon's Prime delivery subscription service for independent retailers, providing free two-day shipping and other benefits to its members. There isn't too much data out there about how its doing, though. Bloomberg cites some sources suggesting ShopRunner is having difficulties in gaining traction and getting some of the larger retailers to sign on.
ShopRunner CEO and long-time Rubin colleague Golden will now be President and report to Thompson, a move that may lead to some questions about his future role, though Golden explains in an internal memo that the Inquirer's Joe DiStefano obtained that it was always part of the plan to bring in a high-profile CEO for the long-term. Thompson, who has spent most of his recent years in Silicon Valley, will split time between the California offices of ShopSanity, a startup ShopRunner acquired earlier this year, and Conshohocken. In that regard, the newly approved helipad to be built on the riverfront in Conshohocken and paid for by Kynetic might come in handy in beating traffic from the airport. In fact, in my curious mind I wonder if the close timing of the two announcements is more than a coincidence.
Update: In response to an inquiry by Philly Tech News, ShopRunner's press representative said that the company is not currently releasing subscriber numbers.
permalink
Daily Links 1/20/2012: Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Spectrum Review
Verizon, Comcast Send Marketing Deals to FCC in Airwaves Review (Bloomberg)
FCC Docket: Verizon Wireless and SpectrumCo, Verizon Wireless and Cox
Comcast Challenges FCC's Program Carriage Ruling That Landed in Tennis Channel's Court (Multichannel News)
Audrey Zibelman's Energy-Saving Software
Her startup Viridity Energy makes software used by buildings and factories to manage their power use. It also lets them sell energy back to the grid (Bloomberg Business Week)
Philadelphia-based online ticketing service TicketLeap’s beginnings couldn’t have been more humble (Ben Franklin Technology Partners SEP: KEYnotes)
After Laying Off 60 People, RueLaLa Raises $22 Million (TechCrunch)
Boston-based RueLaLa is part of Michael Rubin's Kynetic LLC holding company.
Update: RueLaLa says filing is about options, not new funding (Mass High Tech)
Salesforce's happy workforce
(Fortune Tech)
SAP Acquires Datango's Software, Entering Enterprise Training Race
Now SAP faces the huge task of convincing the jaded enterprise training market to invest in training. (Information Week)
ING Direct deal should close soon, Capital One says (Wilmington News Journal: Delaware Inc.)
permalink
Daily Links 1/13/2012: SAP beats quarterly profit estimates
SAP Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates (Bloomberg)
Looks like very strong results in this environment, especially compared to Oracle's most recent quarter.
SAP Q4 Revenues Jump 11 Percent (PC World)
SAP Names New Marketing VP, One With a History (All Things D)
Rue La La operator lays off 65 workers, plans to shutter SmartBargains (Boston Business Journal)
An update on story posted yesterday, with company confirmation and actual numbers.
Retail Convergence closes the curtain on its longest running e-commerce show
Retail Convergence, part of Kynetic LLC, will consolidate SmartBargains.com. (Internet Retailer)
Wharton MBA candidates size up online clothes shopping experience (Flying Kite)
FCC commissioner questions whether Comcast misled regulators (The Hill)
U.S. Air Force Awards Lockheed Martin Contract for Third and Fourth GPS III Satellites (PR Newswire)
Deacom Adds Supply Chain Execution Tools to ERP (TechMATCH Pro)
permalink
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
