How will Comcast vote it's ValueVision shares? (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
Comcast Seeking to Replace G.E.’s Initials Atop 30 Rock (New York Times)
SAP Faces the Inconvenient Truth
(Albert Pang/Apps Run ERP)
How has First Round Capital made out on its early bet on Uber?
Tom Paine
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| Josh Kopelman as "Rider Zero" for Uber Philadelphia in 2012/Uber Blog |
Earlier this year, Business Insider told a (perhaps somewhat dramatized) version of the story of how First Round Capital came to co-lead Uber's first post-seed round with $500,000 in late 2010. Of course, the connection goes back to Josh Kopelman and his colleagues knowing Uber co-founder and Chairman Garret Camp from FRC's backing of his prior startup, StumbleUpon, which was sold to Ebay for $75 million before two years later being repurchased by Camp and an investment group (including FRC) for a reported $29 million. Of course, why Ebay needed StumbleUpon in the first place is a different question, for which I'm sure there was a good rationale at the time. Camp is said to have come up with the idea for Uber after complaining about how hard it was to find a cab in San Francisco.
So after Uber's recently announced new round at a pre-money $17 billion valuation, where do the early investors stand?
That $1.5 million 2010 angel round led by FRC valued Uber at $4 million, according to Fortune Magazine. "Investors in that round," Fortune adds, "assuming reasonable dilution, saw their investments grow to between 400x and 600x in the round that valued Uber at $3.5 billion. At $17 billion, they’re worth around 2,000x, according to people familiar with the deal." FRC is listed among participants in the $11 million Series A in 2011, according to CrunchBase, but not in the megarounds that followed.
So First Round Capital's stake in Uber could easily be valued in the $1 billion range, according to this logic. Which seems a bit on the high side to me; if FRC contributed
$500,000 to the angel round with the $4 million valuation, that would theoretically have given it an eighth of its total value at the time. Its hard to believe that it still holds more than 5% of the company if it did not participate in the larger of the later rounds.
Update 3/1/17: Uber's valuation is now said to be $67 billion.
Links 6/13/2014: FCC looking at Comcast's treatment of Netflix
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Flatiron Health's bold proposition to fight cancer with big data
(Fortune)
AT&T accuses Netflix of ‘double-talk’ when it comes to Comcast and Verizon deals (Washington Post)
The FCC is investigating Comcast's treatment of Netflix (Vox)
Univision Owners Said to Weigh a Sale (New York Times: DealBook)
SAP’s Sikka is the New CEO of Infosys, but It’s Not the Job He Wanted (Re/code)
Netsuite CEO Zach Nelson on why his cloud company is eating SAP's lunch (Silicon Valley Business Journal)
Lockheed Martin selling Newtown, Pa., facility for $30 million
(Philadelphia Business Journal)
Links 6/12/2014: Ex-SAP exec Sikka to become Infosys CEO; Comcast readying test of YouTube-like entry
Infosys names former SAP executive Sikka as chief executive
(Reuters)
Although the Indian press has been full of reports this would happen, most analysts here
tended to dismiss those reports.
Infosys Hires Ex-SAP Executive as CEO to Revive Margins
(Bloomberg)
Provides more details.
Large SAP customers are eager to enter the cloud, survey finds (PC World)
Dell executive says HP's new Machine architecture is 'laughable' (PC World)
Why is Netflix Strong Arming the Net Neutrality Debate? (Michael Powell/NCTA/The Platform)
Comcast CEO: TWC's Glenn Britt Was a "Real Legend" (NY1)
Roberts credits Britt with originally bringing up idea of Comcast/TWC merger.
Comcast to test its YouTube competitor by the end of the year (Gigaom)
Comcast Whips Up More WiFi (Multichannel News)
Feedly suffers second round of DDoS attacks after perpetrator tried to extort money (The Next Web)
Pa. pension probe: Nothing we had to tell U.S. about; report due Sept. 17 (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
DrugDev’s Dr. Hugo Stephenson Establishes the DrugDev Innovation Lab with Partnerships with Two Cutting-Edge Technology Firms (Business Wire)
MeetMe Achieves New Mobile Traffic Record of 900,000 Daily Active Users (Business Wire)
Links 6/11/2014: LiquidHub's Brassington named Chairman of PACT
PACT Appoints New Chairman of the Board (PACT Press Release)
Jonathan Brassington of LiquidHub.
SAP Partner Organization Overhaul Nearly Complete
(CRN)
With 'The Machine,' HP May Have Invented a New Kind of Computer (Bloomberg)
Oracle In-Memory Option: 6 Key Points (Information Week)
Cable Haters Gonna Hate: Full Code Conference Video of Comcast’s Brian Roberts (Re/code)
Walden: No hearings for Comcast, AT&T mergers (The Hill)
eBay: We're not killing our same-day delivery service (Fortune)
Alibaba’s New U.S. Shopping Site Seems Like a Giant R&D Experiment
(Re/code)
Links 6/10/2014: Netflix says Verizon, Comcast service has slipped in its rankings
Netflix says Verizon, Comcast service has slipped in its rankings (MarketWatch)
Update: Hay to add 65, grow software development at new Philly HQ (Philly.com: Philly Deals)
eBay’s local delivery plans unravel: eBay Now may shut down (VentureBeat)
Plex Systems Secures $50 Million Round of Funding Led by T. Rowe Price, Joining Existing Investors Francisco Partners and Accel Partners
(PR Newswire)
Plex Systems closes on $50M in financing, plans to bring Google Glass to shop floor (Crain's Detroit Business)
Oracle rewrites 'the brain' of its database to take on SAP (The Register)
Oracle's in-memory option aims to beat the rest within 12 months
(ZDNet)
SevOne integrates log analytics into scalable performance monitoring platform (eChannelLine)
Verizon will miss deadline to wire all of New York City with FiOS (Ars Technica)
Tech group calls on feds to block Comcast merger (The Hill)
SAP + eBay = DOA (Unless It’s M&A) (Spend Matters)
Pegasystems Acquires Co-Browsing Tool Firefly, The First Investment By First Round’s Dorm Room Fund (TechCrunch)
Why Apple’s partnership with Epic is a game changer for patients (iMedicalApps)
Philly Tech People News 6/8/2014
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Trifecta Technologies’ Peter Knolle Earns MVP Recognition from Salesforce.com (Trifecta Technologies)
Technical.ly names new Editor in Chief to lead expansion (Philly.com)
Jim Brady plans news org in Philly called Brother.ly (Poynter)
RES Software Taps High-Tech Marketing Veteran Tracey Mustacchio as Chief Marketing Officer (Business Wire)
Newsbyte: SAP Appoints Michael Steinbrecher as Scientific Advisor to Explore the Integration of Big Data into Sports Journalism (PR Newswire)
SAP EVP Chris McClain Joins DocuSign as the Head of Global Enterprise Business (Business Wire)
Saturday Highlights 6/7/2014: Lockheed project to track space debris; Epam acquires healthcare/life sciences software services firm
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Lockheed project to track space debris (South Jersey Courier Post)
EPAM Acquires GGA Software Services, Expands Healthcare & Life Sciences Service Offering (Press Release)
SAP after Sapphire: A look ahead (PC World)
The Message from SapphireNow was Simple (Mint Jutras)
No more pagers, how one physician is building a smarter smartphone communication app (iMedicalA
pps)
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