Tag Archives: Citigroup
Analyst: YouTube To Hit $1.1 Billion In Revenue For 2011
YouTube may be close to approaching $1.1 billion according to Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney. Mahaney made the assumption by taking MySpace’s revenue-to-page view ratio and applied it to YouTube. Below is a chart explaining his tactics to the assumption. [AllThingsD]
Categories Citigroup, Citigroup Inc., Mark Mahaney, YouTube
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Terra Firma Suing Citigroup Over EMI Group Bid
Private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners acquired The EMI Group for $4.9 billion in 2007. However Terra Firma feels that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) duped them by saying that there is a bidding war happening for the music company. Terra Firma believes that all potential bidders had dropped out including Cerberus Capital Management.
Thinking that there were other buyers, Terra Firma raised their bid for EMI. And the private equity firm wants damages related to the increased bid from Citigroup. Citigroup Inc. spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos said that the lawsuit is happening without merit and the company plans to defend themselves vigorously.
NewEgg.com Files For $175 Million IPO
NewEgg.com is an online retail company that sells electronics such as digital cameras, cell phones, and laptops. The company plans to file for an IPO and raised roughly $175 million in the process. NewEgg.com started in 2001 and made about $2.2 billion in revenues last year. Insight Venture Partners invested $20 million in NewEgg.com around 2005. Insight Venture Partners has a 12.7% stake in NewEgg.
Newegg.com Inc. is based in City of Industry, California. Newegg was founded by Fred Chang and the company is run by CEO Tally C. Liu. When NewEgg.com was founded, it was a subsidiary of ABS Computer Technologies Inc. NewEgg has about 1,500 employees. The funds raised will be used to fund operations expansion in Canada and China. The company has even been profitable since they started in 2001. The IPO is being managed by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citi.
DigitalGlobe Filing For $250 Million IPO
DigitalGlobe is a Longmont, Colorado based company that sells space imagery and geospatial content. DigitalGlobe also operates a remote sensing spacecraft. The company was started in 1992 and has 350 employees. Some of their customers include Google (Google Earth, Google Maps), GeoEye, Spot Image, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Defense.
The company is planning for an IPO this month in order to raise money for building a new satellite. They were planning to go IPO last year but postponed it due to the weak economy. Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Citi, UBS Investment Bank, JPMorgan, and Jefferies will be handling the offering. Lehman will be helping despite their Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lehman has $20 million in debt owed by DigitalGlobe. After the IPO, Lehman also has the right to appoint five out of nine of DigitalGlobe’s board members due to being a large enough investor. DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 orbiter will cost roughly $283 million which will be fully paid for after going IPO.
GeoEye Inc. is DigitalGlobe’s biggest competitor. GeoEye is based in Dulles, Virginia and they employ about 130 people. DigitalGlobe earned about $95.8 million on $151.7 million in revenue in 2007.
DigitalGlobe will be the fifth IPO this year in the United States.
[via alarmclock/StreetInsider]
Steve Case’s Revolution Money Raises $42 Million
AOL co-founder Steve Case has come a long way since his days as running the dial-up giant. Case was started in 2007 as a payment network. Revolution Money is based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Today the company announced a $42 million round of funding. The Series C round was led by Goldman Sachs. Other investors that participated included Steve Case, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, former AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis, former Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck, and JP Morgan Chairman David Golden.
The company previously raised $50 million Series B in September 2007. Thus far Revolution Money raised $92 million.
The idea behind Revolution Money is to lower credit card charges and other payment transfers. Merchants are charged an 0.5% transaction fee.
“It’s a vote of confidence from the insiders and we were able to bring in this affiliate of Goldman [a new investor],” stated Leonsis. “It’s such a big opportunity and big play. There hasn’t been a new entrant since PayPal, which was about a dozen years ago.”
Revolution Money’s two products are called RevolutionCard and RevolutionMoneyExchange. RevolutionCard is a credit card that charges the 0.5% per transaction which is compared to the 1.5% to 4% fee normally charged to traditional companies.
Revolution MoneyExchange is a P2P payment system that allows users to exchange money for free. MoneyExchange has about 400,000 registered users since the service started.
[via WSJ]
Amazon.com Invests In Bill Me Later; Online Bill Payment Market Heating Up
Amazon.com announced today that they are investing in Bill Me Later, Inc. Not only that, but Amazon is also signing a agreement with the online billing company as well. eBay and PayPal has thus far proved the synergy of combining an online retailer with an online billing payment company. Over 90% of all eBay auctions are paid via PayPal so it made sense for eBay to buy them for $1.5 billion.
“Bill Me Later has developed a very customer-centric method to make online shopping even easier,†stated Matt Swann, VP of payments at Amazon.com. “We are pleased to make the convenience of Bill Me Later available to our tens of millions of Amazon customers [source: Amazon.com press release].â€
The investment terms were not disclosed, but the company has $200 million in funding capital according to TechCrunch. Bill Me Later investors include Chase Paymentech, Azure Capital Partners, First Data Corp, Crosspoint Venture Partners, GRP Partners, CIT Group Inc., Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking, Citigroup, Equifax, T. Rowe Price, and Legg Mason Inc.
“Amazon.com and Bill Me Later share the same commitment to making shopping easy for consumers,†stated Gary Marino, the CEO of Bill Me Later. “Just as Amazon invented a new and better way for people to shop online, Bill Me Later has created a new and better way for people to pay for purchases online.â€
Before joining Bill Me Later, Marino was an EVP, Chief Credit Officer, and Chief Marketing Officer of consumer lending at First USA/Bank One.
TheMarkets.com Raises $30 Million From 11 Top Investment Banks/Owners
TheMarkets.com is a website that reports financial resources and estimations to institutional investors. Today the company announced that it has “completed a $30 million Series S Rights Offering to its existing broker-owners[1].”
“This investment is a tangible validation of our business model to provide value-added content and workflow solutions to the buy-side,” stated David Eisner, the CEO and President of TheMarkets.com. “Together with our already strong cash flow and balance sheet, this round of financing will propel our growth in the coming years. The funding will enable us to pursue strategic investments and acquisitions, as we continue to expand globally by leveraging our existing distribution platform and our unique relationships with the sell-side to introduce new products and services requested by our clients.”
Who owns TheMarkets.com? The company was formed in 2000 by eleven of the top investment banks: Banc of America Securities, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank.  The site also offers information regarding company financial filings and pending equity deals straight from the source. TheMarkets.com is based in New York and also has offices in London.
TheMarkets.com serves over 1500 firms in 43 countries. “TheMarkets.com has a proven management team and a sound business model,” stated Mark Steinert, a new Board Member of and also a Global Head of Research at UBS. “We view the Company as an ideal vehicle through which to develop new tools for the buy-side that uniquely leverage our services, and we were delighted to be a significant investor in the round.”
[1] TheMarkets.com Press release: TheMarkets.com Closes $30 Million to Fund Strategic Growth Plans
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[2] PaidContent: Online Financial Researcher TheMarkets.com Closes $30 Million Investment