Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » T. Rowe Price

Evernote Raises $70 Million At A $1 Billion Valuation

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:30:30 +0000

Evernote has raised a $70 million Series D round of funding at a $1 billion valuation. Meritech Capital and CBC Capital lead the round because these companies could eventually help the company go public. Evernote did not even need this round of funding because a lot of the $96 million that they have raised from the previous round is still left over in their bank account, plus they have one million paying customers out of their 25 million users.

Evernote will use the Series D round of funding for international expansion including pushing into China. They also plan to use the funding for acquisitions, business account development, and hiring additional talent.

“This funding keeps is us in the sweet spot to take risks. This is the most creative stage for the company,” stated Evernote CEO Phil Libin in an interview with TechCrunch. Other investors that participated in this round include T. Rowe Price, Harbor Pacific Capital, Allen & Company, and several others.

Evernote has several products on the desktop and on mobile devices to help you remember things. Some of their products include Skitch, Web Clipper, Evernote Hello, Evernote Food, Evernote Clearly, and Evernote Peek.

Libin said that this round is not about Evernote becoming worth $1 billion today. ”I agree with our very wise investors. I think that Evernote as a publicly traded company could be worth $10 billion, $100 billion or more,” said Libin.

Netflix Raising $400 Million But Is Expected To Lose Money Next Year

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:02:03 +0000

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) was trading at $300 per share five months ago and it is now trading at less than $75. The company is now planning on raising $400 million to fund their new content investments. Netflix will be raising $400 million by selling $200 million in zero coupon convertible notes to Technology Crossover Ventures and $200 million worth of stock to T. Rowe Price. But the problem is that the Netflix is going to lose money next year as well. Netflix had this information in the prospectus for the stock portion of its stock and convertible bond offerings.

We expect that consolidated quarterly revenue will be relatively flat until we can achieve positive net subscriber additions. As a result of the relatively flat consolidated revenues and previously announced increased investment in our International segment, we expect to incur consolidated net losses for the year ending December 31, 2012.

Netflix previously expected to only be losing money for the first few quarters of 2012. On the plus side, Netflix said that subscriber cancellations for their hybrid streaming and DVD businesses has slowed down. Gross additions for their streaming-only services has become strong.

[BusinessInsider]

LivingSocial Expected To Announce $200 Million Investment This Week

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:44:18 +0000

This past September, I wrote about how LivingSocial was expected to raise $200 million in funding instead of going the IPO route for now. This week the company is expected to confirm the investment as provided by JP Morgan Asset Management, Amazon.com, and T.Rowe Price. This would put LivingSocial’s valuation at between $5 and $6 billion. LivingSocial is also expected to receive a $100 million revolving credit facility from JP Morgan that would allow them to draw funds without singing for a loan each time. [NYT]

How Much Groupon Executives and Investors Made From The IPO

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:57:39 +0000

Yesterday Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) had an initial public offering. The company set their stock price at $20 and yesterday it closed at $26.11. The company was given a valuation of over $17 billion. BusinessInsider.com has compiled a list of how much the executives and investors made from the IPO. Below is the list:

Ted Leonsis – Former AOL Vice Chairman – Made $48.27 million from 1,848,770 shares owned
Brian Totty – Groupon SVP of Engineering – Made $16.31 million from 624,786 shares ownde
Howard Schultz – Starbucks CEO/Groupon board member – Made $49.59 million from 1,899,336 shares owned
Kenneth M. Pelletier – Former Groupon CTO – Made $70.47 million from 2,698,944 shares owned
Robert S. Solomon – Former Groupon President and COO – Made $105.88 million from 4,055,000 shares owned
Andreessen Horowitz – VC Firm – Invested $40 million, Earned $132.2 million, Gain of $92.2 million
Maverick Fund – VC Firm – Invested $50 million, Earned $165.3 million, Gain of $115.3 million
Greylock Partners – VC Firm – Invested $65 million, Earned $214.9 million, Gain of $149.9 million
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers – VC Firm – Invested $65 million, Earned $214.9 million, Gain of $149.9 million
Morgan Stanley – VC Firm – Invested $75 million, Earned $248 million, Gain of $173 million
T Rowe Price – Investment Firm – Invested $100 million, Earned $330.6 million, Gain of $230.6 million
Fidelity Investments – Investment Firm – Invested $100 million, Earned $330.6 million, Gain of $230.6 million
Battery Ventures – VC Firm – Invested $58 million, Earned $417.4 million, Gain of $359.4 million
Technology Crossover Ventures – VC Firm – Invested $150 million, Earned $459.9 million, Gain of $345.9 million
The Growth Fund of America – Fund – Invested $175 million, Earned $578.6 million, Gain of $403.6 million
Accel Partners – Invested $20 million, Earned $866.96 million, Gain of $856.96 million
Digital Sky Technologies – Invested $151 million, Earned $1.11 billion, Gain of $959 million
The European Founders Fund – Earned $1.02 billion based on 6.2% ownership in Groupon
Brad Keywell – Groupon Co-Founder – Earned $1.07 billion based on 6.5% ownership
Andrew Mason – Groupon CEO – Earned $1.2 billion based on 7.3% ownership
New Enterprise Associates – VC Firm – Invested $14.8 million, Earned $2.28 billion, Gain of $2.26 billion
Eric Lefkofsky – Groupon Co-Founder – Gained $1.67 billion based on over 10% ownership of the company
Elizabeth Lefkofsky – Wife of Eric – Gained $1.67 billion based on over 10% ownership of the company

T. Rowe Price Reveals Social Media Investments: $190.5M In Facebook, $71.8M In Zynga, And $86.8M In Groupon

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 07:36:29 +0000

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:TROW) has revealed some of their investments in social media companies. They have invested a total of $190.5 million in Facebook as of the end of March. The company also invested $71.8 million in Zynga and $86.8 million in Groupon. Two years ago T. Rowe participated in a $100 million round in Twitter along with Insight Venture Partners, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley. Other investments include $10 million worth of equity in Ning, $35 million equity in Angie’s List, and $114 million equity in YouKu.com. [NYT]

LivingSocial Raises $400 Million

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 03:05:27 +0000

Less than four months ago LivingSocial raised $175 million from Amazon.com and now they have raised an additional $400 million. The investors in this round include Amazon.com, Lightspeed Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). This puts LivingSocial at a $3 billion valuation.

“The investment is certainly a milestone in the company’s evolution,” stated LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, who declined to talk specifically about the valuation. “But it’s just that — a milestone, not the end game.” LivingSocial has launched a new mobile service called LivingSocial Instant that delivers time-sensitive discounts for people on the go. However this feature is only available in Washington D.C.

LivingSocial also launched a new service called Escapes, which is intended for travel deals. LivingSocial has sold 200,000 hotel nights thus far.

[New York Times]

Groupon Hits Half Of Its $950 Million Series G Goal

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:15:14 +0000

Last month a document revealed that Groupon.com had plans to raise $950 million in Series G. So far the company has raised half of that amount. Investors in this round include DST Global, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Capital Group, and Morgan Stanley. This investment gives Groupon a $4.75 billion valuation. This is $1.25 billion less than what Google offered to buy them out at. [AllThingsD]

Groupon Discloses $500 Million From Unknown Investors

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:35:24 +0000

Group coupon service Groupon.com has raised $500 million in venture capital funding. After turning down a $6 billion offer from Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the company decided to file for permission to raise $950 million in Series G.

Of that $950 million, it looks like $500 million has been raised from unknown investors. There are no new board members listed in the SEC filing. Some reports are suggesting that some of the new investors are Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price, and Fidelity. Previous investor Digital Sky Technologies is believed to be one of the investors in this round also.

One of the reasons why Groupon is raising this round is so that existing shareholders can cash out. As you may expect, some of Groupon’s shareholders weren’t too thrilled that Groupon turned down Google’s offer.

[Fortune]

RUMOR: Twitter Raising $100 Million From T. Rowe Price, Insight Venture Partners, Spark, and IVP

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:25:47 +0000

Micro-blogging company Twitter.com is rumored to be closing a deal worth $100 million in venture funding. The rumor is according to a Wall Street Journal source. The investors involved are T. Rowe Price, Insight Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). This is double the rumor that a TechCrunch source predicted earlier this month.

Spark Capital and IVP are previous investors in Twitter. In Twitter’s last round of funding, their valuation was $255 million. At an additional $100 million round of funding, the company is expected to be valuated beyond $1 billion. Despite the valuation Twitter has, the company does not have any substantial revenue model. But as we have learned from YouTube’s acquisition, that really doesn’t matter. YouTube was burning through VC funding before Google bought them out.

How many users does Twitter have? The company expects to have 25 million users by the end of this year. Twitter rival Facebook.com has about 300 million users. At one point Facebook made an offer to buy out Twitter for $500 million, $100 million in cash and $400 million in stock options. Rather than buying out Twitter, Facebook bought out FriendFeed.

Slide Over That $50 Million, I’ve Got Photo Widgets!

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 08:26:10 +0000

As you give a goofy look at the camera pointing at you in a photo kiosk at an entertainment venue, you begin to wonder what captions and background you’ll use.Â Now take this concept, slap it on the Internet in the form of a widget that can be Facebooked or MySpaced, and you’re ready to raise $50 million.

Business-savvy Internet entrepreneur and PayPal co-founder, Max Levchin did exactly that, as mentioned in BusinessWeek.Â Slide raised $50 million and increased their valuation to $500 million.Â This fourth round of investment was provided by Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price.

Photo widget companies is a proven model for acquisition targets, but is also a proven model for its vulnerability ofÂ mooching on other social networks’ user base.Â For example, Photobucket wasÂ acquired by News Corp. in May 2007 at a price of $250 million in cash.Â But before the acquisition, MySpace completely blocked Photobucket from accessing their users because of an advertising violation before making a truce.Â

Altogether, Slide has raised over $75 million including investments from other PayPal co-founder, Peter Thiel and venture capitalist, Vinod Khosla.Â Thiel is an early investor of Facebook.Â The other founders of Slide include Jared Kopf and Scott Banister, both also former PayPal employees.

Previous Slide coverage is available at: http://pulse2.com/category/slide/.