Global Startup Blog : Startup Lawyer & Attorney : Reed Smith Law Firm : Corporate Law, Venture Capital

A few quick headlines on a Thursday afternoon:

• Just a few days after VMWare completed its acquisition of Zimbra, the Silicon Valley technology darling announced its intention to acquire certain assets from EMC.  The deal focuses on software products and expertise from EMC's Ionix IT management business in an all-cash transaction valued at up to $200 million.   Ben Verghese, Chief Management Architect, Virtualization and Cloud Platforms Business Unit, gave a bit of insight into the transaction on his executive blog.  VMWare is certainly keeping my former colleague and current Sr. VP and General Counsel Dawn Smith busy these days.

• Deutsche Telekom didn't rule out spinning out T-Mobile USA and taking it public later this year, though the global telecom giant did rule out trying to gain market share buy acquiring one of its competitors in a "multi-billion-euro" deal anytime in the next two years, according to a BusinessWeek article today.  An IPO of that magnitude could certainly serve as a nice shot of adrenaline for the still-stalled US IPO market.

• SecondMarket closed another round of funding.  Li Ka Shing Foundation and Hutchison Wampoa Ltd. each invested $7.5 million, joining an investor base that includes FirstMark Capital, New Enterprise Associates and Silicon Valley Bank.  The raise was for expansion into the Asian markets.  SecondMarket certainly seems focused on scaling its operations and really making the secondary trading market for traditionally illiquid securities part of everyday life in Silicon Valley and beyond.

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After a multi-week hiatus due to the holidays and, of course, the ever-present demands of deal making as the year comes to a close, Friday Five is back to highlight a few of the top stories from the week. 

• A group of hackers commandeered Twitter's DNS for about an hour on Thursday night, directing traffic to their own webpage.  According to the social media giant, its website and micro-blogging that plugged into Twitter's API were not affected.  This is the second time in less than six months that Twitter fell victim to a DNS attack, though it is the first time that a "Cyber Army" took credit for the fiasco.  What is a "Cyber Army" anyway?  Do they attend boot camp, wear uniforms and otherwise follow unquestioned orders from superiors?  I digress. 

• Earlier this week, the National Venture Capital Association released its yearly Venture View Survey.  The survey polled more than 325 venture capitalists across the country, and the results were as expected with the industry professionals remaining somewhat bullish about the short-term future.  63% expected the total dollars invested in 2010 to stay the same or increase.  50% predicted an increase in the number of companies receiving funding.  The survey pointed to clean technology and Internet as the industries best positioned for higher investment levels in 2010.  Asia will continue to be a growing focus for investment dollars.  74% predicted an improved IPO market.  And the overwhelming majority predicted that funds raised in 2010 will be smaller than previous funds and the overall number of funds would decline over the next five years.

• Regado Biosciences yesterday closed its Series D financing, raising $40 million from an investor syndicate led by LCF Rothschild Group that also included existing investors Domain Associates, Quaker Bioventures, Aurora Funds and Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund.  The New Jersey-based company is developing antithrombotic therapeutic aptamers with active control agents.  Regado's successful raise is a nice feel-good moment for emerging companies in light of the continued talk of general venture capital industry contraction.

• Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies is leading a group that is buying a $180 million stake in Zynga, a social gaming company that produces popular online games such as Mafia Wars.  The deal comes off the heels of DST's $200 million investment in Facebook.  DST is certainly making a major bet on the social media space with those two deals.

• The Wall Street Journal's Venture Capital Dispatch contains an interesting blog post titled "Exit Conundrum: Wait For An IPO Rebound Or Sell To An Acquirer?"  that focuses on Acclarent's $785 million sale to Johnson & Johnson.  Until the IPO markets come roaring back, which may be quite some time, it seems likely that many companies will opt to go the safer route chosen by Acclarent.

That is all for now.  We won't have the same radio silence over the next few weeks that we did in late November.  Enjoy your weekend!

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We are adding a new feature to the blog.  Each Friday, we will link to the top five headlines for global entrepreneurs.  Of course, the bulk of those will often involve Silicon Valley, since that tech-concentrated center remains the global front line of technology and venture capital.  Enough intro banter.  Let's jump right into it.

• Talk about a long time in the making.  On Wednesday, Ancestry.com, a website that allows people to trace their roots by searching online documents, priced its IPO of 7.4 million shares at $13.50.  By my math, that will bring in approximately $100 million in aggregate gross proceeds, assuming that the round is fully subscribed.  It took Ancestry.com a scant 26 years from the time it was founded until it priced its IPO, making it the oldest venture-backed IPO of 2009.  Talk about patience and perseverance!  Read more.

• Who said that it was next to impossible for venture capitalists to raise additional funds in this economy?  Greylock Partners obviously missed that memo, as the Silicon Valley stalwart recently announced the closing of Greylock XIII, a $575 million fund.  They also announced the addition of Reid Hoffman, co-founder and current Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, as a new investing partner.  Read more.

• I wonder what ridiculously expensive champagne former British investment bankers Eldar and Roy Tuvey will be drinking in celebration this weekend after selling their company, ScanSafe, to Cisco for up to $183 million earlier this week?  The founders are set to spit up to a cool $60 million between them.  With an exit like that, they can afford to take a bath--literally--in 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut, which is priced around $2,500 per bottle.  The exit was also a good win for London-based venture capital fund Balderton Capital.  Yahoo Finance estimates that Balderton enjoyed a four times return on its four rounds of investment in ScanSafe.  Not bad, indeed.  Read more.

• The government of the People's Republic of China doesn't seem squeamish about the future of its venture capital market.  China's key economic planning body recently launched 20 venture capital funds to develop China's growing technology sector.  Read more.  That news certainly seems to support estimates that China's private equity industry will grow by ten-fold over the next five years.  Read more.  Yes, I know that is two headlines combined into one, but who is truly counting anyway?

• When Google head honcho Eric Schmidt talks, people tend to listen.  When he talks about his view of the employment trends in Silicon Valley's technology sector, even more people turn an inquisitive ear or two.  Read more.

Enjoy your weekend!

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