Internet
Intuit to Acquire Demandforce for $424MM
This morning, Intuit announced its agreement to acquire one of Benchmark’s portfolio companies, Demandforce, for $424mm. As with Instagram, Benchmark Capital is the largest institutional investor in Demandforce. Unlike Instagram, which is a consumer application and is extremely well known, Demandforce focuses on local professional businesses and has chosen to keep an intentionally low profile [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 13 so far )Why Dropbox Is A Major Disruption
Back in October, Techcrunch announced that Dropbox had raised $250mm at a seemingly absurd valuation. Many firms, including my firm Benchmark Capital, participated. When this happened, many people asked us why this was a special company that would cause us to break our standard investment paradigm. They didn’t quite understand why this was a company that deserved [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 143 so far )Why Facebook Clearly Belongs in the 10X Revenue Club
Attached are my thoughts on the Facebook S-1 along with some quick stabs at valuation. Brief disclosure, Benchmark Capital has a minority position in Facebook as a result of the acquisition of FriendFeed, a company that was incubated in our offices. I thought it would be useful to look at Facebook using the scorecard from our [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 55 so far )Understanding Why Netflix Changed Pricing
Many journalists have offered their opinion on Netflix’s recent changes, its stock price decline, and their even more recent branding changes (Qwikster). Yet in each article, it appears as if the journalist all agree that the price move (creating separate prices for streaming and DVDs) was a bad strategic move. As an example, Techcrunch notes: “Raising prices for those of [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 146 so far )On IPOs: If You Are Going To File, Make Sure You Price
As you likely know, I am a big believer that the IPO can play a key role in the development of a company’s life. Moreover, I have argued that many in our ecosystem have an unhealthy anxiety regarding the dangers and consequences of being public. Lastly, I have argued that the IPO window is wide [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 9 so far )All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club
[Follow Me on Twitter] “ Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, And all the world will love you just as long, As long as you are.” – Paul Rodgers, Shooting Star With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with frothy trades in the bubbly late stage private market, [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 110 so far )The Freight Train That Is Android
[Follow Me on Twitter] “People get ready, there’s a train a comin’” – The Impressions From Zacks via Yahoo: Mark Vickery, On Thursday March 24, 2011, 4:58 pm EDT “BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (NasdaqGS: RIMM – News) beat its fiscal 4Q EPS estimates by 2 cents per share, but missed slightly on quarterly revenues and [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 263 so far )Silicon Valley’s IPO Anxiety
[Follow Me on Twitter] “Living in the limelight The universal dream For those who wish to seem. Those who wish to be Must put aside the alienation, Get on with the fascination…” — Limelight from Moving Pictures, Rush If you could travel back in time to the early 1990’s and ask Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurs [...]
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