1. InfoSpace is starting its own Venture Capital Fund. This market has
created so much liquidity now that even "pets" have "pets" of their own.
This is in line with a quote from Marble Capital's Harry Kirsch in the
12/29/1999 USA Today: "A year ago, the tough part was finding the money.
Today, there is no shortage of money, just a shortage of good
entrepreneurial ideas. What's worse is that investors are asking fewer
and fewer tough questions of those ventures." Says Kleiner's Vinod
Khosla in the same article: "The market is overheated and indiscriminate.
There is too much emphasis on getting rich quick instead of assisting
and mentoring today's startups."
Says USA Today: "Venture capitalists poured a record-breaking $8.6
billion into 751 venture-backed companies in the third quarter. A heady
$21 billion was raised in the first nine months of the year, dwarfing
the $13 billion raised in all of 1998, according to industry researcher
Venture-One. The pace of activity has been staggering. The number of
deals jumped by more than a third this year, and start-ups now raise a
median of $9 million per financing round, up from $7 million a few
months ago."
2. InfoSpace is going wireless in a big way with $750 million in
acquisitions of Saraide and Prio earlier this month. I wonder if there
will be a trend toward consolidation among wireless companies in the
coming year; Puma and Phone.com have already been on the acquisition
trail this year as well, and are likely to continue next year.
3. We've known about www.tibco.com for a while, but only on rereading
article #3 (yes, I FoRKed it on Monday but I just read it again) did I
realize that www.tibco.net is a different beast, with real-time
Internet-scale in its crosshairs. Darn, Tibco is *so* close... and yet,
so far...
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 1: InfoSpace.com Forms New Venture Capital Fund
REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- InfoSpace.com (Nasdaq: INSP), a
leading provider of infrastructure services to Web sites, merchants and
wireless devices, today announced the formation of the InfoSpace.com
Venture Capital Fund in order to pursue strategic investments in
start-up Internet companies that are synergistic to InfoSpace.com's
business.
(Photo: Newscom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990625/INSPLOGO)
InfoSpace.com will contribute $30 million to the Fund that will go into
effect on January 1, 2000. Bernee Strom, who has served as president and
chief operating officer at InfoSpace.com, will become president of the
Fund and will continue to serve as a director of InfoSpace.com. Ms.
Strom was a significant contributor to InfoSpace.com during its IPO and
early growth period and has extensive experience in the facilitation and
growth of new Internet initiatives.
"There are a lot of opportunities for InfoSpace.com to align with the
Internet start-ups that have innovative ideas and talent," said Naveen
Jain, chairman and CEO, InfoSpace.com. "We feel Bernee is uniquely
qualified to help us identify those opportunities that will be strategic
and beneficial for InfoSpace.com's long term growth."
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 2: InfoSpace Sees Wireless Driving Revenues; Will Acquire
Saraide and Prio
SEATTLE, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Naveen Jain, chief executive officer of
InfoSpace.com Inc.(Nasdaq: INSP), said Monday he expects services for
wireless devices, such as cell phones, to generate about 40 percent of
revenues next year as a result of an acquisition.
Earlier Monday, the Redmond, Wash.-based Internet infrastructure company
announced plans to acquire global wireless Internet services provider
Saraide for about $348 million in stock, giving it access to a network
of more than 21 affiliated carriers in Europe, Japan and North America.
Before the acquisition, InfoSpace estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of
its revenue next year would come from wireless services.
"Wireless now becomes the biggest business for InfoSpace," Jain said in
a conference call with analysts and reporters.
Revenues from the company's merchant services will rise to 30 percent to
35 percent of its total revenues next year, with consumer services
accounting for about 30 percent, Jain said. The CEO also said one-third
of InfoSpace's revenues would come from international partners.
InfoSpace also said on Monday that it plans to acquire global wireless
Internet services provider Saraide and e-commerce company Prio Inc. in
separate stock deals valued at a total near $740 million.
InfoSpace said the merger with Saraide will enable it to form the
largest global alliance in the wireless Internet services market. The
Prio deal will allow InfoSpace to integrate online promotion
technologies with merchants' existing credit card processing
infrastructure, bridging the gap between the online and offline worlds.
InfoSpace said it would issue about 2.4 million common shares, valued at
around $348 million at current prices, to acquire Saraide, which will be
merged with InfoSpace's own wireless services.
InfoSpace said it would control 80 percent of the combined company after
the purchase deal is completed sometime in the first quarter of 2000.
Shareholders of Mountain View, Calif.-based Prio will receive about 2.7
million shares of InfoSpace, valued at around $392 million. The
pooling-of-interests deal is also expected to close in the first
quarter.
See:
http://www.saraide.com/
http://www.prio.net/
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Article 3: TIBCO and FAST to Develop Real-Time Information Search and
Alert Service for Millions of Users
http://www.fast.no/company/press/tibco.html
Delivers personalized real-time news, stock prices, sports and weather
alerts to PCs, cellular phones and pagers
Palo Alto, CA and Boston, MA -- May 14, 1999 -- TIBCO Software Inc. and
Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) today announced an agreement to
develop and market a new range of products for real-time information
delivery. The new products, which are expected to be available later
this year, will enable the delivery of real-time data and alerts to an
array of advanced consumer devices, including PCs, cellular phones,
pagers, personal digital assistants, and other mobile devices.
The new system combines FAST's search and real-time content filtering
technology with TIBCO's real-time information delivery system to provide
consumer alerts and data on virtually any topic to virtually any device.
Once completed, the service will be offered through TIBCO's TIBCO.net
( http://www.tibco.net/ ) and through agreements with major service
providers.
"The market for personalized information delivery is expanding rapidly,
so we wanted a partner that could provide real-time search to millions
of users," said Tugrul Firatli, Vice President, Networking and
Telecommunications Solutions, TIBCO Software Inc. "This agreement will
enable us to combine our technologies to create scalable solutions for
telecommunications and other infrastructure companies. In addition, we
plan to build specialized solutions based on FAST search technologies
that will provide large corporations with better decision support
systems, and that will integrate image and video for an exciting
consumer experience."
TIBCO offers the most complete application integration and real-time
information delivery solutions available today," said Espen Brodin,
president and CEO of FAST. "By utilizing TIBCO's Internet technology,
we will be able to deliver the results of our unique real-time
information search and content filtering to millions of consumers. With
TIBCO's new alert service, anyone with a desktop or portable PC,
cellular phone, pager, or personal digital assistant will have access to
unprecedented real-time alert capabilities.
About Fast Search & Transfer ASA
Fast Search & Transfer ASA, headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and with US
and UK subsidiaries, is a high-technology research and development
company delivering advanced and innovative search and image/video
compression technologies for Intranets, extranets, and the Internet. The
company develops and markets fully scalable cost-efficient software and
hardware, ranging from small and mid-size solutions to solutions for the
large Internet content providers and media companies. Applications
include the world's largest search engines for structured and
non-structured text and the highest performance image compression
technology available for the Internet. FAST is traded on the OTC market
in Oslo, Norway. For more information about FAST, visit
http://www.fast.no/
About TIBCO Software Inc.
TIBCO Software Inc. is a leading provider of software solutions that
enable businesses to integrate internal operations, business partners,
and customers in real-time. Through our products and services, we enable
computer applications and platforms to communicate efficiently across
networks, including the Internet. Our TIB/ActiveEnterprise(tm) product
suite facilitates the distribution of information and integration of
business processes by connecting applications to a network through
patented technology called The Information Bus or TIB.. TIB technology
was first used to "digitize" Wall Street in the 1980's and has since
been adopted in diverse industries, including manufacturing, energy,
telecommunications, and electronic commerce. TIBCO Software's global
client base includes Cisco Systems, 3Com, NEC, Bechtel, Philips,
PageNet, Netscape and Yahoo!. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California,
TIBCO Software can be reached at (650) 846-5000.
No we got nothin' in common
No we can't talk at all
Please take me along
When you slide on down...
The Cuervo Gold
The fine Colombian
Make tonight a wonderful thing.
-- Steely Dan, "Hey Nineteen"