Author: Iris Dorbian

Foundation Capital said on Thursday that it has named Harsh Patel as entrepreneur-in-residence. Prior to joining Foundation Capital, Patel served as president of Bina Technologies, a data analytics firm. Foundation Capital is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE

MENLO PARK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Foundation Capital today announced that veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Harsh Patel has joined the firm as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR). Patel comes to Foundation Capital with strong experience in the technology startup world, having served as an engineer, founder, operator and investor throughout his career.
Prior to joining Foundation Capital, Patel served as President of Bina Technologies, a data analytics company pioneering a new approach in genomics – a key enabler for personalized medicine. Before that, Patel was a partner with New York-based RRE Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA. As a VC he led a number of early-stage investments, most notably Palantir Technologies, Tendril and Flipswap (now ERecyclingCorps). He has also been an active angel investor and advisor to a number of seed-stage companies including Badgeville, SnappyTV, Bunndle and GrubWithUs. Earlier in his career he was Co-Founder and CTO of a SaaS platform for small business eCommerce and led R&D efforts building enterprise systems for Fortune 500 companies.
“I’ve always been drawn to my entrepreneurial roots and have looked for opportunities to get deeply involved with companies at the early stage,” said Patel. “With the vast operational experience of its partners and their strong track record, Foundation Capital is the ideal place to anchor for the near future. It’s a rare chance to have an investing role while also getting back on the other side of the table.”
Patel is exploring several areas of interest that resonate from his past experience. One key focus is the application of large-scale data solutions to business problems affecting major markets – healthcare, financial services, government and education. Another is the impact of mobility and M2M communications in re-imagining core consumer and business services. In his role as an EIR Patel will help the firm evaluate new opportunities in these themes and others.
“The Foundation EIR program is designed to identify people who can offer a unique perspective to the partnership to make it stronger, and Harsh fits the criteria many times over,” said Steve Vassallo, general partner at Foundation Capital. “He has the rare ability to think both as an investor and entrepreneur. His versatility and impressive background will make him a tremendous asset to Foundation Capital.”
About Foundation Capital
At Foundation Capital, we’re dedicated to the proposition that one entrepreneur’s idea, with the right support, can become a business that changes the world. We helped Atheros create the mobile Internet, EnerNOC invent the energy demand response market, and Netflix revolutionize media distribution and consumption, among many others. We’re currently invested in more than 80 high-growth ventures in the areas of consumer, information technology, software, semiconductors, and clean technology including BoardVantage, Chegg, Coverity, Lending Club, MobileIron, Simply Hired, Sunrun, TubeMogul and Venafi. Foundation Capital’s eighteen initial public offerings include Envestnet, Financial Engines, Netflix, NetZero, Responsys and Silver Spring Networks. For more information, please visit www.foundationcapital.com.

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U.S. Venture Partners said on Thursday that it has expanded its team. Dr. Jacques Benkoski has been promoted to partner while Mike Maciag has been named as an executive-in-residence and Craig Parker as the firm’s entrepreneur-in-residence. USVP is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE

MENLO PARK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–U.S. Venture Partners (USVP), a leading early-stage venture capital firm, announced today the firm expanded its team by promoting Dr. Jacques Benkoski to Partner and adding two new EIRs, Mike Maciag and Craig Parker. The firm is also proud to announce that Benkoski received the 2013 International Fund Award for Innovative Venture Capitalist of the Year, United States.
USVP’s promotion of Jacques Benkoski to Partner recognizes his leadership in fostering USVP as an active investor in the Israeli market and in the IT markets in the U.S. Since 2005, Jacques has been involved with USVP investments in Chute, HelloFax, Plumgrid, Qnovo, Quixey, RiskIO, SupplyFrame, in addition to his active involvement with Israeli companies Trusteer, Zerto, and previously Dune Networks. He is currently Chairman of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Technion Society, and an active board member of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce.
Benkoski was recognized by the International Fund Awards as a thought leader as exemplified by his designing and implementing USVP’s unique and successful Israel investment strategy. The awards are given based on nominations, in-house research and industry knowledge. The International Fund Awards celebrate excellence within Private Equity, Venture Capital and Infrastructure.
An Executive-in-Residence for USVP, Mike Maciag served as the CEO of Electric Cloud for over seven years. Prior to joining Electric Cloud, Mike founded MS2 (acquired by Agile Software), an enterprise software company. Prior to MS2, Mike led Electronics for Imaging and NetFrame Systems, to successful public offerings.
Craig Parker joins USVP as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Craig was the SVP of Corporate Development and Strategy for Human Genome Sciences (acquired by Glaxo Smithkline). Previously, he was SVP of Corporate Development and Finance at Proteolix, a USVP portfolio company. He was formerly a managing director and head of biotechnology equity research at Lehman Brothers, and General Manager and SVP of the Specialty Therapeutics Franchise of Immunex (acquired by Amgen).
Coming off a record year in 2012 with over $500M in distributions, the firm continues its strong investment pace with a series of active investments during Q2 2013. Over the past two months, USVP made initial and follow-on investments in Exablox, Skytree, Clustrix, Zerto, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Cleave Biosciences, PlaceIQ and Chute, continuing its momentum and strengthening its portfolio.
About U.S. Venture Partners
USVP is a leading venture capital partnership, helping entrepreneurs transform their ideas and efforts into world-changing companies. USVP focuses on early-stage ventures in information technology and health care, where innovation is unbridled and has led to the creation of economic wealth and millions of jobs over the past thirty-plus years of the firm’s existence. Areas of particular interest to our investment professionals include data center and network technology, consumer and business services, digital media, communications, semiconductors, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices. The USVP team consists of former entrepreneurs, technologists, corporate executives, financial professionals and industry domain experts. Find more about USVP’s portfolio company news by following us on Twitter @USVP_ or liking us on Facebook.

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Numecent, a provider of cloudpaging solutions, said on Wednesday that it has closed $13.6 million in a major funding round. The lead investor was T-Venture, the venture capital division of Deutsche Telekom. According to Numecent, the funding will be used to support the rapidly growing business of the company and to make cloudpaging available on a slew of mobile platforms. A portfolio company of Endeavour Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm, Numecent is based in both Irvine, Calif. and the U.K.

PRESS RELEASE
May 29, 2013 – Irvine, CA – Numecent™, the cloudpaging innovator, today announced it has closed $13.6M in a major funding round led by T-Venture™ – the VC arm of Deutsche Telekom®. Earlier this month, Numecent was named a Gartner “Cool Vendor 2013” in recognition of its groundbreaking technology.

Numecent’s patented cloudpaging offerings can rapidly Cloudify and optionally SaaSify any Microsoft® Windows®-based application and deliver it from the Cloud almost instantly, with zero installation on the client devices. With cloudpaging, customers can optionally deploy subscription-based models such as SaaS for their applications with no changes to the underlying software.

This allows native applications to behave like Web-apps while still maintaining the full feature set, inter-application compatibility and performance of locally-installed software – the apps can even run offline. Cloudpaging is a Web-scale technology which can scale to millions of users with minimal server and network footprint.

Numecent came out of stealth in 2012 to widespread industry acclaim and cloudpaging has been hailed as a broad and disruptive technology, which is changing the way native applications are deployed and utilized from the Cloud. The company’s primary customers are Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Telcos and Enterprises.

“Numecent has a potentially game-changing new technology with a huge “wow” factor. We are delighted to support them with this investment through our T-Venture subsidiary,” said Dr. Aleksandar Mitrovic, Senior Vice President for Technology and Platforms at Deutsche Telekom’s Product & Innovation division. “As Telcos around the world evolve to become Cloud services providers for consumers, SMBs and enterprises alike, disruptive technologies such as Numecent’s cloudpaging will offer unique differentiation opportunities and compelling benefits for our users.”

“With this fresh injection of capital into the company, we plan to make cloudpaging pervasive and woven into the fabric of ISV, Telco and MSP clouds,” said Osman Kent, co-founder and CEO of Numecent. “The way users interact with and use native applications has hardly changed since downloads and software installations were inflicted on users decades ago. We believe cloudpaging is poised to change that for the better as the industry embraces friction-free and on-demand delivery models.”

This new financing will be used to support the rapidly growing business of the company and will fund organizational growth in sales, marketing and engineering. Part of the funding will also be used to make cloudpaging available on Linux®, Google® Android® and other mobile platforms.

Numecent will be conducting a press tour during June to launch an exciting new addition to its cloudpaging offerings – please contact Numecent PR Counsel Jonathan Hirshon at [email protected] for details of the tour and for pre-briefings.

About Numecent

Numecent www.numecent.com is a pioneer and technology leader in rapid, secure and friction-free provisioning of native applications from the cloud through virtualization. Its groundbreaking and patented cloudpaging technology can deliver a native application from the Cloud between 20x to 100x faster compared to a linear digital download and execute on the client platform without installation.

Unlike expensive remoting solutions which cannot scale, cloudpaging does not push pixels from the Cloud – the technology actually transmits pre-virtualized native software instructions (a page at a time and on demand) which are then executed on the user’s machine in a transient manner and at full performance. As a result, cloudpaged native applications can reduce network usage by up to 95% and can become Web-scale with minimal server footprint.

Follow us on Twitter (@numecent) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/numecent)

We are always looking for exceptional people. For career opportunities at Numecent see http://www.numecent.com/contact/careers.html

About T-Venture

T-Venture Holding GmBH www.t-venture.com was founded in 1997 as a 100% subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom Ag. Since then, T-Venture has invested in young growth companies that demonstrate economic and technological synergy with the business objectives of Deutsche Telekom. The company is headquartered in Bonn and with offices in Silicon Valley and Seattle. The company primarily invests in Europe, USA and Asia and is one of the largest corporate VCs in the world.

About Endeavour Ventures

Endeavour Ventures www.endven.com is a London (UK)-based boutique venture firm, specializing in raising seed and growth financing for technology companies through their extensive network of angels and high-net-worth individuals. The company has been associated with Numecent since its inception and helped Numecent raise $11M through angels.

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GlaxoSmithKline, the global healthcare company, said on Wednesday that it has acquired Okairos AG, a Swiss-based developer of vaccine platform technologies for €250 million (approximately $325 million) in cash. The transaction will also include some early stage assets. Prior to the acquisition, Okairos was backed by the following life science VC firms: BioMedInvest, the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, LSP, Novartis Venture Funds and Versant Ventures.

PRESS RELEASE

Issued: Wednesday 29 May 2013, London UK
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) today announced that it has acquired Okairos AG (Okairos), a specialist developer of vaccine platform technologies for €250 million (approximately £215 million/$325 million) in cash.
Swiss-based Okairos, a private company, has developed a novel vaccine platform technology which is expected to play an important role in GSK’s development of new prophylactic vaccines (designed to prevent infection) as well as new classes of therapeutic vaccines (designed to treat infection or disease). Okairos’ technology complements GSK’s existing vaccine technology and expertise, and will enable GSK to continue its work developing the next generation of vaccines. The deal also includes a small number of early stage assets.
The acquisition reinforces GSK’s commitment to investment in innovative science. GSK’s vaccines business sits alongside pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare as part of a balanced business and product portfolio capable of delivering sustainable sales growth.
Christophe Weber, President, GSK Vaccines said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for patients and our research organisation as it is expected to contribute to the development efforts for an exciting new generation of vaccines, building on the excellent science and expertise of both companies.”
Riccardo Cortese, Chief Executive Officer and founder, Okairos, said: “I am extremely pleased with this agreement, which will enable GSK to build on the hard work we have put into developing our vaccines and platforms to the stage that they are at today. With its considerable resources and know-how, I am confident that GSK is best-placed to maximise this opportunity to potentially transform the vaccines landscape.”
Under the terms of the transaction, GSK will take full ownership of the company and thus assume ownership of early stage assets for diseases such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), malaria, tuberculosis, ebola and HIV, supplementing the company’s existing vaccines pipeline. GSK and the Okairos management team are committed to an innovative collaboration and will work together over the next few months to develop ways of working that will maintain the autonomy, spirit and agility of this unique small biotech firm which will be strengthened by the support and advantages that GSK can provide.
Okairos was supported by investments from the following life science venture capital firms: BioMedInvest, the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, LSP, Novartis Venture Funds and Versant Ventures.
GlaxoSmithKline – one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies – is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer. For further information please visit www.gsk.comPage 2
Okairos – is a non-listed clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, developing genetic vaccines for major infectious diseases – including malaria, hepatitis C, HIV, respiratory syncytial virus and cancer – using a novel proprietary technology. The company is also pursuing therapeutic vaccines to treat cancer. For more information, visit www.okairos.com
Platform technology: Okairos’ platform technology is based on novel viral vectors (mechanisms which deliver genetic material into cells) that are designed to help stimulate immune responses, (in particular T-cells) and aim to protect against and treat infectious diseases and cancer.. The potential of this technology has been tested in clinical studies in which over 700 subjects have been vaccinated, including Phase II programmes in hepatitis C and malaria.

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Software vendor Moogsoft said on Wednesday that it has received $7 million in Series A funding. The lead investor of the round was Redpoint Ventures. Also, John Walecka, general partner at Redpoint Ventures, has joined Moogsoft’s board of directors.

PRESS RELEASE
London, England / San Francisco, CA / New York, NY – May 29, 2013 – Moogsoft, the leading Agile Service Management software company, announced today a $7 million Series A funding round led by Redpoint Ventures. John Walecka, General Partner at Redpoint Ventures, has joined Moogsoft’s Board of Directors.
Moogsoft, which began customer deliveries of MOOG® in February 2012, helps enterprises significantly reduce IT Incident Management costs, increase the frequency of IT change and increase the efficiency of their staff.
Moogsoft’s MOOG® automatically identifies the existence of IT Incidents, goal orchestrates the stakeholder responses and captures the resolution knowledge. MOOG® requires no rules, no business logic or models and no learned patterns to administer and maintain. MOOG® reduces the mean time to identify and diagnose incidents, reduces the actionable responder activities and, reduces the mean time to resolve the incident. MOOG® reduces adverse impact on end-users and the business bottom line.
“I knew from our first meeting that Redpoint Ventures and John Walecka were the right partners for Moogsoft. I love their enthusiasm, energy and of course, their insight and experience. I am really looking forward to achieving our vision for this business with a venture partner who is focused on the intelligent exploitation of big data to create sustainable companies playing in commercially scalable markets,” said Phil Tee, Co-Founder and CEO of Moogsoft.
Moogsoft will use the investment from Redpoint Ventures to exploit its proven technology innovations at a time when businesses are struggling to cost effectively manage their IT infrastructures as they move to joint vendor supply arrangements underpinned by hybrid cloud and SDN.
“The team at Moogsoft has taken a blue sky approach to the IT Operations and Service Management problem, built an unbelievable technology and has achieved impressive results in a short period of time,” said John Walecka, General Partner at Redpoint Ventures. “With its innovation leadership, deep industry experience and rapid implementation time, we see huge growth potential in Moogsoft.”
Moogsoft has found that Incident Management processes underpinned by brittle rules and models adversely impact business agility. In a survey of major businesses, greater than 50 percent of IT incidents were reported by end users, not the operations and service management tools already in place. With the Series A investment from Redpoint Ventures Moogsoft is focused on closing this gap and ensuring customers become pre-emptive rather than reactive to all incidents.
The Moogsoft innovation is the industrialization of an Agile Service Management platform. The application of machine learning with recent inventions in Big Data and natural language processing (NLP) to real-time infrastructure events (from devices, databases, applications and, human generated instant messages and trouble tickets) enables Moogsoft’s customers to pre-emptively identify the existence of service impacting Incidents and apply goal oriented social orchestration to the resolution and impact management processes.
About Moogsoft
Moogsoft is the leader in Agile Service Management software, exploiting modern concepts, including Big Data and Social Networking, to aid our customers in leveraging greater value from their existing service management resources, reducing their operations costs and, increasing the quality of the services they deliver.
MOOG® transforms Alert driven Incident Management into Goal Oriented Situation Management. MOOG® is a registered trademark of Moogsoft Incorporated.
The Moogsoft team are the original team behind IBM Tivoli Netcool.
www.moogsoft.com
Connect with Moogsoft
Read the blog: moogsoft.wordpress.com
Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Moogsoft
About Redpoint Ventures
Founded in 1999, Redpoint Ventures is a leading technology focused venture capital and growth equity investment firm with over $3B in capital under management. Redpoint focuses on investing globally in technology ventures across the Internet, digital media, mobile, and enterprise sectors to accelerate growth and build industry defining companies. Its partners have been involved in 41 IPOs and 66 upside acquisitions. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, CA with offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, China. For more information visit http://www.redpoint.com/.
Moogsoft was advised by Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe LLP

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Dresner Partners said on Wednesday that it has named Brian Graves as the company’s managing director. Graves experience includes leadership and advisory roles with Ernst & Young’s Strategic Advisory Services, Credit Suisse’s HOLT Value Group, Mesirow Financial and Motorola. Dresner Partners is a middle-market investment bank based in Chicago.

PRESS RELEASE

CHICAGO – May 29, 2013 – Dresner Partners announced today that it has hired Brian Graves as Managing Director. Mr. Graves has more than 20 years of experience working with senior executives, board members, business owners and private equity groups.
He has advised senior executives and institutional investors across most economic sectors, including business and financial services, consumer products, e-learning, energy, healthcare, industrials and technology. Mr. Graves’ expertise covers a wide range of strategic growth, divestiture, turnaround, merger and capital raising initiatives, and he has advised clients on M&A, investment and capital structure opportunities ranging from $15 million to over $800 million.
“We are very pleased to have Brian join our firm,” said Steven M. Dresner, President of Dresner Partners. “His experience as an M&A advisor, strategy consultant, investment executive and operating leader has provided him with a strong background that will benefit the growth and success of our firm.”
“Dresner Partners is perfectly aligned with my focus of working with middle market and private equity firms,” said Mr. Graves. “I am excited about the opportunity to leverage my strategic advisory approach for M&A, capital restructuring and institutional investing with our investment bank’s global market access.”
Mr. Graves’ experience includes leadership and advisory roles with Ernst & Young’s Strategic Advisory Services, Credit Suisse’s HOLT Value Group, Mesirow Financial and Motorola. He has advised such leading institutional investment groups as Citibank Asset Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management in addition to leading Fortune 1000 companies, middle-market companies and privately held high-growth early- to mid-stage companies. He has also been a guest speaker on a wide range of growth strategy, management practices and turnaround topics.
Mr. Graves holds an M.B.A. with a Specialization in Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and is a Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor.
About Dresner Partners
Dresner Partners is a FINRA-registered, middle-market investment bank headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded more than twenty years ago, Dresner Partners provides financial advisory services to business owners and managers throughout the world, including institutional private placements of debt and equity, merger and acquisitions, valuations and strategic consulting services. Dresner Partners is also a member of IMAP, an exclusive global organization of leading merger and acquisition advisory firms. Its affiliate company, Dresner Corporate Services, is a strategic communications firm specializing in public and investor relations. More information is available at www.dresnerpartners.com.

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Pure Storage said on Wednesday that it has received funding from In-Q-Tel (IQT). No financial terms were disclosed. Pure Storage has also entered into a technology development agreement with IQT. Pure Storage is an all-flash enterprise storage company based in Mountain View, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE

Mountain View, CA – May 29, 2013 — Pure Storage, the all-flash enterprise storage company, today announced that it has closed a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel (IQT), the investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The partnership will allow Pure Storage to further develop its FlashArray technology to meet the unique needs of IQT’s government customers.
“We are pleased to be partnering with Pure Storage to accelerate development of its FlashArray technology,” said T.J. Rylander, Partner on IQT’s Investments Team. “This solution has great potential to address critical reliability, performance, efficiency and data storage cost requirements for the U.S. Intelligence Community.”
Flash For All: Delivering a Fundamentally Better Storage Experience for Everyone
Flash memory is on pace to replace the spinning hard drive in performance storage, but until now, it has been too expensive to achieve mainstream adoption. Founded in 2009, Pure Storage was first to deliver an all-flash storage array for less than the cost of mechanical disk arrays. The company’s flagship product, the FlashArray, employs high-performance inline data reduction techniques like deduplication, compression, and thin provisioning, to dramatically reduce the data footprint and turn the economics of enterprise storage on its head. FlashArray combines the performance, space, and power efficiency advantages of flash with the compatibility and resiliency of traditional performance disk arrays. The product is dramatically faster, simpler and more reliable, yet costs less than the disk-centric alternatives.
“We are thrilled that In-Q-Tel has selected us to accelerate development of the next generation of enterprise storage,” said Scott Dietzen, CEO at Pure Storage. “Their decision to invest in and collaborate with us is a strong validation of the achievements our team has accomplished to-date and the vision we have articulated going forward. We look forward to continuing to work closely with IQT to deliver solid-state storage solutions that are optimized for the needs of the U.S. federal government.”
Separately today, Pure Storage made generally available the third generation of its flagship FlashArray product, featuring new FA-400 hardware, and the Purity Operating Environment 3.0 software. The new FlashArray provides double the performance and the capacity of its predecessors, as well as enhanced resiliency, improved supportability, and new features like full encryption and zero overhead snapshots.
About Pure Storage
Pure Storage, the all-flash enterprise storage company, enables the broad deployment of flash in the data center. When compared to traditional disk-centric arrays, Pure Storage all-flash enterprise arrays are 10x faster and 10x more space and power efficient at a price point that is less than performance disk per gigabyte stored. The Pure Storage FlashArray is ideal for high performance workloads, including server virtualization, desktop virtualization (VDI), database (OLTP, real-time analytics) and cloud computing. For more information, visit www.purestorage.com.
Connect with Pure Storage:
Read the blog: http://www.purestorage.com/blog
Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PureStorage
Visit on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PureStorage
Watch our video: You Know You Want Flash, Right?
About IQT
In-Q-Tel is the not-for-profit, strategic investment firm that works to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Launched in 1999 as a private, independent organization, IQT’s mission is to identify and partner with companies developing cutting-edge technologies that serve the national security interests of the United States. For more information, visit www.iqt.org.

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TrackMaven said on Wednesday that it has received $1.25 million in funding. Among the investors that participated in the round were AOL Ventures; Roger Krakoff of Cloud Capital Partners; and Acceleprise Ventures. Based in Washington, D.C., TrackMaven is a competitive intelligence platform for marketers.

PRESS RELEASE

TrackMaven, the competitive intelligence platform for marketers, announced today that it has closed $1.25 million in funding from Aol Ventures and leading marketing investors. The round includes investments from:
AOL Ventures
Sean Glass (Former CMO of HigherOne, NYSE: ONE)
Hemang Gadhia (Former CEO of Condaptive, Acquired by Millenial Media, NYSE: MM)
Adam Riggs (Former President of Shutterstock, NYSE: SSTK)
Roger Krakoff (Cloud Capital Partners)
Tony Ayaz (Former VP of Public Sales for Splunk, NYSE: SPLK)
Marc Solomon (CFO of JackBe)
Acceleprise Ventures
Andy Klingenstein
David Cohen
Adam Falla
TrackMaven is the competitive intelligence platform for digital marketers. By aggregating data from paid, owned, and earned media channels, TrackMaven gives modern marketers one platform to track their competitors’ digital marketing activities in three ways: with a universal feed that displays content marketing, press mentions, social marketing on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, paid advertising, and other digital marketing activities in a single, filterable, real-time feed;via personalized alerts triggered by digital marketing activity of any type, from any competitor, of interest to the marketer as it happens or at the frequency of their choosing; and with competitor profiles that show how successful competitors are as compared to one another, and the user company, in every type of digital marketing activity monitored in TrackMaven, including SEO, Traffic, content marketing, social media, and more.

Competitive intelligence is a time-intensive process for marketers with results that are traditionally quickly out of date and labor intensive. The traditional process of gathering meaningful competitive intelligence usually involves cobbling together data from lots of different sources, aggregating it by hand, and then analyzing it to get a full picture of what your competitors are doing and whether it’s effective for them. It’s really difficult to do this well the old-fashioned way. TrackMaven eliminates the manual data gathering process and shows marketers everything their competitors are doing with digital marketing and how well it’s working for them in one place. This makes it easy for marketers to see what is working in their industry and build campaigns around that, benchmark their own programs, and keep up-to-date with their industry.
www.TrackMaven.com
Twitter.com/TrackMavenApp
Facebook.com/TrackMaven

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J.F. Lehman & Company, a middle-market private equity firm focused on the defense, aerospace and maritime sectors, said on Wednesday that it has promoted four employees. The changes are as follows: Lisa M. Steffens will become managing director of fund finance and investor relations; David L. Rattner will become managing director, legal, administration and compliance; William J. Hanenberg will become vice president; and, David F. Thomas will become senior associate. J.F. Lehman & Company has offices in New York and Washington, D.C.

PRESS RELEASE

May 29, 2013
NEW YORK – J.F. Lehman & Company, a leading middle-market private equity firm focused on the defense, aerospace and maritime sectors, is pleased to announce the promotion of Lisa M. Steffens to Managing Director, Fund Finance and Investor Relations; David L. Rattner to Managing Director, Legal, Administration and Compliance; William J. Hanenberg to Vice President and David F. Thomas to Senior Associate.
Ms. Steffens joined the firm in 2006 and served for six years as J.F. Lehman’s Director of Investor Relations. Her prior experience includes risk analysis at the Shaw Group, investment banking at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, and intelligence analysis and engineering for the C.I.A. Ms. Steffens graduated from M.I.T. with B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and French and earned an M.B.A. from Yale University.
Mr. Rattner joined the firm in 2011 as General Counsel. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Rattner spent eight years as general counsel of OAO Technology Solutions (“OAOT”), a former J.F. Lehman portfolio company. Prior to joining OAOT, Mr. Rattner held various general counsel and in-house legal positions at companies ranging from start-ups to a Fortune 500 company. Mr. Rattner began his legal career as an associate at Skadden Arps, earned a B.A. degree from Georgetown University and received his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Mr. Hanenberg joined the firm in 2008. Prior to joining J.F. Lehman, he was an investment banking analyst in the Global Industrials Group at Banc of America Securities. His prior experience includes analyst positions at Redwood Capital Group (a technology-focused M&A boutique) and Dealogic. Mr. Hanenberg earned a B.S. in economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.
Mr. Thomas joined J.F. Lehman in 2010. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Thomas was an investment banking analyst in Credit Suisse’s Mergers and Acquisitions Group where he supported a wide range of transactions. Mr. Thomas earned a B.A. in economics from Yale University.
J.F. Lehman & Company is a leading middle-market private equity firm focused exclusively on the defense, aerospace and maritime sectors. The firm has offices in New York and Washington, D.C.

For more information about J.F. Lehman & Company, please visit www.jflpartners.com.

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Cooley LLP said on Wednesday that Jeremy Naylor has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner in its tax practice. In his new position, Naylor will work with the firm’s leading venture capital group. Prior to joining Cooley LLP, Naylor worked at White & Case.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – May 29, 2013) – Cooley LLP announced today that Jeremy Naylor has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner in the Tax practice. Naylor joins Cooley from White & Case where he specialized in the representation of private equity, real estate, venture capital and hedge fund sponsors in connection with the tax aspects of structuring investment funds. At Cooley, Naylor will work extremely closely with the firm’s leading Venture Capital group.
“Cooley has the top fund formation group in the country by all measures, and with fundraising activity running very high, our team is in equally high demand,” said Jim Fulton, partner-in-charge of Cooley’s New York Office. “Jeremy will play a key role in the critically important tax arena for these clients and strengthen our general tax practice more broadly, especially as our level of cross-border work continues to grow.”
“Recently, our Venture Capital group has been involved more frequently with structurally complex international funds that raise intricate tax issues,” said Craig Dauchy, head of the firm’s Venture Capital practice. “Jeremy has the international tax background to assist these clients in designing the most tax efficient structures for their funds. We are well acquainted with Jeremy’s work and reputation and are very excited to augment our fund formation team with his exceptional tax skills.”
In addition to his extensive work in the area of private equity and venture capital fund formation, Naylor also brings to Cooley experience with tax issues in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, structuring US real estate and joint venture transactions and executive compensation arrangements.
“I am tremendously excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with and support the tax needs of the country’s preeminent venture fund formation group,” said Naylor. “I am thrilled to join an extremely talented group of tax practitioners who day in and day out are providing forward thinking tax solutions to some of the country’s most innovative companies. When combined with the firm’s collegial culture, this is a unique opportunity for me both professionally and personally.”
Earlier this year, Mike Faber also joined Cooley’s New York office as a partner in the firm wide Tax practice. Prior to Cooley, Faber had been a tax partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Naylor earned his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in 1999, and his B.A. from Boston University in 1994.
About Cooley LLP
Cooley’s 700 attorneys have an entrepreneurial spirit and deep, substantive experience, and are committed to solving clients’ most challenging legal matters. From small clients with big ideas to international clients with diverse legal needs, Cooley has the breadth of legal resources to enable clients of all shapes and sizes to seize opportunities in today’s global marketplace. We represent clients across a broad array of dynamic industry sectors, including the financial sector, law firms, media, technology, life sciences, health care, venture capital, clean energy, real estate and retail.
Cooley has full-service offices in eleven major business and technology centers: Boston, MA; Broomfield, CO; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Palo Alto, CA; Reston, VA; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA; Washington, DC; and Shanghai, China.

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Hollander Home Fashions, a portfolio company of HGGC, has acquired Louisville Bedding’s basic bedding retail business. No financial terms were disclosed. Louisville Bedding’s basic bedding retail business has been renamed Hollander Sleep Products. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Hollander Sleep Products is a provider of bed pillows, mattress pads, down comforters and related products.

PRESS RELEASE

PALO ALTO, Calif.—May 29, 2013—HGGC (formerly Huntsman Gay Global Capital), a leading middle market private equity firm, today announced that its portfolio company, Hollander Home Fashions, has completed the strategic addition of Louisville Bedding’s basic bedding retail business, and will now operate under the name Hollander Sleep Products. The combination creates, according to Home Textiles Today, the largest utility bedding pure play supplier in North America and the third largest supplier in the industry, with revenues in excess of $500 million. Louisville Bedding will retain its contract bedding business. Terms of the private transaction were not disclosed.
Hollander Sleep Products has acquired all of the operations in North America related to Louisville’s retail business, and many of the associates at Louisville Bedding will be joining Hollander. The acquisition will provide Hollander with a larger presence in key product categories and access to new distribution channels, as well as add consequential partners to its brand portfolio, including Simmons, Beautyrest, and Nautica.
“This is a transformative transaction for not just Hollander Sleep Products, but for the overall bedding industry, as it solidifies our leadership position as the largest utility bedding manufacturer in North America” said Chris Baker, CEO of Hollander. “We are delighted to complete the purchase and look forward to combining the strengths of both companies to create a dynamic organization ideally positioned to maximize basic bedding sales for our customers. The acquisition provides additional manufacturing facilities in North America, expanding our capabilities and enhancing our distribution network.”
Hollander, based in Boca Raton, Florida, manufactures bed pillows, mattress pads, down comforters and other bedding products sold under designer brands including Ralph Lauren and Laura Ashley, as well as North American retailer private labels and its own Hollander brand. Hollander owns and operates six manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada, and has offices in China and India focused on sourcing, product development and quality control.
“Chris Baker and the Hollander management team have done a tremendous job guiding the company through a challenging economy and retail environment over the past few years, and we were very pleased to support them in this transaction,” said Jake Hodgman, Principal of HGGC. “The strategic addition of Louisville Bedding’s retail business is a tremendous accomplishment that immediately launches Hollander to a new level, and it highlights the HGGC investment approach of partnering with outstanding management teams to drive transformative change in companies and their industries.”
About HGGC
HGGC is a $1.1 billion private equity fund focusing on leveraged buyout, recapitalizations and growth equity transactions in the middle market. With years of collective deal and operational experience, HGGC brings best practices from bulge-bracket private equity and global corporations to the middle market. For more information, please visit www.hgggc.com.
About Hollander Sleep Products
Hollander Sleep Products is based in Boca Raton, Florida with significant market share in bed pillows, mattress pads, down comforters and related products. Hollander operates its main showroom in New York City, has nine manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada and offices in China and India focused on sourcing, product development and quality control. Hollander’s products appear under a number of well-known brand names including Ralph Lauren, Chaps, Charisma, Laura Ashley, Simmons, Beautyrest, Nautica, Court of Versailles, Waverly, Homedics, Croscill and Live Comfortably.

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Insight Venture Partners said on Wednesday that it has closed its most recent fund at $2.57 billion. Names of investors were not disclosed. Insight Venture Partners VIII will invest in global software, e- commerce, internet and data-services businesses. Insight Venture Partners, a global private equity and venture capital firm, is based in New York.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, May 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Insight Venture Partners announced the closing of Insight Venture Partners VIII, a $2.57 billion private equity fund. Like its predecessor funds, Insight Venture Partners will invest Fund VIII in global software, e-Commerce, internet and data-services businesses. The firm will deploy capital in growth stage and more mature companies, as minority or control transactions. The new fund will continue to execute on Insight’s strategy of helping portfolio companies achieve their long-term operational and financial goals.
“We appreciate the commitment of our investors who continue to support our strategy of focusing on software and technology companies that are scaling and maturing,” said Jeff Horing , co-founder and managing director at Insight Venture Partners. “By combining financial flexibility with our deep industry knowledge and growth-stage operations expertise, Insight plays a unique role in helping unlock value for management teams, employees, customers and investors.”
Commitments from existing investors contributed a majority of the capital in the new fund. The total capital committed to Insight since inception in 1995 is now over $7.6 billion. Insight will continue to seek transaction opportunities worldwide; Fund VIII has the flexibility to invest any amount up to approximately $300 million of equity per transaction.
Insight’s predecessor fund, which closed in 2010, has invested in more than 35 companies, including Airwatch and New Relic (infrastructure software); Kinnser Software and Mimecast Services (SaaS businesses); Despegar and Fanatics (eCommerce); Indiegogo, and Udemy (consumer internet) and Drillinginfo (SaaS data services). Prior fund portfolio investments include ExactTarget and Shutterstock which had their initial public offerings in 2012, Trivago, which earlier this year was acquired by Expedia Inc., Flipboard, Kony Solutions, OverDrive and Twitter. More recently, Yahoo! announced a deal to acquire another portfolio company, Tumblr.
About Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners is a leading global private equity and venture capital firm investing in software, eCommerce, internet and data-services companies. Founded in 1995, Insight has raised more than $7.6 billion and made more than 190 investments worldwide. Our mission is to find, fund and work successfully with visionary executives who are driving change in their industries. We provide them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to foster long-term success. For more information on Insight and all of its investments, visit www.insightpartners.com.

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Conversocial said on Tuesday that it has closed $4.4 million in a Series A2 funding round. The lead investor was UK-based Octopus Investments. The funding will be used for product development, hiring personnel, and expanding Conversocial’s North American presence. Conversocial’s total funding raised to date is over $7 million. Headquartered in New York and London, Conversocial is a social customer service provider.

PRESS RELEASE

London/New York (PRWEB) May 28, 2013
Conversocial, the leader in social customer service, today announced that it has completed its Series A2 funding round. Octopus Investments leads the round, which includes a $3.2 million investment, in addition to $1.2 million from a previous convertible note, bringing the total round to $4.4 million. The investment will go primarily towards product development, hiring key talent, and building Conversocial’s North American presence. This brings Conversocial’s total funding raised to over $7 million.
“Leading companies are quickly realizing that the importance of social customer service demands dedicated software like Conversocial. For a company to deliver the best possible social customer experience, social marketing or listening software simply doesn’t cut it,” said Joshua March, CEO of Conversocial. “The new investment allows us to innovate even faster to take social into the contact center, and meet the fast growing market demand.”
The round will help Conversocial continue its focus on product development, a commitment that is also demonstrated by today’s announcement of two key platform upgrades: Real Time Management Dashboard and Conversations Workflow. Both improvements address the inherent need for brands to have up-to-the-minute tools and efficient workflow processes to address and manage the high-volume of customer interactions via social media channels. These new platform enhancements will directly bolster the efficacy of social customer service teams using Conversocial.
“Working with Conversocial has provided us with the essential infrastructure to manage real-time inquiries from our customers and prevent any social media crises, and has given us the bandwidth to more aggressively pursue opportunities to engage with customers proactively,” said David Tull, Customer Engagement Manager at JackThreads. “With more of our customers using social media on smartphones, tablets, and laptops to communicate with us, it’s critical that we work with the latest technology to meet our customers where they live, and right now they live online. Conversocial allows our social customer service teams to operate with an efficiency and accuracy that we haven’t had before.”
Conversocial’s revenue has tripled over the past 12 months, and internal projections show that this rate of growth will continue over the coming year. This revenue growth has been fueled by a doubling of Conversocial’s customer base, with the addition of leading brands across industries including: American Greetings, Barclaycard, GoDaddy, Hertz, JackThreads, and Sephora.
Earlier this year, Conversocial was chosen by Gartner as one of five “Cool Vendors” in the CRM Customer Service and Social Report, 2013.
Commenting on the investment Alliott Cole, Principal on the Ventures team at Octopus , said: “We’re thrilled to be working with the team at Conversocial as they continue to grow their brand, technology development and US presence. Joshua March is building a really talented team, which is developing a service that meets head on the challenges that retailers and other organizations now face in responding to and interacting with customers through social media. We look forward to helping the team build on the success it has achieved to date.”
Real Time Management Dashboard
Your customers reaching out over social channels expect responses in real time — or close to it. Managers need a tool that can allow them to instantly spot new issues as they emerge on public social channels, and track them to coordinate a response before a social media crisis erupts. The Real Time Management Dashboard enables team leaders to turn insight to action by showing them the status of their social channels, as well as health reports on how effectively their social customer service team is operating.
Conversations Workflow
Unlike traditional customer service software designed to handle private one-to-one conversations between an agent and a consumer, the new Conversations workflow is designed to allow social customer service agents to handle multiple conversations going across private, public and different social channels – in real time. Conversocial customer JackThreads reports that using Conversocial allows them to handle 10x more social interactions than they could before switching to the platform.
About Conversocial
Headquartered in New York and London, Conversocial continues to expand into the American market, having processed more than 300 million customer service interactions on social media and being deployed in more than 20 countries worldwide. Companies and organizations such as American Greetings, Barclaycard, Charity USA, Groupon, Hertz, Net-A-Porter, Ogilvy, Sephora, Tesco, The University of Phoenix, Tupperware, Waitrose, and Vitalicious are using Conversocial’s Software-as-a-Service to manage the flow of customer service enquiries and discussions on Facebook and Twitter.
For more information contact: Anna Drennan, Anna(at)Conversocial(dot)com or Michael Cecil, 212-362-1307, Michael (at)Thunder11(dot) com.
About Octopus Investments
Founded in 2000, Octopus is one of the UK’s fastest growing investment management companies. We currently manage £3 billion assets on behalf of 50,000 customers.
The Ventures team at Octopus are straight talking human investors that back talented people rather than specific sectors. We focus on identifying fast growth businesses, which can scale explosively to create, transform or dominate an industry. We can invest from £250,000 to £5 million and prefer to partner teams based in the UK.
The work of our Ventures team is supported by access to the Octopus Venture Partners, a network of approximately 100 outstanding business leaders, entrepreneurs and private investors providing an invaluable wealth of expertise and resource for our portfolio companies, as well as investing on a deal-by-deal basis alongside Octopus venture funds. This blend of knowledge and skill has allowed us to help many great companies across several sectors thrive in recent years including Zoopla; Graze.com; SwiftKey; and, Secret Escapes.

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Fidelity National Financial (FNF), a provider of title insurance and mortgage services, said on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Lender Processing Services (LPS) for $33.25 per common share. The total equity value of the transaction is approximately $2.9 billion. FNF said it would pay half in cash and half in stock, subject to adjustment. Also, FNF will combine its ServiceLink business with LPS into a new holding company and is selling 19% to Thomas H. Lee Partners for about $381 million in cash.  Jacksonville, Fla.-based LPS is a provider of technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries.

PRESS RELEASE

May 28, 2013
Jacksonville, Fla. — (May 28, 2013) — Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF), a leading provider of title insurance, mortgage services and diversified services, and Lender Processing Services, Inc. (NYSE:LPS), a leading provider of integrated technology, services, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which FNF will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of LPS for $33.25 per common share, for a total equity value of approximately $2.9 billion.
Under the terms of the definitive agreement, FNF will pay 50% of the consideration for the LPS shares of common stock in cash and 50% in shares of FNF common stock, subject to adjustment as described below. The purchase price represents a 19% and 25% premium, respectively, to the prior 30-day and 60-day average closing prices for LPS’ common stock through May 22, 2013, the last trading day before media reports regarding a potential transaction between FNF and LPS.
At closing, FNF will combine its ServiceLink business with LPS in a new consolidated holding company and sell a 19% minority equity interest in the new consolidated holding company to funds affiliated with Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. for approximately $381 million in cash. FNF will retain an 81% ownership interest in the new consolidated holding company.
Under the definitive agreement, FNF’s shares of common stock have been valued at $25.489 per share (the “Reference Price”), representing a fixed exchange ratio of 0.65224 shares of FNF common stock for each share of LPS common stock. Based on the Reference Price, FNF expects to issue approximately 57.4 million shares of FNF common stock to LPS common stockholders, representing approximately 20.151% of FNF’s pro-forma, fully diluted outstanding shares.
If FNF’s average common stock price at closing is greater than $24.215, the exchange ratio remains fixed at 0.65224 per share of FNF common stock and LPS stockholders will receive the benefit of any price appreciation on the FNF common stock portion of the purchase consideration. If FNF’s average common stock price at closing is between $20.00 and $24.215 per share, FNF will increase the number of shares of FNF common stock to be received by LPS stockholders such that LPS stockholders receive a minimum of $15.794 per share in value on the stock portion of the consideration, or $32.419 per share in total. If FNF’s average common stock price at closing is less than $20.00, the exchange ratio will be fixed at 0.7897 per share of FNF common stock, in which event LPS will have a right to terminate the transaction. Additionally, on or before three trading days prior to the anticipated date of effectiveness of FNF’s registration statement on Form S-4, FNF has the option to increase the cash portion of the consideration from $16.625 per share of LPS common stock up to $33.25 per share of LPS common stock with a corresponding decrease in the stock portion of the merger consideration as provided for under the terms of the merger agreement, in which case the exchange ratio will be adjusted to reflect the new consideration mix. However, if FNF elects to increase the cash portion of the consideration and FNF’s average common stock price at closing is greater than $26.763, then the exchange ratio will be adjusted to reflect the increased value that would have been received at closing without any change in consideration mix.
The acquisition agreement includes a “go-shop” period effective through July 7, 2013, during which LPS is permitted to actively solicit alternative acquisition proposals from third parties. The acquisition agreement contains a break-up fee equal to approximately 1.25% of the total equity value of $2.9 billion payable to FNF if LPS terminates the acquisition agreement based on receiving a superior proposal during the “go-shop” period. The acquisition agreement also contains a break-up fee equal to approximately 2.5% of the total equity value if LPS fails to hold a shareholders meeting or terminates the agreement after the expiration of the “go-shop” period because it received a superior proposal after the expiration of the “go-shop” period. In addition, the acquisition agreement includes a break-up fee equal to approximately 2.5% of the total equity value if (i) a competing offer for LPS is made public by a third party, (ii) the acquisition agreement is terminated either as a result of the LPS shareholders voting against the transaction or the date of March 31, 2014 being reached and the LPS shareholders meeting not having been held or if LPS breaches its obligations which results in the failure of a closing condition and (iii) within twelve months after termination, LPS enters into or consummates any alternative transaction.
“We are excited to welcome LPS and its market-leading technology and services to the FNF family,” said FNF Chairman William P. Foley, II. “We have significant experience and familiarity with LPS from our previous ownership of these businesses. This combination will create a larger, broader, more diversified and recurring revenue base for FNF and makes us the nation’s leading title insurance, mortgage technology and mortgage services provider. We believe there are meaningful synergies that can be generated through the similar businesses in centralized refinance and default related products, elimination of some corporate and public company costs and the shared corporate campus. We have set a target of $100 million for cost synergies and are confident that we can meet or exceed that goal. Including those cost synergies, the transaction is 11.3% accretive to pro-forma 2012 net earnings. We also expect the transaction to be meaningfully accretive to future earnings and we look forward to creating significant value for our shareholders through this strategic transaction.”
“As the mortgage industry continues to face increasing regulation, participants in the industry are seeking out those strategic partners who offer quality, comprehensive solutions, a strong balance sheet and a commitment to innovation,” said Hugh Harris, President and CEO of LPS. “The combined LPS and FNF offer comprehensive technology and services to address many of the challenges facing the industry today and the best solutions to support future success.”
The transaction is subject to approval by LPS and FNF stockholders, approvals from applicable federal and state regulators and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Closing of the transaction is currently expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC acted as financial advisors and are providing committed financing to FNF on the transaction. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Goldman, Sachs & Co. served as financial advisors to LPS.
Conference Call
FNF will host a call with investors and analysts to discuss the acquisition of LPS on Tuesday, May 28, 2013, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The dial-in number is 800.288.8961. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the Events and Multimedia page of the FNF Investor Relations website at www.fnf.com. The conference call replay will be available via webcast through the FNF Investor Relations website at www.fnf.com. The telephone replay will be available from 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 28, 2013, through June 4, 2013, by dialing 800.475.6701 (USA) or 320.365.3844 (International). The access code will be 294623.
About FNF
Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE:FNF), is a leading provider of title insurance, mortgage services and diversified services. FNF is the nation’s largest title insurance company through its title insurance underwriters – Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Commonwealth Land Title and Alamo Title – that collectively issue more title insurance policies than any other title company in the United States. FNF owns a 55% stake in American Blue Ribbon Holdings, LLC, a family and casual dining restaurant owner and operator of the O’Charley’s, Ninety Nine Restaurant, Max & Erma’s, Village Inn, and Bakers Square concepts. FNF also owns an 87% stake in J. Alexander’s, LLC, an upscale dining restaurant owner and operator of the J. Alexander’s and Stoney River Legendary Steaks concepts. In addition, FNF also owns a 51% stake in Remy International, Inc., a leading designer, manufacturer, remanufacturer, marketer and distributor of aftermarket and original equipment electrical components for automobiles, light trucks, heavy-duty trucks and other vehicles. FNF also owns a minority interest in Ceridian Corporation, a leading provider of global human capital management and payment solutions. More information about FNF can be found at www.fnf.com.
About LPS
Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) delivers comprehensive technology solutions and services, as well as powerful data and analytics, to the nation’s top mortgage lenders, servicers and investors. As a proven and trusted partner with deep client relationships, LPS offers the only end-to-end suite of solutions that provides major U.S. banks and many federal government agencies the technology and data needed to support mortgage lending and servicing operations, meet unique regulatory and compliance requirements and mitigate risk. These integrated solutions support origination, servicing, portfolio retention and default servicing. LPS’ servicing solutions include MSP, the industry’s leading loan-servicing platform, which is used to service approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume. The company also provides proprietary data and analytics for the mortgage, real estate and capital markets industries.
LPS is a Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., and employs approximately 7,500 professionals. For more information, please visit www.lpsvcs.com.
Important Information Will be Filed with the SEC
FNF plans to file with the SEC a Registration Statement on Form S 4 in connection with the transaction. FNF and LPS plan to file with the SEC and mail to their respective stockholders a Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus in connection with the transaction. The Registration Statement and the Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus will contain important information about FNF, LPS, the transaction and related matters. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS CAREFULLY WHEN THEY ARE AVAILABLE.
Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the Registration Statement and the Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by FNF and LPS through the web site maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov or by phone, email or written request by contacting the investor relations department of FNF or LPS at the following:
FNF
601 Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32204
Attention: Investor Relations
904.854.8100
[email protected]
LPS
601 Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32204
Attention: Investor Relations
904.854.8640
[email protected]
FNF and LPS, and their respective directors and executive officers, may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement. Information regarding the directors and executive officers of FNF is contained in FNF’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and its proxy statement filed on April 12, 2013, which are filed with the SEC. Information regarding LPS’s directors and executive officers is contained in LPS’s Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012 and its proxy statement filed on April 9, 2013, which are filed with the SEC. A more complete description will be available in the Registration Statement and the Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus.
This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on FNF or LPS management’s beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, them. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. FNF and LPS undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to: the ability to consummate the proposed transaction; the ability to obtain requisite regulatory and stockholder approval and the satisfaction of other conditions to the consummation of the proposed transaction; the ability of FNF to successfully integrate LPS’s operations and employees and realize anticipated synergies and cost savings; the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of the proposed transaction on relationships, including with employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; weakness or adverse changes in the level of real estate activity, which may be caused by, among other things, high or increasing interest rates, a limited supply of mortgage funding or a weak U. S. economy; FNF’s dependence on distributions from its title insurance underwriters as a main source of cash flow; significant competition that FNF and LPS face; compliance with extensive government regulation; and other risks detailed in the “Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information,” “Risk Factors” and other sections of FNF’s and LPS’ Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Robinson & Cole has expanded its private equity/M &A practice with recent hires in its New York City, Boston and Connecticut offices. Among the new partners are Stephen P. Hanson, Eileen Smith Ewing and Mitchell L. Lampert. Currently, the firm is representing Nielsen Holdings N.V. in its sale of Nielsen Expositions to Onex Corp.

PRESS RELEASE

New York, NY(May 23, 2013)– Robinson & Cole continues to expand its private equity/mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice with recent hires in its New York City, Boston, and Connecticut offices. On May 20, 2013, the firm completed the relocation of its New York City office to the Chrysler East Building to accommodate its continued growth.
New partners who have recently joined the firm’s Private Equity/M&A practice include the following:
Stephen P. Hanson: Mr. Hanson represents financial sponsors (including private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds), their portfolio companies, and other privately held companies in connection with domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, joint ventures, equity and debt financings, commercial contracts, and general corporate matters.Full bio
Eileen Smith Ewing: Ms. Ewing advises publicly and privately held clients, from modest biomedical start-ups to multinational pharmaceutical companies, on their strategic alliances, ranging from traditional mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and securities offerings to complex, cutting-edge drug discovery, development, and commercialization collaborations.Full bio
Mitchell L. Lampert: Mr. Lampert has more than 25 years of experience as a corporate and securities attorney. He has represented both issuers and underwriters in numerous public and private securities offerings, reverse mergers, and related transactions. Mr. Lampert has acted as general counsel for a publicly held digital media company and is a skilled negotiator.Full bio
Recent Deals
Robinson & Cole also announced its recent representation of clients in two major transactions:
The firm is representing Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) in its sale of Nielsen Expositions to Onex Corp. (Onex) (TSX: OCX) for $950 million in cash consideration. Nielsen Expositions isone of the largest operators of business-to-business trade shows in the United States, annually producing more than 65 conferences and trade shows that connect buyers and sellers across nine diversified end markets.
The Robinson & Cole team representing Nielsen includes partners Eric Dale, Eric Kogan, Bruce Barth, Christine Bromberg, Stephen Hanson, and Jacqueline Pennino Scheib.
Additional information is availablehere.
The firm represented EDAC Technologies Corporation, a diversified designer, manufacturer, and servicer of precision components for aerospace and industrial applications, in its acquisition by
GB Aero Engine LLC, an affiliate of Greenbriar Equity Group LLC. The aggregate equity value of the transaction was approximately $104.1 million. The transaction was structured as a cash tender offer and a second-step merger.
The Robinson & Cole team representing EDAC included partners Edward Samorajczyk, Matthew Guanci, Christine Bromberg, Bruce Barth, W. Richard Smith, and Kathleen Porter.
View the EDAC press release here.
More About Robinson and Cole’s Private Equity and M&A Practice
Robinson & Cole’s transactional lawyers regularly handle mergers and stock and asset acquisitions and divestitures for public and private companies. Our clients range from technology start-ups to multinational corporations. A significant part of our work involves cross-border transactions.
We meet the needs of start-up, emerging, and fast growth companies by coupling sound advice and responsiveness with a nimble and practical approach. We frequently guide clients, from formation to funding, through successful acquisitions or initial public offerings. Among other services, we help companies structure angel and venture capital investments; license core technology; prepare and implement employment, proprietary information, and noncompetition agreements; design and prepare equity incentive plans; negotiate strategic agreements and joint ventures; and achieve liquidity.
More about Robinson & Cole LLP
Robinson & Cole is an Am Law 200 firm with more than 200 lawyers in nine offices serving regional, national, and international clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Since 1845, Robinson & Cole has expanded to meet the changing needs of clients. The firm represents corporate, governmental, and nonprofit entities, as well as individual clients, in a wide range of matters, including corporate; business and insurance litigation; tax and tax-exempt; finance; public finance; land use, environmental and utilities, and real estate; health law; labor, employment, and benefits; intellectual property and technology; and government relations. For more information, please visitwww.rc.com.

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Mission Markets said on Thursday that it has closed a $1.5 million Series A2 funding round. This brings the company’s total funding to approximately $3 million. Lead investor was social entrepreneur James Lee Sorenson. Other investors were Bendigo Partners’ Founder and former E*TRADE Financial Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Jarrett Lilien; film producer and philanthropist Sarah Johnson Redlich; and the Kantian Foundation’s Chairman Robert J. Caruso. Sorenson, Johnson Redlich and Caruso will serve on the board of directors. Based in New York, Mission Markets is a provider of capital markets solutions.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK (May 23, 2013) – Mission Markets, Inc. today announced it has closed a $1.5 million Series A2 funding round, which brings the company’s total funding to approximately $3 million. Social entrepreneur James Lee Sorenson provided the largest investment in the round and will join the company’s board of directors.

Investing alongside Sorenson were Bendigo Partners’ Founder and former E*TRADE Financial Corporation President and Chief Operating Officer Jarrett Lilien, film producer and philanthropist Sarah Johnson Redlich and the Kantian Foundation’s Chairman Robert J. Caruso. Johnson Redlich and Caruso will also serve on the board of directors.

The capital infusion will support the expansion of the online Mission Markets Capital Marketplace (MMX), a proprietary digital transaction platform that provides accredited investors with access to a broad range of sustainable and impact investment opportunities. Additionally, the increased capital will be used to enhance Mission Markets’ comprehensive suite of investor and community portal solutions and to expand the company’s marketing efforts.
“This funding will enable Mission Markets to demonstrate the potential of sustainable capital markets,” said Ken Marienau, CEO of Mission Markets. “As the only Regulation D private transaction technology platform created specifically for sustainable capital opportunities, our infrastructure enables us to successfully scale the raising of mission-aligned capital. We are thrilled to have Jim lead this round and join the board alongside Sarah and Bob, and we look forward to executing our shared vision of how capitalism can be a force for good.”

Providing an efficient solution through a number of online marketplace services, Mission Markets creates a sustainable economy by connecting “mission focused” communities of investors to “mission aligned” organizations. In addition to its flagship MMX platform, Mission Markets is currently developing an expanded portfolio of capital market and technology solutions to engage investors in sustainable capitalism and impact investing. Mission Markets supports sustainable capital funding solutions in a variety of sectors, including community supported enterprises, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and environmental conservation.

A globally recognized entrepreneur and multifaceted business leader, Sorenson has built highly successful companies in industries ranging from technology and life sciences to real estate and private equity investment. He helped develop several new industry categories, including digital compression software that helped usher in the online video revolution at Sorenson Media, and video relay services that transformed opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing individuals through Sorenson Communications.

His philanthropic endeavors have helped establish highly impactful programs and organizations that improve the lives of the working poor and build regional business communities. Most recently, Sorenson made a personal gift of $13 million to the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business to create a global impact investing center.
“Mission Markets represented a compelling investment concept for its potential to accelerate societal change on a global scale,” said Sorenson. “The company is uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between capital markets and communities in need, and I am thrilled to play an integral part in helping realize this mission going forward.”

A partner and substantial investor in Worldview Entertainment, Johnson Redlich’s film credits include executive producing The Invisible War, which was nominated for a 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary. In addition to previously serving as the president of The Select Equity Group, Caruso is the founder and chairman of The Kantian Foundation, which focuses on impact investing. As president and COO of E*TRADE Financial, Lilien was responsible for building the premier online financial services franchise and delivering five record years of customer growth and earnings.

Mission Markets’ leadership team brings a wealth of experience across diverse industries, from capital markets and financial services to social enterprise and impact investment. A seasoned finance and operations executive, Marienau most recently spent 13 years as vice president of finance at E*TRADE Financial. Mission Markets Founder and President Michael J. Van Patten brings more than 20 years of experience on Wall Street and co-founded NYPPEX, a leading transactions and data firm.

About Mission Markets, Inc.

Mission Markets, the leading financial marketplace for sustainable capitalism, creates a comprehensive solution for social and environmental mission focused organizations to connect with impact investors, organizations and related professionals. In addition to its main website, Mission Markets provides Community Portals to enable local and affinity-based groups to connect with capital markets. The company helps mission-focused organizations grow by offering a broad range of financial products, from debt to equity investments. Securities products and services are offered through Mission Capital LLC (member FINRA/SIPC). More information is available at www.missionmarkets.com.

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The Hillman Companies said on Thursday that Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer James P. Waters will succeed Max W. Hillman as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2013. Waters, who had previously served as Hillman’s chief financial officer, joins the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. Hillman, who will retire as CEO after 44 years with the company, will retain a seat on the company’s board of directors. Headquartered in Cincinnati, the Hillman Companies, which is a portfolio company of Oak Hill Capital Partners, is a distributor of fasteners, key duplication systems, engraved tags and related hardware items to over 20,000 retail customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America.

PRESS RELEASE

CINCINNATI, May 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — The Hillman Companies, Inc. (Amex: HLM.PR) (“Hillman”) announced today that Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer James P. Waters will succeed Max W. (“Mick”) Hillman as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2013. Mr. Waters, who had previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Hillman, also joins Hillman’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Hillman, who will retire as CEO after 44 years with the company, will retain a seat on Hillman’s Board of Directors.
During his extraordinary career, Mr. Hillman grew his father’s hardware distributorship into a leading international value-added distributor serving multiple retail channels and product categories. Mr. Hillman said, “I want to thank all of the employees of Hillman for making the past 44 years so successful for our company. I am fortunate not only to have had the opportunity to lead this great organization through 30 years of uninterrupted growth, but also to have a leader of Jim’s caliber to hand the reins to. I look forward to supporting him in his new role and am confident that Hillman will flourish under his leadership.”
Tyler J. Wolfram , Chairman of the Board of Directors and a Managing Partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners, said, “We are extremely grateful to Mick for his many years of leadership and for his partnership with Oak Hill Capital, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with him in his role on the Board. With over two decades in the industry and 14 years at Hillman, Jim assumes the role of CEO with a proven track record of delivering strong financial and operational results. Hillman is currently presented with a number of exciting growth opportunities, and Jim is the right individual to lead the company into the future.”
Mr. Waters joined Hillman in 1999 as CFO and was promoted to EVP/COO in 2011. He served in these positions through a period of extensive growth, including seven acquisitions, significant market share gains and successful international expansion. During his tenure as COO, Hillman made its largest acquisition to date, H. Paulin & Company, which provided the company with an excellent market presence in Canada.
Mr. Waters said, “I am thrilled for the opportunity to lead this outstanding organization. Together with Hillman’s dedicated and accomplished management team, I intend to carry on the culture of best-in-class customer service, commitment to our employees and community involvement that has been cultivated over the past 50 years by the Hillman family.”
About Hillman
Founded in 1964 and headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hillman is a leading value-added distributor of fasteners, key duplication systems, engraved tags and related hardware items to over 20,000 retail customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America and Australia, including home improvement centers, mass merchants, national and regional hardware stores, pet supply stores and other retailers. Hillman provides a comprehensive solution to its retail customers for managing SKU intensive, complex home improvement categories. Hillman also offers its customers additional services, such as inventory management and in-store merchandising services.
In May 2010, Oak Hill Capital Partners and Hillman’s management team formed a partnership to acquire Hillman. Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm with more than $8 billion of initial capital commitments from leading entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. For more information about Oak Hill Capital Partners, visit www.oakhillcapital.com.
For more information on Hillman, please visit our website at http://hillmangroup.com or call Investor Relations at (513) 851-4900, ext. 2084.

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LoyalBlocks said on Thursday that it has received $9 million in Series A funding. The lead investor was General Catalyst Partners. Founder Collective and existing investor Gemini Israel Ventures also participated in the round. According to LoyalBlocks, the funding will be used to expand the company’s loyalty marketing platform and for scaling the U.S. operations. General Catalyst Managing Director Adam Valkin will join the company’s board of directors along with Yossi Sela, managing partner at Gemini, and Allon Bloch, CEO at mySupermarket. LoyalBlocks, a provider of loyalty marketing solutions for small businesses, is headquartered in New York City with its research and development team based in Israel.

PRESS RELEASE

LoyalBlocks, a loyalty marketing solution for small businesses, today announced a $9M Series A investment led by General Catalyst Partners with participation from Founder Collective and existing investor Gemini Israel Ventures. Following the investment, which will be used for further development of the company’s loyalty marketing platform and for scaling the US operations, General Catalyst Managing Director Adam Valkin will join the company’s board of directors along with Yossi Sela, managing partner at Gemini, and Allon Bloch, CEO at mySupermarket.
LoyalBlocks is a loyalty marketing solution for SMBs which enables automatic interaction with their customers via mobile phones. LoyalBlocks builds loyalty between brick and mortar merchants and their customers by sending offers and promotions to customers’ mobile devices as soon as they walk through the door.
“Business owners are currently lacking a mobile-based marketing solution that enhances customer loyalty and generates real value,” said Ido Gaver, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “LoyalBlocks is a simple and efficient way for business owners to give their customers a better in-store experience by providing tailored incentives and instant rewards every time they visit.”
With LoyalBlocks, merchants are able to create a branded and customized loyalty app for their business. Their venue is instantly turned into an “automated zone” which triggers their app as soon as a customer walks in.
“We have taken mobile loyalty to the next level by making it easy for merchants to give their clients more, automatically. From a business perspective, it is an incremental layer of marketing that leverages their day-to-day activities. It is a simple, innovative and effortless way of generating more business and establishing long term customer loyalty,” continued Gaver.
“The fact that two billion people will soon carry smartphones fundamentally changes the game for businesses trying to attract and retain customers. What we’re seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg,” said General Catalyst’s Adam Valkin. “LoyalBlocks is the first company to introduce an automated loyalty application. Combined with its rich product suite and impressive momentum in the market, it has the potential to become a market leader in loyalty management solutions.”
With hundreds of merchants joining every month, LoyalBlocks is on a rapid growth trajectory. Businesses looking to create a loyalty club and a customized LoyalBlocks app can do so quickly and easily by visiting www.LoyalBlocks.com.
About LoyalBlocks
LoyalBlocks provides business owners with a customized loyalty platform. With its user-friendly online dashboard, merchants easily set up and manage their automated business app to increase foot traffic, drive sales, pick up slow hours and increase social media exposure. LoyalBlocks is a privately-held company headquartered in New York City with research & development in Israel. For more information, visit www.LoyalBlocks.com or follow @LoyalBlocks.
About General Catalyst
General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that makes early stage and growth equity investments. General Catalyst Partners invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst has offices in Cambridge, MA and Palo Alto, CA. For more information, visit: www.generalcatalyst.com or https://twitter.com/gcvp.
About Gemini Israel Ventures
Since 1993, Gemini Israel Ventures has helped many of Israel’s most talented entrepreneurs to build innovative and world-changing companies. With over $700M under management, Gemini invests in early stage and growth-stage companies across a range of industries including communications, consumer electronics, enterprise software, Internet software and services, and semiconductors. More about Gemini: http://www.gemini.co.il.

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