Author: Staff

Tumi Holdings Inc. has priced a secondary offering of 10.1 million shares of its common stock at $21.10 per share. The selling stockholders, comprised of funds managed by or entities affiliated with Doughty Hanson & Co Managers Limited.

PRESS RELEASE
Tumi Holdings, Inc. (“Tumi”) (NYSE: TUMI) today announced the pricing of a secondary offering of 10,140,000 shares of its common stock at $21.10 per share.

The selling stockholders, comprised of funds managed by or entities affiliated with Doughty Hanson & Co Managers Limited and certain other stockholders including two of Tumi’s executive officers, are offering all of the 10,140,000 shares. The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,521,000 shares from certain selling stockholders. Tumi will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, along with J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, are acting as joint bookrunning managers, and William Blair & Company, L.L.C. and Jefferies LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the final prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, by contacting Goldman, Sachs & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, Telephone: 1-866-471-2526, Facsimile: 1-212-902-9316, Email: [email protected]; Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010, Telephone: 1-800-221-1037, Email: [email protected]; or J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Attention: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Telephone: 1-866-803-9204.

The registration statement relating to the securities has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Tumi

Tumi is the leading global brand of premium travel, business and lifestyle products and accessories. The brand is sold in approximately 200 stores from New York to Paris to London and Tokyo, as well as in the world’s top department, specialty, and travel retail stores in over 75 countries.

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Canada’s Lynnwood Capital Inc. said Monday that it has entered into an agreement to buy Tantalex Corp. Tantalex shareholders will receive one Lynnwood Share for each Tantalex Share held, the firm said.

PRESS RELEASE
Lynnwood Capital Inc. (“Lynnwood”) , a capital pool company as defined under Policy 2.4 of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”), is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement (the “Revised Letter Agreement”) dated March 18, 2013 and executed March 20, 2013 for the arm’s length acquisition of 100% of the common shares (the “Tantalex Shares”) of Tantalex Corporation (“Tantalex”). The Revised Letter Agreement supersedes and replaces the letter agreement (the “Letter Agreement”) dated May 9, 2012 between Lynnwood and Tantalex, previously announced on May 9, 2012, June 11, 2012, July 9, 2012 and October 4, 2012, which was meant to qualify as Lynnwood’s “qualifying transaction” as defined by the TSXV.

About the Proposed Transaction

Consistent with the terms of the Letter Agreement, Lynnwood and Tantalex still intend on combining their businesses by means of a triangular amalgamation (the “Amalgamation”). The Amalgamation will effectively provide for the acquisition of all of the outstanding equity interests of Tantalex by Lynnwood indirectly through a wholly owned federally incorporated subsidiary of Lynnwood (the “Amalgamation Entity”) in a transaction in which the shareholders of Tantalex will receive shares of Lynnwood (the “Lynnwood Shares”) and, if applicable, convertible securities of Lynnwood. As a result of the Amalgamation of Amalgamation Entity and Tantalex (the “Amalgamated Corporation”), Lynnwood will become the sole beneficial owner of all of the outstanding shares of Amalgamated Corporation. The Amalgamation will result in Lynnwood issuing to Tantalex shareholders one Lynnwood Share for each Tantalex Share held, and the convertible securities of Tantalex will be exchanged for convertible securities of Lynnwood on the same terms and conditions attached to such convertible securities prior to the Amalgamation.

Pursuant to the terms of the Revised Letter Agreement and subject to completion of the concurrent Private Placement (defined below), satisfactory due diligence, receipt of all necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals, and other conditions which are typical for a business combination transaction of this type, the proposed acquisition of Tantalex will result in Lynnwood (i) delisting its common shares from the TSXV (the “Delisting”) resulting in the cancellation of 3,600,000 Lynnwood Shares pursuant to the policies of the TSXV and resulting in an aggregate of 2,050,000 Lynnwood Shares (assuming no existing convertible securities of Lynnwood are exercised) following completion of the Delisting, (ii) consolidating (the “Consolidation”) its securities resulting in an aggregate of approximately (subject to rounding) 1,118,731 Lynnwood Shares (assuming no existing convertible securities of Lynnwood are exercised) following completion of the Consolidation, (iii) seeking approval to list the Lynnwood Shares on the Canadian National Stock Exchange (the “CNSX”).

Upon completion of the Delisting and Consolidation, there will be 1,118,731 Lynnwood Shares issued and outstanding and convertible securities (options) exercisable for 405,199 Lynnwood Shares. Currently there are 25,455,880 Tantalex Shares issued and outstanding and convertible securities exercisable for, or convertible into, 13,680,213 Tantalex Shares, not taking into account the Tantalex Shares to be issued pursuant to the Private Placement.

Accordingly, upon closing of the Amalgamation, it is anticipated that Lynnwood will issue an aggregate of 25,455,880 Lynnwood Shares to the shareholders of Tantalex, and up to 15,000,000 Lynnwood Shares to purchasers in connection with the proposed Private Placement. Following completion of the Amalgamation the former shareholders of Tantalex will own approximately 61.23% of the Lynnwood Shares, current shareholders of Lynnwood will hold approximately 2.69% of the Lynnwood Shares and purchasers under the Private Placement will hold approximately 36.08% of the Lynnwood Shares (assuming the Private Placement is fully subscribed). Accordingly, the Amalgamation will constitute a reverse take-over of Lynnwood.

The Amalgamation is an arm’s length transaction and therefore is not a related party transaction.

Following completion of the Amalgamation, the Amalgamated Corporation will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Lynnwood. The parties also agreed that, subject to Exchange approval, a finder’s fee of $65,000 will be payable to Eosphoros Asset Management Incorporated in connection with the Amalgamation.

After giving effect to the Amalgamation, it is expected that Lynnwood will carry on business under the name “Tantalex Resources Inc.” (or such other name as may be acceptable to applicable authorities) and the Lynnwood Shares are expected to be listed on the CNSX under a new trading symbol.

Concurrent Private Placement

In conjunction with the Amalgamation, Tantalex expects to complete a non-brokered private placement (the “Offering”) to raise gross proceeds of a maximum of $3,000,000 (the “Maximum Offering”) through the issuance of units (a “Unit”) at $0.20 per Unit. Each Unit shall consist of one Tantalex Share and one warrant (a “Warrant”), with each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one Tantalex Share at a price of $0.35 for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Amalgamation. Agents/finders will be entitled to a commission of 8% of the aggregate gross proceeds raised as well as agent’s options (the “Agent’s Options”) equal to 8% of the aggregate number of Units purchased. Each Agent’s Option will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Tantalex Share at an exercise price of $0.20 per Tantalex Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Amalgamation.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement will be used to finance Tantalex’s expenditures on its mineral properties and for general working capital.

Proposed Management

The proposed management of Tantalex following the completion of the Amalgamation will be as follows:

Dave Gagnon, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Dave Gagnon is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Tantalex and Chairman of Charbone Buckell ltd., a private equity firm focusing on mining investments. Mr. Gagnon began his career in 1981, developing international opportunities for a family business in the resources sector. In 1998, he put forward a partnership to develop internal markets with Expordev, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, and the participation of Bombardier Inc., SNC Lavalin Inc., Telesystems Inc., Bronterra and Export Development Canada (EDC). In 2000, Mr. Gagnon decided to focus its efforts on sustainable development and, more specifically, wind energy. Mr. Gagnon was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of AAER Inc. a public issuer involved in the renewable energy sector, prior to his involvement with Tantalex.

Jean-Robert Pronovost, Chief Financial Officer and Director

Jean-Robert Pronovost is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Tantalex and Managing Partner at Charbone Buckell ltd., a private equity firm focusing on mining investments. Before his involvement with Tantalex, Mr. Pronovost was a partner and co-founder of Cape Partners, a private equity advisory firm, and IUGO Capital, a family office venture capital firm with investments in Canada, the United States and Europe. Mr. Pronovost was responsible for direct investments, strategic divestitures as well as restructurings and acted as a board member of several portfolio companies. Previously, Mr. Pronovost spent four years at Credit Suisse First Boston advising on large mergers and acquisitions and executing public and private financings for Canadian and foreign corporate clients. He also worked six years at various positions at the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec where he elaborated investment allocation strategies and securitization vehicles for alternative assets. He began his career at British Telecom as a financial analyst. Mr. Pronovost has a degree in economics and finance from Laval University and an MBA from UQAM.

Michel Lebeuf, Corporate Secretary

Mr. Lebeuf’s legal practice is focused on securities, particularly in the area of natural resources, institutional financing, corporate finance, as well as public and private mergers and acquisitions. He represents public corporations, securities brokers, purchasers, sellers, bankers and financial advisors, and he provides strategic advice with respect to access to public capital markets and securities matters, including

structured products. Mr. Lebeuf has acted as counsel to international dealers in several offerings in the Eurobond international debt market, public and private corporations in various mergers and acquisitions, and issuers and underwriters in the context of public offerings and private placements in Canada, Europe, South America and North Africa. Has been involved, over the past two years, in many mining projects in Africa (Congo ROC and DRC), Ethiopia, Angola, etc. and is regularly contacted by mining promoters, mining companies and investment banking firms wanting to put together mining projects in these countries. He has expertise in corporate reorganizations, public and private divestitures, and institutional financing, and he regularly provides counsel to financial institutions regarding security requirements and the drafting of documents pertaining to enforcement proceedings.

Bernard Lapointe, Independent Director

Bernard Lapointe holds a B.A. in Geology from the University of Quebec at Montreal (1980), a master’s degree in structural geology from the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (1984) and a PhD in mineral resources from the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi (1996). He is currently CEO of Arianne Resources Inc., a public issuer. Previously, he was Director of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean Mining Fund from 1993 to 1998. From 1988 to 1993, he acted as a geochemist analyst for the Centre for Research in Mineral Resources of the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi. From 1980 to 1987, he was consultant for different mining exploration companies and for the Department of Natural Resources. While working for the Department, he discovered the gold showings West of Schefferville, for which he won an award in 1986. He also did an internship at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-Georessources). Mr. Lapointe has also been teaching since 1981 and has been published on numerous occasions.

Ndongo Armel Rodrigue Dziengue, Vice-President African Operations and Director

Mr. Dziengue serves as Executive Vice President, African Operations for Tantalex. Mr. Dziengue started his career with Carpentier and Associates, an investment advisory firm specializing in business development in developing countries. He then founded his own advisory firm, Ryn Consulting, based in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, with representative offices in Paris, Luxembourg and Libreville, and has been advising Western corporations on investments and business development specifically in Africa for the last ten years. He is also the owner of commercial businesses in the Paris region. Mr. Dziengue completed a DEA (Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies) in International Relations at the Institute of political studies of Bucharest, Romania.

Denis Belisle, Independent Director

Mr. Denis Belisle, Esq. is the Corporate Secretary and a director of Oroplata Exploration Inc. and Vantex Resources Ltd. and he serves as the Chairman of Vanstar Mining Resources Inc. Mr. Belisle has been the General Manager of Legal Affairs, Human Resources and Technical Services at Societe de telediffusion du Quebec (Tele-Quebec) since 1996 and also serves as its General Secretary. He is a director of Arianne Resources Inc. and is the former Secretary of Arianne. He is a former director and Corporate Secretary of Vanstar Mining Resources Inc. and he is a former director of D”arianne Resources Inc. Mr. Belisle was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1984.

The information in this press release related to Tantalex, its business and the proposed management of Lynnwood following the completion of the Amalgamation was provided to Lynnwood by Tantalex.

The information in this news release includes certain information and statements about management’s view of future events, expectations, plans and prospects that constitute forward looking statements. These statements are based upon assumptions that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Because of these risks and uncertainties and as a result of a variety of factors, the actual results, expectations, achievements or performance may differ materially from those anticipated and indicated by these

forward-looking statements. Although Lynnwood believes that the expectations reflected in forward looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurances that the expectations of any forward looking statements will prove to be correct. Except as required by law, Lynnwood disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward looking statements or otherwise.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

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The Women’s Venture Capital Fund has announced the formation of an advisory board. Enrique Godreau III, Beth Horowitz, Michelle Lantow, Beau Laskey, Susan Sigl, and Reggie Van Lee were named advisors. The Women’s Venture Capital Fund invests in companies with “gender diverse” teams.

PRESS RELEASE
The Women’s Venture Capital Fund (WVCF) is very pleased to announce the formation of its Advisory Board comprised of venture capitalists on the West Coast and select limited partners.

Enrique Godreau III is Co-Founder and Managing Director of GSharp Ventures and Venture Partner with 9Mile Labs. He was formerly Co-Founder and Managing Director of Voyager Capital, a Seattle-based venture capital firm.

Beth Horowitz is Board Member of HSBC Bank Canada and former CEO of Amex Bank of Canada. She is also Member of Catalyst Canada Advisory Board and former member of Amex’s Global Diversity Council.

Michelle Lantow is Chief Administrative Officer for New Seasons Market. She was formerly GAP’s VP of Finance and Investor Relations and Corporate Controller, President and CFO of lucy activewear, Inc. and CFO at McCormick and Schmick’s.

Beau Laskey is a former Managing Director at Steamboat Ventures, the venture arm of the Walt Disney Company. He was previously Managing Director of EDF Ventures, an early stage VC firm based in San Diego.

Susan Sigl is President and CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association. She was the Co-Founder and General Partner of SeaPoint Ventures, a Seattle based VC firm, and past President of the Evergreen VC Association.

Reggie Van Lee is an Executive Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton DC where he leads the firm’s federal and commercial health businesses and their not-for-profit sectors. He is a Trustee of MIT and founding member of the Clinton Global Initiative.

“The Women’s Venture Capital Fund has identified a compelling market opportunity to invest in early stage companies with good market traction and the potential to scale in capital efficient ways,” says Enrique Godreau III. “I look forward to helping the Women’s Venture Capital Fund and its portfolio companies succeed”.

“We are honored to have such a distinguished group of Advisors who bring their deep experiences and skills to the Women’s Venture Capital Fund,” says Monica Dodi, Managing Director. “They’re an integral part of our expanding ecosystem to change the paradigm and invest in the best female entrepreneurs leading a new generation of successful companies.”

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The Women’s Venture Capital Fund invests in gender diverse teams leading capital efficient companies in digital media and sustainable products and services. The Fund targets early stage companies that demonstrate market traction with high growth potential. This investment strategy – coupled with a highly disciplined approach to sourcing, selecting, managing and exiting investments — now provides the potential for significant returns.

For more information visit http://www.womensvcfund.com

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Deliv has raised $1 million in new capital from General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Operators Fund, and PivotNorth. The company partners with retailers to offer same-day delivery of products. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE
Deliv today announced it has closed a $1 million funding round from General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, Trinity Ventures, Operators Fund, and PivotNorth following the successful completion of its same-day delivery service trials in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The company is now set to roll out in multiple metropolitan locations across the U.S. including the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington D.C.

Deliv is disrupting the same-day delivery market by partnering directly with retailers and pricing same-day delivery the same – or lower – than standard delivery. This makes the traditionally premium service significantly more attractive to both consumers and retailers, driving significant volume and scale.

In partnering with retailers, the Deliv “same-day delivery” button becomes a native part of the online or mobile checkout screen in the same way consumers select shipping options today from carriers such as FedEx and UPS. This retains the direct relationship between retailers and shoppers with no need for shoppers to go to third party sites or apps to purchase products and arrange delivery.

Deliv drivers are made up of highly educated, experienced customer service and sales personnel. They are rated by customers and by Deliv’s operations team so the platform is able to prioritize the allocation of jobs to those with the highest ratings, ensuring a white glove consumer experience. Managing a community of these on-demand drivers across the country, the Deliv platform incorporates smart routing and full transparency including the ability for shoppers to watch their delivery on a map real time from pickup to their doorstep.

“Amazon has disrupted the U.S. retail world and Deliv is helping multichannel retailers disrupt right back again,” said Daphne Carmeli, founder and CEO of Deliv. “Deliv’s retail partners will be in a position to provide same-day delivery as not just the most convenient choice, but also the most economical which we anticipate will have a significant impact on the U.S. retail landscape.”

“Online and mobile commerce now represent significant proportions of a multichannel retailer’s business, and offering customer-centric services such as fast and convenient delivery options are becoming increasingly important. Deliv is at the right place at the right time with a significantly differentiated offering that will disrupt traditional models,” said Mike Smith, former COO of Walmart.com.

“Deliv’s B2B approach to same-day delivery is spot on,” said Ajay Chopra, General Partner at Trinity Ventures. “National multichannel retailers are focusing on differentiated strategies to compete against Amazon. Deliv offers the most compelling same-day delivery solution for these large retailers. This enables the retailers to most strategically scale nationwide, ensuring the highest quality customer experience and preserves their direct relationship with their customers.”

About Deliv

Deliv partners with national multichannel retailers to provide low-cost, high quality same-day delivery via its quality-controlled fleet of crowdsourced drivers. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and is backed by some of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capital firms.

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GenNx360 Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm, has acquired Horsburgh & Scott Co., a manufacturer of custom gearing parts. The terms of the deal were not released.

PRESS RELEASE
GenNx360 Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in middle market industrial business-to-business companies, has acquired Horsburgh & Scott Co. (“H&S”) for an undisclosed amount.

Horsburgh & Scott is a market leading custom gearing manufacturer for the global marketplace. H&S manufactures, repairs, and services highly-engineered, customer specific industrial gears and gear drives for more than 400 customers throughout the world. It is one of a few companies that is both capable of, and specializing in, the manufacturing of medium and large diameter gears (up to 25 ft. in diameter) for a variety of end markets including steel, mining, wind, rail, and sugar. Over its 126 year history, H&S has developed the in-house engineering and manufacturing capability to offer its customers increased service factors that, in many cases, can expand equipment lifecycle. This, coupled with their overall product quality, customer application specific designs and exceptional customer service provides their installed base with superior performance. H&S employs over 200 people and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, with two additional facilities in Ohio and one in Canada.

“With its proven management team and talented group of engineers, strong brand, and excellent customer relationships, we are very excited about future prospects for H&S,” says Monty Yort, GenNx360 Managing Partner. “We expect to build on H&S’s legacy by leveraging our global C-suite relationships within the industry and executing on identified growth opportunities, both organically and through add-on acquisitions, as well as providing a valuable operating perspective to enhance an already exceptional company.”

“Our goals are fully aligned with those of GenNx360. We are excited about this next step in the evolution of our company,” said Christopher Kete, H&S President and Chief Executive Officer. “GenNx360 has strong operational capabilities that perfectly fit our strategic focus for the next chapter.”

About GenNx360 Capital Partners

GenNx360 Capital Partners is a private equity firm focused on investing in industrial business-to-business companies in the middle market. It applies years of Fortune 50 operational and leadership experience to these investments to help drive growth and value creation. The firm primarily focuses on opportunities in the industrial machinery and components, oil and gas, transportation and logistics, agricultural, specialty chemicals, and aerospace sectors. GenNx360 was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New York City, with additional offices in Seattle and Boston.

For more information about GenNx360, please visit: www.gennx360.com

About Horsburgh & Scott Co.

Horsburgh & Scott, founded in 1886, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of industrial gears and custom gear drives. With 350,000 square feet of manufacturing, repair, assembly and heat treat space, H&S can manufacture new gear components and gear boxes. It also provides teardown analysis and engineering upgrades that can expand equipment lifecycle. H&S gears and gear drives can be found in steel mills, aluminum facilities, tire and rubber plants, sugar mills, power plants, and wind turbines.

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Merlin Entertainments Group, the private-equity backed owner of Madame Tussauds and Legoland, is preparing to go public in either London or New York and has been meeting with potential investors, its chief executive said on Wednesday. The world’s second largest visitor attraction operator behind Walt Disney, had revenue of over one billion pounds for the year to Dec. 29 2012, and was valued at 2.25 billion pounds ($3.41 billion) in 2010 when private equity firm CVC Capital Partners bought a stake.

(Reuters) – Merlin Entertainments Group, the private-equity backed owner of Madame Tussauds and Legoland, is preparing to go public in either London or New York and has been meeting with potential investors, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The world’s second largest visitor attraction operator behind Walt Disney, had revenue of over one billion pounds for the year to Dec. 29 2012, and was valued at 2.25 billion pounds ($3.41 billion) in 2010 when private equity firm CVC Capital Partners bought a stake.

“We are definitely now considering our options,” Chief Executive Nick Varney told Reuters, adding a sale would allow it to pay down debt of 1.27 billion pounds as at the end of December, and help fund expansion in the U.S and Asia.

The company said as part of any IPO it would consider bringing its leverage level down below 3 times earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation from a current multiple of 3.6 times.

Merlin, owned by the Danish investment company Kirkbi A/S that controls Lego Group, and private equity firms Blackstone Group and CVC, put off plans for a listing in 2010 due to jittery markets.

After years of subdued activity, European initial public offerings (IPO) have picked up over the last few months as improving stock markets boost investor confidence.

Last week, British insurer esure, estate agent Countrywide and wind farm investment fund Greencoat UK Wind raised a combined total of more than 1 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) from selling their shares in London.

PREPARING THE GROUND

With the summer months being Merlin’s key trading period, Varney said the group would likely make a decision towards the end of summer, with a float possible in late 2013 or early 2014.

“We’ve been putting a lot of work into preparing the ground and making sure that if we do (IPO) … we can move relatively quickly and with people knowing and feeling comfortable about what they are dealing with.”

Varney said the company, which currently earns 20 percent of its revenue in the U.S., would prefer to list in London, but was also considering New York. He declined to comment on how much Merlin might be worth.

Walt Disney shares trade at 16.4 times prospective earnings for 2013.

Late last year Seaworld Parks and Entertainment, also backed by U.S. private equity company Blackstone, filed with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering.

On Wednesday Merlin reported a 16.5 percent rise in operating profit to 258 million pounds for the year to Dec. 29, as expansion in the U.S. and Asian markets helped mitigate the impact of the euro zone crisis, wet weather and London Olympics.

The group opened seven new attractions in 2012, taking it to almost 100 over four continents, and will open another six this year including a Sea Life centre in Manchester, England and Legoland discovery centre in New York.

A listing would likely include some new shares to help pay down debt, but the bulk would come from existing shareholders reducing their stakes, chief financial officer Andrew Carr said.

Kirkbi has a 36 percent stake, while Blackstone and CVC have 34 percent and 28 percent respectively.

Merlin had hired Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Nomura as advisers in 2010 before abandoning its plan.

“It’s good that the market seems to be opening again, it’s been closed for a long time, there does seem to be a lot of appetite,” said Varney, adding that it had not yet appointed banks. (By Kylie MacLellan and Neil Maidment)

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Battery Ventures led a $20 million Series C round for Q2ebanking, a provider of electronic banking software for banks and credit unions. Return backers Adams Street Partners and C&B Capital also participated in the round. Q2ebanking is based in Austin, Texas.

PRESS RELEASE
March 27, 2013 – Croft & Bender, an Atlanta-based investment banking and private equity firm, is pleased to announce the successful completion of a $20 million Series C financing for its client, Q2ebanking. The funding was led by Battery Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm, with additional participation from existing investors including Adams Street Partners and C&B Capital.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2ebanking is a leading provider of highly secure electronic banking solutions for banks and credit unions throughout the U.S. The Company’s ebanking platform provides flexible deployment options for online banking, mobile and tablet banking, voice banking as well as a security application to effectively mitigate fraud risk for community focused financial institutions. By utilizing a single platform approach, Q2 delivers a more streamlined, better managed, fully featured solution designed to take full advantage of the anytime, anywhere aspects of the e-channel delivery model, enabling financial institutions to maximize their value contribution and better serve the needs of their customers.

The company provides its solutions for approximately 400 financial institutions, reaching over 3 million online users. The company has exhibited impressive revenue growth of 51 percent in 2012 and 49 percent in 2011.

Croft & Bender was retained as the exclusive financial advisor and placement agent to Q2ebanking in the capital raise. “We received inbound interest from a number of different parties about participating in our Series C round. Croft & Bender knew what we were looking for in a partner and had the experience to coordinate an efficient process that enabled us to quickly evaluate our alternatives and choose the best partner. We are thrilled with the result and excited to be partnering with Battery Ventures,” said Q2ebanking CEO Matt Flake.

“We are very fortunate to be involved with Q2ebanking. The combination of its best-in-class electronic banking solutions for banks and credit unions, driven management team, and accolades as one of the best places to work shows the company’s dedication to its core values and culture that will ensure its continued success,” commented Steve Tye, Managing Director of Croft & Bender.

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SynapDx Corp., a company developing a “blood-based autism spectrum disorder” diagnostic test, has sealed an undisclosed amount of funding from The Kraft Group. The Kraft Group, headquartered in Foxborough, Mass., is the holding company for the Kraft family’s various businesses.

PRESS RELEASE
SynapDx Corporation today announced it has secured a significant investment from The Kraft Group. The funding will support the ongoing clinical development of SynapDx’s breakthrough blood-based autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic test, designed to help clinicians identify children with autism earlier than they do today.

Conducting business in more than 90 countries with more than 5,000 employees worldwide, The Kraft Group, headquartered in Foxborough, Mass., is the holding company for the Kraft family’s various businesses, with interests in paper and packaging manufacturing, sports and entertainment, real estate development and a portfolio of private equity investments.

The Kraft Group investment, for which financial details were not disclosed, builds on SynapDx’s recent momentum, which includes a $6 million round in financing announced in December 2012, a $2 million investment from LabCorp and strategic partnership with next-generation sequencing pioneer Illumina. Working closely with ASD experts at leading institutions across the country, SynapDx will use the investment to fund further studies of its early ASD diagnostic test.

“The Kraft Group has a broadly admired business and philanthropic history with a deep interest in healthcare innovation,” said Stanley Lapidus, CEO, SynapDx. “This investment further validates our approach and the impact our test could have on families and patients.”

About SynapDx Corp.
SynapDx is a private company developing laboratory diagnostic services for autism and neurodevelopmental disorders, with the initial goal of enabling earlier detection of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The company collaborates with ASD experts at leading institutions. SynapDx was founded in 2010 and is based in Lexington, Mass. SynapDx’s investors include North Bridge Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners and LabCorp.

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Moovweb raised $16 million from by Jafco Ventures and Trinity Ventures in its first institutional financing. Existing investors, including Andy Bechtolsheim, also participated in the round.

PRESS RELEASE
Moovweb today announced the investment of $16 million by Jafco Ventures and Trinity Ventures in its first institutional financing. Existing investors, including Andy Bechtolsheim, also participated meaningfully in the round. The capital raised will be used to further the company’s vision to fundamentally transform Web development to create unmatched business agility for organizations of all sizes. The company also announced the appointment of industry operations and finance veteran Tony Russo as its new chief operating and financial officer.

“We feel very fortunate to continue this exponential growth with the help of Jafco and Trinity. Companies are recognizing that old development approaches simply aren’t working in a post-PC world. Moovweb’s experience platform was built to give businesses unprecedented power and flexibility in this new world.”

“In the last 18 months, our revenue has quadrupled,” said company founder and CEO, Ajay Kapur. “We feel very fortunate to continue this exponential growth with the help of Jafco and Trinity. Companies are recognizing that old development approaches simply aren’t working in a post-PC world. Moovweb’s experience platform was built to give businesses unprecedented power and flexibility in this new world.”

The Moovweb experience platform empowers businesses to go mobile by taking a fundamentally different approach to unifying their Web and mobile development. With Moovweb’s patent-pending site virtualization technology, a business’s mobile sites and apps inherit and stay in sync with a desktop site’s content, features and business logic. This approach allows powerful mobile experiences to be delivered in days, not months, and drives radically improved business agility over time. The cloud-based Moovweb platform has transformed nearly 12 billion mobile pages for some of the highest volume mobile sites, apps and tablet applications in the world, including: Macy’s, 1-800-FLOWERS.com, Sur la Table, Golfsmith, Vitacost, Kroger, Accenture, Cox Communications, Chico’s, Sharpie and many others.

Joe Horowitz, managing general partner at Jafco and Paul Sallaberry, a seasoned executive who held senior roles at Veritas and Oracle, recently joined Moovweb’s Board of Directors. Gus Tai from Trinity will be added as a Board observer.

“In my 30 years of experience in venture capital, I have never seen a company of the quality of Moovweb grow to such significance with such capital efficiency. This speaks to the quality of the team, its products and the enormous market opportunity that they are addressing,” stated Mr. Horowitz.

Also helping to lead the company into the next phase of growth is new Chief Operating and Financial Officer Tony Russo. Russo brings over 20 years of experience in managing and building companies from an operational and financial perspective, having most recently served as CFO at Efficient Frontier, a company that was acquired by Adobe last year.

“The opportunity for mobile commerce is predicted to reach more than $1 trillion in global mobile transactions by 2015,” said Tony Russo. “I joined the Moovweb team because of the company’s unique technology that enables organizations to take advantage of this mobile revolution. Moovweb has significant traction in the market and I look forward to helping them achieve even greater growth.”

About Moovweb

Moovweb’s vision is to fundamentally transform Web development to create unmatched business agility.
Our enterprise-class, cloud-based platform is transformational for businesses that need to innovate faster and drive extreme results through their mobile channels. The platform offers developers, design agencies and systems integrators a set of powerful tools to radically shorten delivery times for compelling mobile sites and native apps. The Moovweb platform is one of the world’s busiest, with nearly 12 billion mobile pages transformed for some of the world’s largest mobile sites and apps, including those for Macy’s, 1-800-FLOWERS.com, Sur la Table, Golfsmith, Vitacost, Kroger, Accenture, Cox Communications, Chico’s, Sharpie and dozens of others. Moovweb is headquartered in San Francisco.

Moovweb® is a registered trademarks of Moov Corporation. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.

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Blume Distillation, a provider of bioethanol production equipment, has raised $2.2 million in Series A financing. The money will be used for the assembly of Blume Distillation’s prototype bioethanol production system.

PRESS RELEASE
Blume Distillation LLC, the leading provider of appropriate-scale alcohol fuel (bioethanol) production equipment, announced today the successful closing of its $2.2 million Series A financing round. The round comprises angel and impact investor backing. The funds are being used to accelerate the assembly of Blume Distillation’s prototype bioethanol production system. The Company is focused on developing and acquiring intellectual property in the areas of mechanical and biological systems, processes, and co-products. The company has added key engineering and development partners.

“For communities all over the world, the need for locally produced, clean and low cost fuel is absolutely life-critical,” said David Blume, Founder and Chief Technical Officer for Blume Distillation LLC. “Our advanced distillation technology will produce renewable alcohol fuel that is 98% pollution free and, because of modular designs, allow our customers the flexibility to produce fuel from a diverse range of available, sugar and carbohydrate-rich fuel feedstocks.”

Blume Distillation is engaged in the design and development of turnkey appropriate-scale equipment that will produce bio-ethanol from waste and surplus resources as well as native and cultivated crops. The commercial systems are designed to produce from 20,000 to 500,000 gallons of fuel a year, ideally suited to powering applications such as transportation, clean indoor cooking, electricity generation and refrigeration.

The Company has identified hundreds of thousands of potential equipment placements worldwide and received nearly 300 pre-sales order registrations. Key potential customers include food processing businesses, beverage producers, industrial/nutraceutical companies, commercial agriculture operations as well as waste haulers and individual business owners. The profit potential of bio-ethanol sales, the utilization of waste stream resources for fuel production and the ability to develop high-value coproducts support a capital equipment payback in as little as 24 months.

“We are pleased to have reached a significant fiscal milestone, successfully closing our seed stage funding round,” said Ryan Sarnataro, CEO at Blume Distillation LLC. “We have attracted an active community of investors who recognize the potential for making a positive global impact by advancing the localized production of renewable bio-ethanol. Our investors see the prospect of earning solid returns comparable to traditional venture capital offerings.”

In the past three years the company has reached a number of significant operation and development milestones and has added IP and proprietary design features that greatly enhance valuation. As a result, the company anticipates continued growth and the completion of prototype systems by Q3, 2013.

About Blume Distillation LLC
Blume Distillation LLC is focused on designing and developing world class small to mid-sized turnkey distillation systems that will produce bio-ethanol fuel from a diversity of locally available feedstock resources. Blume Distillation systems are suited to rapid deployment in a wide variety of commercial and geographic settings, designed to produce fuel at costs comparable or lower than large-scale producers.

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Horizon Technology Finance Corp. provided a $5.5 million venture loan facility to Lotame Solutions Inc., maker of a data management platform for publishers, ad networks and marketers.

PRESS RELEASE
Horizon Technology Finance Corporation HRZN -1.10% (“Horizon”), a leading specialty finance company that provides secured loans to venture capital and private equity backed development-stage companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and clean-tech industries, today announced that it has closed a $5.5 million venture loan facility to Lotame Solutions, Inc. (“Lotame”), the leading data management platform for publishers, ad networks and marketers, to support the firm’s continued growth.

With Horizon’s financial support, Lotame plans to strengthen global initiatives across five continents, and make key hiring decisions to expand the sales, technology, and executive teams. These efforts are part of Lotame’s marketing strategy aimed at boosting adoption of their data management technology platform on a worldwide scale.

“Lotame is an exciting company with a strong entrepreneurial spirit,” stated Gerald A. Michaud, President of Horizon. “As Lotame continues to meet its strategic goals, we are pleased to provide the company with important growth capital to accelerate the sales and marketing of its innovative data management platform.”

“We appreciate the support and confidence in Lotame shown by Horizon with its $5.5 million venture loan facility,” said Andy Monfried, Founder & CEO of Lotame. “Horizon and its financing products came highly recommended to us, and its experienced team delivered a financing solution that provides us with the additional liquidity we need to execute our business plan and meet the strong and growing demand for our data management products and services.”

About Horizon Technology Finance Horizon Technology Finance Corporation is a business development company that provides secured loans to development-stage companies backed by established venture capital and private equity firms within the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and clean-tech industries. The investment objective of Horizon Technology Finance is to maximize total risk-adjusted returns by generating current income from a portfolio of directly originated secured loans as well as capital appreciation from warrants to purchase the equity of portfolio companies. Headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut, with regional offices in Walnut Creek, California and Reston, Virginia, the Company is externally managed by its investment advisor, Horizon Technology Finance Management LLC. Horizon’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol, “HRZN.” In addition, the Company’s 7.375% Senior Notes due 2019 trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “HTF.” To learn more, please visit www.horizontechnologyfinancecorp.com.

About Lotame Lotame is the global leader in unifying data management, empowering innovative publishers, networks, and brands to unlock the full value of their audience data. Clients leverage Lotame’s Unifying DMP, Crowd Control® to collect unstructured audience data from disparate sources anywhere, and organize it into one user friendly interface to convert that audience data into action, insights and intelligence everywhere. With Lotame, publishers, networks and brands can make informed decisions, build unique products and drive positive business outcomes from their data assets. For more information, visit www.lotame.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Statements included herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements and are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement made herein. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

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Ithaca, NY-based GiveGab, the developer of a social network for volunteers, has raised $1.5 million in Series A financing. The financing was led by Cayuga Venture Fund, and included participation from New York City-based Great Oaks Venture Capital; Rand Capital SBIC of Buffalo, NY; and Excell Partners of Rochester, NY.

PRESS RELEASE
GiveGab, the social network for volunteers, announces it has closed on $1.5 million of Series A funding. The Ithaca-based volunteer management software provider will use the funding to expand the website’s capabilities and business development efforts, including the launch of premium offerings and enhanced volunteer management reporting. The financing was led by Cayuga Venture Fund of Ithaca, NY (www.cvf.biz), and also included New York City-based Great Oaks Venture Capital (www.greatoaksvc.com), Rand Capital SBIC of Buffalo, NY (www.randcapital.com) and Excell Partners of Rochester, NY (www.excellny.com).

Charlie Mulligan, co-founder and CEO of GiveGab states, “Volunteering makes people happy. We are excited that Cayuga Venture Fund, Great Oaks Venture Capital, Rand Capital and Excell Partners have decided to work with us and provide the resources and connections we need to accomplish our mission: More, happy volunteers.”

Volunteering enriches people’s lives as well as the communities in which they live. GiveGab identified that matching volunteers with opportunities, and then administratively tracking their volunteer hours was very difficult. The software was developed to make the process of volunteering fun and easy, while helping to make the lives of volunteer managers easier. GiveGab is utilized by schools, nonprofits, and businesses that encourage people to volunteer in their communities.

“GiveGab has finally figured out how to meet the volunteer tracking, recruitment and profiling needs of both volunteer managers and their volunteers in a creative and fun social media networking platform that already has yielded an impressive following among colleges and universities and non-profit organizations,” said Jennifer Tegan, Partner at Cayuga Venture Fund. “We are excited to see this company grow and reach its full potential with this financing.”

Ben Lin, Managing Partner at Great Oaks Venture Capital states, “What LinkedIn has done for an individual’s professional career, GiveGab can do for their volunteering efforts. We are excited to be part of GiveGab’s success.”

About GiveGab

GiveGab, the social network for volunteers, is dedicated to helping volunteers and nonprofit organizations interact in local communities. GiveGab’s goal is to create a fun yet effective online environment that encourages real-world volunteer hours, donations, and social interactions. GiveGab helps volunteers find volunteer opportunities in their local community, log volunteer hours, and create a volunteer resume. Volunteer managers at nonprofits, colleges/universities, businesses and clubs can use it to create and manage events, programs, and opportunities, recruit volunteers, track volunteer hours and report their success.

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Sorenson Capital Partners has promoted Mark Ludwig to managing director, Don Blohm to performance group operating partner and Peter Sturgeon to principal. In addition, Bert Roberts has joined as vice president. Salt Lake City-based Sorenson Capital is a private equity fund that makes small to middle-market buyout and growth equity investments.

PRESS RELEASE
Sorenson Capital Partners today announced the promotion of Mark Ludwig to
managing director, Don Blohm to performance group operating partner and Peter
Sturgeon to principal. In addition, Bert Roberts has joined the team full-time
as vice president.

“With the team we have in place, Sorenson Capital has the talent and expertise
required to deliver exceptional value for our portfolio companies,” said Fraser
Bullock, managing director of Sorenson Capital. “Mark, Don, Peter and Bert have
continually proven their value to our firm`s portfolio companies and
shareholders. We have every confidence in our team`s ability to partner and grow
with the complex, compelling businesses we invest in, and look forward to
gearing up for new investment opportunities in the coming year.”

In less than a decade at Sorenson Capital, Ludwig has ascended from analyst to
managing director. Ludwig was the chairman of NCS Energy Services, and proved
instrumental in the sourcing, growth and exit of the company, one of Sorenson
Capital`s most successful investments. He currently sits on the board of Custom
Control Concepts. Prior to joining Sorenson Capital, Ludwig was an associate
consultant with Bain and Company.

After joining Sorenson Capital in 2010 as performance group vice president,
Blohm was instrumental in the operational transformation of Mity-Lite, which
resulted in the company being named 2011 Manufacturer of the Year by the Utah
Manufacturers Association. He also assisted NCS Energy Services in building an
efficient and effective supply chain to help facilitate substantial growth. In
addition, Blohm acted as the interim chief operating officer for Re-Bath and
interim vice president of operations at Goal Zero. Prior to joining the firm, he
was vice president of worldwide operations for Flowserve Corporation, one of the
world’s largest manufacturers of pumps, valves, seals and components to the
process industries.

As vice president at Sorenson Capital, Sturgeon has played a key role in the
recent exits of Southeast Directional Drilling, M&M Pipeline Services and RWI
Construction while serving on their respective boards of directors. He also
assisted in the recent acquisition of Custom Control Concepts. Previously,
Sturgeon was an associate with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Prior to joining Sorenson Capital in his new role as vice president, Roberts was
a significant contributor to the firm`s proprietary deal sourcing efforts as a
consultant. He played a key role in sourcing two recent investments for the firm
– Health Catalyst and AccessData Group. Previously, he was a vice president of
institutional client services at Wasatch Advisors.

About Sorenson Capital

Sorenson Capital (www.sorensoncapital.com) is a private equity fund that makes
small to middle-market buyout and growth equity investments. Sorenson Capital
has $650 million in capital under management and typically makes investments of
$10 to $25 million in companies with unique strategic positions. Sorenson
Capital is managed and controlled by West Rim Capital and is based in Salt Lake
City, Utah.

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Scale Venture Partners led a $15 million round for Demandbase Inc., a company developing a targeting and personalization platform for B2B. The investment included participation by existing investors Sigma Partners, Altos Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Adobe Systems.

PRESS RELEASE
Demandbase, Inc., the targeting and personalization platform for B2B, today announced it has closed a $15 million round of financing to support accelerated growth of the company’s online advertising and web site optimization platform, enabling B2B marketers to dramatically improve sales and marketing results. Scale Venture Partners, whose previous investments include Box, Hubspot, ExactTarget (NYSE: ET) and Omniture (acquired by Adobe Systems) led the round. The investment included participation by existing investors Sigma Partners, Altos Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures and Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE). The additional funds will support innovation of Demandbase’s patented technologies and the rapid adoption by enterprises in the U.S. and Europe. As part of the investment, Stacey Bishop from Scale Venture Partners will join the Demandbase Board of Directors.

“Demandbase’s unique ability to not only personalize a prospect’s first engagement with a brand site, but also to focus ad spend on reaching target customers is why ScaleVP is so excited to work with Chris and his team.” said Stacey Bishop, partner, Scale Venture Partners. “We believe Demandbase delivers tremendous value to B2B marketers and we look forward to helping fuel its growth.”

Demandbase’s patented real time identification technology provides rich visibility on prospects and customers, as well as the ability to segment audiences. This allows marketers to target online ads to the right companies with zero waste, present consistent, relevant messages and offers on corporate websites, streamline lead capture into their marketing automation systems, and track all activity in their web analytics or business intelligence tools. Leading companies, such as Adobe, HP, Dell and Informatica, have embedded Demandbase’s technology into their already-installed marketing systems to power more personalized and targeted experiences for new and existing customers. In 2012 alone, Demandbase grew its customer base by 70 percent, and more than doubled subscription revenue as adoption of its platform expanded within existing accounts.

“Demand for sophisticated but easy to use marketing solutions has grown rapidly in the last year, especially for B2B and enterprise companies. So, there’s no surprise at the financial activity in the space from venture funding to IPOs,” said Denis Pombriant, managing principal, Beagle Research. “Demandbase is transforming B2B marketing in meaningful ways and the new funding should enable them to scale their success even faster.”

“B2B has not yet taken advantage of the reduced cost of selling that is enabled by digital marketing and data driven decision making. The team at Demandbase has innovated a suite of technologies that is forcing B2B marketers to rethink what is now possible in digital marketing,” said Chris Golec, founder and CEO of Demandbase. “The new investment will help fuel our growth and fulfill our vision of creating connected conversations with prospects and customers across traditionally siloed technologies and data. Online advertising, web site logs, and CRM systems can finally be joined in real-time to connect advertising spend to web site engagement to company revenue.”

Demandbase can plug into existing technologies, including CRM, CMS, marketing automation, chat and analytics to better engage and measure customers across the entire sales cycle. In the last year, Demandbase connected to 25 new technologies, with category leaders such as Adobe, Drupal, Ektron, Eloqua, ExactTarget, Google Analytics, Marketo and Salesforce.

About Demandbase
Demandbase is the first targeting and personalization platform for B2B, transforming the effectiveness of marketing programs and marketing’s ability to impact revenue. While personalization tools have long existed for B2C, until now, none were geared specifically to enable B2B marketers to make online interactions more effective, delivering the right message at the right time. Without the use of cookies, Demandbase’s patented identification technology bridges the gap between known and anonymous web visitors by identifying and segmenting the companies visiting a website, and providing detailed, targetable business attributes in real-time. Demandbase’s targeting and personalization platform includes Company-Targeted Advertising, website optimization modules and sales IQ solutions, which provide B2B marketers with the tools to have personalized, relevant and connected conversations with their customers all the way through the sales cycle. Enterprise leaders and high-growth companies alike use Demandbase to drive better marketing performance. For more information, visit http://www.demandbase.com.

About Scale Venture Partners

Scale Venture Partners (ScaleVP) invests in emerging-growth technology companies with a focus on SaaS, Cloud, Mobile and Internet sectors. With a proven track record and market-specific expertise, ScaleVP is a strategic partner in helping entrepreneurs and management teams scale their business and grow into long-term companies that matter. Founded in 2000, the firm has $900 million under management and is currently investing Scale Venture Partners III. Representative investments include: Box, BrightRoll, DocuSign, Everyday Health, ExactTarget (ET), HubSpot, NComputing, Omniture, RingCentral and Vitrue.

ScaleVP is located in Foster City, California.

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Babbel, maker of an online learning system for foreign languages, has closed its Series B round with $10 million, the company announced. The company, which previously raised $2.2 million in equity and debt financing, is backed by Reed Elsevier Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, and Kizoo.

PRESS RELEASE
Babbel, the online learning system for foreign languages, today announced the closing of a series B funding round. Leading the round is Reed Elsevier Ventures. Other investors include Nokia Growth Partners as well as existing investors, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft via its VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, and Kizoo. The investment will be used to accelerate international expansion and improve the adaptation to all relevant mobile and online platforms.

Present in more than 190 countries, the Berlin-based startup’s strongest footprint has so far been in the German market. Now it will aggressively enter other European countries, the Americas and emerging markets. Babbel will also extend its partnerships with different hardware manufacturers, platform providers and media across the world.

Babbel.com is operated by Lesson Nine GmbH, Berlin. The company had previously raised a total of $2.2M in equity and debt and has experienced rapid revenue growth of over 200% per year since 2011. Recently, Lesson Nine announced the acquisition of competitor PlaySay. The deal was fueled, without regard to the new investment, from operating cash flow.

The basis for the success of the language learning system is the consistent use of mobile and Internet technologies and the integration of modern, practical learning content that motivates and guides the learner in an entertaining way. Over 6500 tailor-made learning hours for thirteen languages are available to learners online, as an iPad app and as free vocabulary training apps for iPhone, Android and Windows 8, as of today, have been downloaded over 8 million times.

“Babbel is a European digital media success story and I am delighted that we are joining the investor group at this exciting time”, says Tony Askew, General Partner at Reed Elsevier Ventures. “The startup has grown rapidly to over 15 million users and has built a large subscriber base which generates positive cash flows. Babbel’s excellent mobile and online products consistently rate as consumer favorites and Babbel is very well positioned for explosive growth in the rapidly growing category of mobile and online language learning.”

“Nokia Growth Partners believes that in a converged digital world, every business must be mobile and this principle drives our investments,” adds Walter Masalin, principal at Nokia Growth Partners. “As mobile transforms the way people learn, Babbel’s flexible and efficient solution supporting multiple platforms means it is well positioned to capitalize on this trend.”

“Since our investment in 2008, Lesson Nine was already able to successfully occupy various markets with its innovative products, and has established itself worldwide as a serious player in the realm of mobile language learning“, says Marco Zeller, Managing Director of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbh. „This funding round, including other international investors, honors the Berlin company’s extremely positive development, and creates a foundation for even more dynamic growth. We are proud to have been on board with this success story since the beginning, and also to provide more capital as part of this round.”

Michael Greve, CEO of Kizoo Technology Ventures says, “Since we started to work with Babbel five years ago, the Babbel product took an exciting journey from a nice web tool to a modern fun language learning experience with a huge user base that is ready to subscribe for the service. I believe the ideal platform for language learning is tablets and we can expect an even accelerated growth of the beautiful mobile Babbel products in the future.”

“We are happy to have two new high-profile international investors on board. This financing round opens a great number of opportunities without limiting our strategic options. The renewed participation of existing investors IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Kizoo also pleases me. For our great team of seventy people, there’s still much to be done and much to achieve,” says Markus Witte, CEO of Lesson Nine GmbH.

About babbel.com:
Babbel is the new way to learn languages. With the online language learning system, both beginners and continuing learners can study French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, German, Dutch, Indonesian, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Danish and English with the help of interactive listening, writing and speaking exercises. The website babbel.com offers numerous online courses. In addition there are apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android and Windows 8 devices, as well as interactive eBooks. More than 15 million people from over 190 countries are already learning a language with Babbel.

Babbel is operated by Lesson Nine GmbH, Berlin. The company was founded in August, 2007, and now has around 170 employees and freelancers. Since March, 2013, Lesson Nine has been involved with Reed Elsevier Ventures, Nokia Growth Partners, Kizoo AG and VC-Fonds Berlin. Further information at: http://www.babbel.com

About Reed Elsevier Ventures:
Founded in 2000, Reed Elsevier Ventures is a venture capital firm based in London and San Francisco and backed by one of the world’s most successful media and information companies, Reed Elsevier. Reed Elsevier Ventures invests in talented and ambitious entrepreneurs and management teams who have the drive to build large, scalable businesses and the determination to become industry leaders. Reed Elsevier Ventures focus on high growth, internet, media and technology businesses based in the US, Europe or Israel in sectors such as big data and analytics, mobile, new media, healthcare information and groundbreaking analytic technologies. Example portfolio companies include Palantir, one of silicon valley’s most valuable technology companies, and Babylon, the world’s most downloaded language translation tool.

About Nokia Growth Partners:

Nokia Growth Partners invests in companies that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the internet. NGP offers industry expertise, capital and an extensive network, enabling entrepreneurs to build disruptive, industry-changing companies and take them to the global market. With offices in the US, Europe, India and China, NGP extends the reach of companies making their products and services local everywhere. Visit http://www.nokiagrowthpartners.com/ for more information.

About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH:

The IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (www.ibb-bet.de) provides venture capital to innovative Berlin enterprises and has established itself as a market leader in the field of early stage financing in the location Berlin. The funds are used primarily for the development and market launch of innovative products or services, as well as for business concepts of creative industries. Currently two of the funds managed by the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft are in the investment phase, the VC Fonds Technologie Berlin with a fund size of € 52 million and the VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin with a fund size of € 30 million. Both VC funds are financed by means of the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE) administered by the State Berlin. Since 1997 the IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft Berlin, in consortia with partners, has made 850 million € available to creative and technology-orientated companies; thereof, the portion invested by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft itself, as lead, co-lead or co-investor, was approximately 116 million €.

About Kizoo Technology Ventures:
Kizoo helps young start-up teams grow. As a seed and early stage investor with a focus on SaaS, Internet & Mobile Services and Social Applications Kizoo is happy to share its own longtime experience in development, marketing and product management in those markets.

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High Street Partners, a developer of business software and services focused around international expansion, inked $8 million in new financing. Baird Capital led the round, which included participation from Sigma Partners and Gold Hill Capital.

PRESS RELEASE
High Street Partners (HSP), the leader in business software and services designed to simplify international expansion, today announced an $8 million round of financing, led by institutional venture capital investor Baird Capital, along with Sigma Partners and Gold Hill Capital. This is the largest investment round that HSP has raised to date, and the proceeds have been earmarked to accelerate the launch of newly developed applications within its cloud-based software platform, HSP OverseasConnect®.

“With these proceeds, HSP will be dramatically enhancing its ability to go to market with the full solution set all organizations need as they expand and operate overseas,” said Larry Harding, Founder and President of High Street Partners. “HSP uniquely supports the entire spectrum of Finance & Accounting, Human Resources, and Legal requirements arising with an international business.”

This expansion round of financing will further spur High Street Partners growth. “We have a wonderful partnership with HSP’s management team,” said Benedict Rocchio, Partner with Baird Capital’s Venture group. “They have done an excellent job supporting their clients’ international needs with a solution that really resonates with Finance and HR executives in the middle market. We believe the company is well-positioned for continued success as the preferred partner to help companies grow their businesses globally.”

“HSP solutions help customers focus on driving their business,” Harding points out. “Our software, services, and proprietary content allow them to manage and control their international operations more effectively. We have extended the capabilities of HSP OverseasConnect beyond the core accounting, document storage, and expense reporting applications hosted on the platform today, and with the advent of HSP Global Payroll, we offer the first true SaaS application in the market.”

HSP Global Payroll allows customers to manage payroll in any country in a secure environment architected in accordance with global data protection requirements. It offers unprecedented flexibility and full compliance with local statutory requirements, completely from the cloud. “HSP Global Payroll is a cost effective solution whether you’re meeting the payroll needs for a single in-country employee or a significantly larger local presence,” Harding said.

“HSP is strengthening its cloud-based solutions in a unique way,” said Paul Flanagan, Managing Director at Sigma Partners. “Their business has grown tremendously, and we’re excited to continue to support the company as it pursues a rapidly expanding market opportunity.”

Combined with HSP Overseas Direct® managed service offerings, the HSP OverseasConnect platform provides solutions appropriate for the entire lifecycle of international expansion, from planning, set-up, and implementation services, to standard finance and accounting (“F&A”) outsourcing, to local statutory compliance and corporate secretarial (“CoSec”) services. Says Harding, “HSP offers the full range of solutions customers need related to their international operations. Some customers may choose to utilize only our technology platform, others only some or all of our managed services, and for others both solution sets are what best meets their needs. In all instances, HSP Advisory Services are available to provide guidance and expertise designed to deal with the inevitable complexities and challenges, of all kinds, that are apt to occur at any stage of the process.”

About Baird Capital
Baird Capital makes venture capital, growth equity and private equity investments in strategically targeted sectors around the world. Baird Capital’s venture team invests in early and expansion-stage technology-enabled services and healthcare companies. Having invested in more than 260 companies over its history, Baird Capital partners with entrepreneurs and, leveraging its executive networks, strives to build exceptional companies. Baird Capital is the direct private investment arm of Robert W. Baird & Co. For more information, please visit www.BairdCapital.com.

About Sigma Partners
Founded in 1984, Sigma Partners is a leading early-stage venture capital firm. The Sigma team uses their deep operational experience to provide entrepreneurs with practical strategic counsel through every phase of company growth. With over $1.5 billion under management and bicoastal offices, Sigma invests in innovative technology startups across the United States. Some of the market leading companies in which Sigma has invested include Atria, Aprimo, Acquia, Internet Security Systems, Initiate, m-Qube, Nasuni, Octane, Rethink Robotics, Storage Networks, Tradex, Vermeer, Vignette, and Vlingo. For more information, please visit www.sigmapartners.com.

About Gold Hill Capital
Gold Hill Capital is a private venture firm focused on providing debt and equity capital to expansion stage, technology companies. Gold Hill works with companies to deliver flexible financing solutions. Gold Hill is headquartered in San Jose, CA with an office in Boston, MA.

About High Street Partners
High Street Partners is a premier provider of international business software and services. Its mission is to help companies capitalize on their international growth opportunities by simplifying the management and control of international expansion and operations. HSP’s signature solutions include HSP Overseas Direct®, an integrated service bundle which incorporates all required recurring services, including international payroll, expense reimbursement, cash management, vendor payments, bookkeeping, quarterly and annual tax filings, and local statutory compliance, and HSP OverseasConnect®, a cloud-based application for the aggregation and management of accounting, finance, HR and legal requirements across multiple geographies and lifecycles. Both solutions are offered with a full suite of custom Advisory Services. HSP provides a single point of accountability for customers spanning a range of industries and sizes: from those making their first overseas hire, to larger, publicly traded companies managing multiple subsidiaries on several continents, to top universities and research institutions operating in dozens of countries. HSP now has 15 global offices, including Annapolis, Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Miami, New York, San Diego, Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.

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Minimally Invasive Devices Inc. has raised $9 million in Series B financing. Canaan Partners led the round, with participation from Charter Life Science, an existing backer. As part of the round, Brent Ahrens, general partner at Canaan Partners has been appointed to the board. The company also announced that it added Jim Bobbitt as vice president of sales.

PRESS RELEASE
Minimally Invasive Devices,
Inc. (MID), today announced it has completed a $9 million Series B financing
led by Canaan Partners. Charter Life Science, an existing investor, also
participated in the financing. Coinciding with the close of the Series B, Brent
Ahrens, general partner at Canaan Partners has been appointed to the board of
directors and Jim Bobbitt has been appointed vice president of sales.

Funds from the Series B will be utilized to establish a direct sales force,
expand manufacturing operations, develop complimentary products and generate
additional data to support the efficacy of the FDA-approved FloShield
laparoscopic vision system, the first device that prevents loss of vision during
laparoscopic surgery due to obscuration of the optics.

“Modern high definition video systems give surgeons a crystal clear view of a
patient’s organs during laparoscopic surgery, but only when the optics are
clean,” noted Wayne Poll, M.D., founder and CEO of MID. “Obscuration of images
due to contaminants on the optics is a real problem that surgeons have long
taken for granted. It’s rather like purchasing a high-end digital camera and
being satisfied with photos taken through a dirty lens.”

The performance of laparoscopic surgery is significantly enhanced by modern high
definition (HD) video systems, yet fat, smoke or other contaminants can settle
on the optics and obscure the images. Surgeons may be forced to stop their
procedures, remove the camera from the patient, and clean the optics up to ten
times an hour.

MID’s FloShield laparoscopic vision system attaches to the HD camera system and
uses an air curtain to form an invisible protective barrier over the lens. This
system is augmented by the Flo-X lens wash, a biocompatible surfactant that will
flush the lens inside the body if needed, so that surgeons may operate without
loss of vision and without lens removal.

“The problem of dirty lenses in laparoscopic surgery is taken for granted as a
cost of using the minimally invasive procedure,” noted Brent Ahrens, General
Partner at Canaan Partners. “FloShield is an elegant solution to this very real
problem and has the potential to be expanded to other endoscopy platforms. MID
is a natural investment for Canaan.”

Jim Bobbitt brings decades of experience in medical device sales to MID. Most
recently, he served as vice president of sales and marketing for Neomend, Inc.,
a medical device start-up focusing on surgical sealants that was acquired by C.
R. Bard. Prior to that, he was vice president of sales and corporate services
for USHIFU, a privately held company developing a device to treat prostate
cancer.

About Minimally Invasive Devices, Inc.

Minimally Invasive Devices, Inc. (MID) has developed and manufactures the
FloShield laparoscopic vision system, the first device that prevents loss of
vision during laparoscopic surgery due to obscuration of the optics.

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Publicly traded Checkpoint Systems Inc. said it would sell its U.S. and Canadian CheckView business to an buyout shop Platinum Equity. The sale includes all continuing business operations and assets associated with the U.S. and Canadian CheckView business, the company said. The deal is expected to close by the end of April.

PRESS RELEASE
Checkpoint Systems, Inc. CKP +0.23% today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its U.S. and Canadian CheckView business to an affiliate of Platinum Equity, a California-based private equity firm. The sale includes all continuing business operations and assets associated with the U.S. and Canadian CheckView business. The transaction is expected to close by the end of April 2013.

The divestiture follows an extensive review of Checkpoint’s businesses in 2012 at which time the Company’s Board of Directors determined that the U.S. and Canadian CheckView business will better serve its customers as an independent, entrepreneurial and more focused organization.

Checkpoint Systems’ President and Chief Executive Officer, George Babich, said, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement. Platinum Equity is a global investment firm with a unique focus on business operations and a strong track record helping companies reach their full potential. The firm’s financial resources and operational expertise will present the CheckView business with tremendous new opportunities. We are committed to support CheckView throughout the sale process to ensure an orderly transition with full continuity of service to customers.”

“We are excited about the prospects for CheckView under our ownership,” said Platinum Equity Principal Jason Leach. “Platinum has an extensive track record of acquiring corporate divestitures and maximizing their potential as standalone businesses. CheckView will act as a platform acquisition and allow us to focus on the core business while pursuing organic growth initiatives and strategic add-ons in a highly fragmented space.”

Checkpoint will continue to pursue its redefined strategy to provide solutions that improve merchandise availability in retail stores. The Company’s portfolio includes electronic article surveillance systems and services to combat theft, radio frequency identification products to improve inventory accuracy, and tickets, tags and labels for merchandising apparel.

The U.S. and Canadian CheckView business was reported as discontinued operations in Checkpoint’s fourth quarter and full-year 2012 earnings report released on March 5, 2013 and in the Company’s 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Checkpoint Systems, Inc.

Checkpoint Systems is a global leader in shrink management, merchandise visibility and apparel labeling solutions. Checkpoint enables retailers and their suppliers to reduce shrink, improve shelf availability and leverage real-time data to achieve operational excellence. Checkpoint solutions are built upon more than 40 years of RF technology expertise, diverse shrink management offerings, a broad portfolio of apparel labeling solutions, market-leading RFID applications, innovative high-theft solutions and its Web-based Check-Net(R) data management platform. As a result, Checkpoint customers enjoy increased sales and profits by improving supply-chain efficiencies, by facilitating on-demand label printing and by providing a secure open-merchandising environment enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience. For more information, visit www.checkpointsystems.com.

Platinum Equity

Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com) is a global M&A&O(R) firm specializing in the merger, acquisition and operation of companies that provide services and solutions to customers in a broad range of business markets, including information technology, telecommunications, logistics, metals services, manufacturing and distribution. Since its founding in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity has completed more than 145 acquisitions.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” or “will.” By their nature, forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Any such forward-looking statements may involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results encompassed within the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include: the impact upon operations of legal compliance matters or internal controls review, improvement and remediation, including the detection of wrongdoing, improper activities, or circumvention of internal controls; our ability to integrate acquisitions and to achieve our financial and operational goals for our acquisitions; changes in international business conditions; foreign currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations; lower than anticipated demand by retailers and other customers for our products; slower commitments of retail customers to chain-wide installations and/or source tagging adoption or expansion; possible increases in per unit product manufacturing costs due to less than full utilization of manufacturing capacity as a result of slowing economic conditions or other factors; our ability to provide and market innovative and cost-effective products; the development of new competitive technologies; our ability to maintain our intellectual property; competitive pricing pressures causing profit erosion; the availability and pricing of component parts and raw materials; possible increases in the payment time for receivables as a result of economic conditions or other market factors; changes in regulations or standards applicable to our products; the ability to successfully implement global cost reductions in operating expenses including, field service, sales, and general and administrative expense, and our manufacturing and supply chain operations without significantly impacting revenue and profits; our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting; and additional matters disclosed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws.

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Pluribus Networks has raised $44 million in Series C financing from investors including China Broadband Capital, Menlo Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company developers hardware-accelerated network virtualization technology for cloud datacenters.

PRESS RELEASE
Pluribus Networks, the leader in hardware-accelerated network virtualization for private and public cloud datacenters, today announced that China Broadband Capital (CBC) has invested in the company’s Series C funding. This brings the total amount raised to date to over $44 million from investors including Menlo Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. The funding will be used to meet customer demand for deploying the company’s production-ready software-defined virtualized Fabric offering in China.

Pluribus Networks was founded in 2010 and announced in September, 2012 that it had partnered with TIBCO Software Inc. to deliver TIBCO Enterprise Message Service(TM) Appliance and TIBCO FTL® Message Switch. Network World recently recognized Pluribus as a “Top 10 SDN Startup to Watch.”

“As the first Chinese VC that specializes in cloud computing industries, CBC Capital has fostered strong relationships with government and businesses,” said Dr. Edward Tian, Chairman of CBC. “The Pluribus Networks Server-Switch architecture is the ideal platform for offering the Network-as-a-Service to cloud computing and Big Data in China. Webscale hardware leveraged with Pluribus Networks at the top or middle of the rack can be provisioned on-the-fly as a purpose-built Hadoop appliance or general-purpose Infrastructure-as-a-Service with an integrated CloudStack controller. Chinese companies on hyper-growth trajectories have an immense appetite for cloud computing and data-driven analytics.”

Pluribus Networks Netvisor® is a programmable, distributed network operating system that runs on Pluribus Networks’ highly-optimized Server-Switch(TM) hardware. Netvisor provides a platform for fabric-based computing that enables applications to move into the network, and to serve both physical and virtual network infrastructure. The solution is highly modular and fault tolerant with a self-healing design that enables extremely high operational flexibility and makes zero-touch provisioning of virtual machines and network services a reality.

“Cloud computing is driving the convergence of server, storage, and network,” said Ken Yang, Co-Founder and VP of Engineering at Pluribus Networks. “The expertise of China Broadband Capital in supporting companies in cloud computing will accelerate our ability to deliver software-defined networking software and infrastructure for cloud data centers in China. We are looking forward to collaborations with the companies in their portfolio.”

Availability

The Pluribus Networks Netvisor® solution is currently available to select customers on the Pluribus Networks F64 Series platform.

About Pluribus Networks

Pluribus Networks is a leader in performance-oriented network virtualization for private and public cloud datacenters. Our systems transform how IT administrators deploy applications so they can realize productivity gains and enable new business models. Pluribus Networks delivers operational excellence by optimizing datacenter network utilization while maintaining required levels of performance, reliability, and availability. Information about Pluribus Networks can be found at http://www.pluribusnetworks.com.

About China Broadband Capital

China Broadband Capital (CBC) is a China-based private equity firm with focus on media and communications investment. CBC has an exceptional investment team with complementary backgrounds and experiences consisting of industry leaders and executives, private equity professionals and entrepreneurs. The unique combination of our diversified skill sets, experiences and relationships enables us to add value throughout the investment process, and places CBC in the best position to help shape the “Digital Eco-System” for China. For more information, visit http://www.cbc-capital.com.

Pluribus Networks, the Pluribus Networks logo, Server-Switch(TM), iTOR(TM), Netvisor®, nvOS®, and vManage® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pluribus Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered marks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Pluribus Networks

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Dell Inc. confirmed it had received alternative buyout offers from Blackstone Group LP and Carl Icahn, following a $24.4 billion agreement last month to be taken private by its founder and private equity firm Silver Lake. The company said its special committee has determined that “both proposals could reasonably be expected to result in superior proposals.”

(Reuters) – Dell Inc confirmed it had received alternative buyout offers from Blackstone Group LP and Carl Icahn, following a $24.4 billion agreement last month to be taken private by its founder and private equity firm Silver Lake.

The company said its special committee has determined that “both proposals could reasonably be expected to result in superior proposals.”

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