Category: News

FreedomPop on Thursday launched its promised data sharing program, allowing its customers to share or trade megabytes like a broadband currency. The mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) also revealed it has gone back to its investors for a another $4.3 million infusion, which FreedomPop COO Steven Sesar said would carry it through the rest of its beta trials before it launches nationwide later next year.

Sesar said you can think of the broadband sharing feature like a “family plan on crack.” Instead of sharing your pool of monthly megabytes or gigabytes with just the wife and kids, though, FreedomPop customers can request bandwidth from or award bandwidth to any other customer using FreedomPops’s social networking tools.

The broadband sharing program is the latest twist in FreedomPop’s distinctly anti-carrier approach to mobile data. As we’ve written before, FreedomPop doesn’t see much value in selling consumers data plans. Instead it wants to sell them services over what it considers a commodity pipe – it wants to be the water-slide amusement park, not the water utility.

Consequently FreedomPop is offering any customer who buys one of its modems 500 MB free of charge each month (though it sells bigger-bucket plans for a monthly fee) and allows them to “earn” more free data by referring new customers, participating in promotional programs and become entrenched in the FreedomPop social community. The more active customers become in the FreedomPop community the more free data they accrue and therefore the more likely they are to remain customers.

Under the current rules there are limits to how much data individual customers can earn or trade. But the company is gradually relaxing those rules, Sesar said. For instance, it is upping the amount of free data customers get from becoming friends with another Freedom customer from 10 MB to 50 MB each month. There is now an overall cap of 500 MB on free data customers can earn beyond their guaranteed monthly 500 MB allotment, but Sesar said the virtual carrier plans to boost the cap in the coming months and eventually eliminate entirely.

“Ultimately the goal is to allow you to earn, exchange and share data as much as you want,” Sesar said. “Right now we’re still testing the waters, making sure customers don’t game the system.”

FreedomPop plans to launch its own voice and text messaging plans next month in partnership with TextPlus. It will also expand into the home with a new wireless broadband gateway that taps into the same Clearwire WiMAX network used by its mobile service. Later this year it will begin selling its first LTE devices, switching to Sprint as its primary provider.

One of FreedomPop’s most attention-grabbing plans, however, is on hold. The company intended to launch a sleeve modem that fit over the iPhone 4 and 4S shortly after launch, but the device has been held up by U.S. regulators for testing. That’s left many perspective FreedomPop customers who pre-ordered the device in the lurch.

Last month, FreedomPop said it hoped that the device would be cleared for shipment this month, but this week Sesar said there was still no update on when or if it would be released. He added that if the modem was delayed too much longer, FreedomPop may just move on, refocusing its strategy on other devices.

FreedomPop was founded in 2011 with the backing of Skype founder Niklas Zennstom, and since then has raised $11.2 million in funding. The company is calling the $4.1 million a series A1 round, since it includes only existing investors DCM and Mangrove Capital.

Sesar said the cash would allow FreedomPop plenty of leeway to tinker with its strategy, services and plans while in beta. But later this year, Sesar said, it plans to put together a proper series B round to launch a fully commercial service nationwide and move beyond viral marketing to attract a larger customer base.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How to deliver the next-generation web experience
• The fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile
• How to manage the signaling storm in 2013

The New York Times Company posted earnings on Thursday morning that show the company’s ongoing struggle to create significant growth in its digital operations. While circulation revenues continue to rise, all forms of advertising are in decline and overall revenue is shrinking.

The company posted earnings per share of 32 cents (excluding special items) which is about what analysts predicted. Compared to the same 13-week period from a year ago, total revenues decreased 0.7 percent, with advertising revenues down 8.3 percent and circulation revenues up 8.6 percent.

The circulation revenues should, in theory, be a bright spot for the Times but it’s not possible to tell how much of that 8.6 percent comes from new digital revenue and how much from an increase in the price of the print edition (the Times doesn’t break out these numbers).

The company now has about 640,000 digital subscribers to the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, which is a 13-percent increase from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe now has 28,000 subscribers to its various digital editions which is an eight-percent increase.

The bottom line here is that this the same old story for the New York Times company: it is shedding revenue, assets and longtime staff faster than it can build up a new digital business.

An earnings call later today will feature the company’s new CEO, the BBC-transplant Mark Thompson who may offer some guidance to where the company is going. We will post highlights from the call in the early afternoon.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How consumer media will change in 2013
• Social media in Q1: commerce and discovery dominated
• Building a better paywall: strategies for monetizing news content

Lucy Lawless, who rose to stardom playing Xena the Warrior Princess, has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service stemming from her staged protest on an oil-drilling ship last summer.

Lawless and several other protestors set up camp on the ship last June to voice their anger at Shell Todd Oil Services for making oil explorations in the Arctic. They stayed for four days before being arrested for trespassing, and Lawless faced up to three years in jail time. Luckily for her, she and the other protesters were given the community service order and must pay a fine of about $550.

The actress says she doesn’t mind the sentence at all and was happy to have brought the actions of the oil company to the attention of others. She’s also happy the judge dismissed the company’s demand for reparations–which totaled around $550,000–and called them “ludicrous”. The reparations were brought up in court because the company’s expedition was delayed by the protest.

Still, Lawless has said this won’t stop her from activism.

“This chapter has ended, but the story of the battle to save the Arctic has just begun. Seven of us climbed up that drill ship to stop Arctic drilling, but 133,000 of us came down,” she said. “We will continue to stand in solidarity with the communities and species that depend on the Arctic for their lives until Shell cancels its plans to drill in this magical world, and makes the switch to clean, sustainable energy.”

Just because Congress — and global climate summits — can’t seem to prepare for climate change, doesn’t mean the private sector can get away with the same. Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.

The danger signs are clear. Yet for years, climate change has been off limits for federal policymakers, who have been rendered nearly catatonic over the unproven idea that dealing with climate change or any environmental problem would be too costly for a delicate economy. On the contrary, tackling climate change is an investment that pays off economically as well as socially. A report from Deutsche Bank showed in 2010 that a portfolio with an overweight to climate solutions would have outperformed a benchmark portfolio over the previous 5 years, indicating that climate as an investment was “not merely an investment sector that may hold future promise; it is a sector that has already delivered and is continuing to deliver.”

Moreover, not fixing the problem is quite likely to cost considerably more than addressing it. Particularly now, while there is still time for us to avert even greater damage. Companies that emit a lot of greenhouse gases should know that at some point the burgeoning impacts of climate change will prompt government to act, either at the federal or state level, or both. This leaves business leaders with two options: wait for whatever the government does and react, or pro-actively plan for a carbon-constrained future.

And any company can be subject to the physical impacts of climate change, whether or not they are big emitters. Munich Re reports that natural disasters in 2011 caused insurance companies to substantially spend down cash reserves, with payouts exceeding premiums in the US by 16%. Continuing the trend toward more and costlier climate-related disasters will have the inevitable result that it always has: insurance companies will either raise premiums or exit particularly risky markets, as has happened before with flood insurance in places that are increasingly susceptible to storm surges. Only months after Congress tried to put the federal flood insurance program on sound fiscal feet, there is a real possibility that the program will need to seek additional funds in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Even if additional funds are appropriated, it is widely expected that premiums will have to rise in order to keep the program viable.

Insurance aside, storms (and other severe weather) can have immediate impacts on corporate bottom lines, as well as longer-term impacts on reputational value. For instance, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has recommended that the state’s Department of Public Utilities issue a $16 million fine to National Grid for its response to power outages during Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and a snowstorm two months later. With the possibility of new fines for outages and lack of prompt response during Hurricane Sandy, the company faces a significant lack of confidence on the part of some of its customers — something no company wants to have.

Droughts and floods also enter the risk picture for any company dependent on an agricultural supply chain. Pepsico, for instance, recently developed its sustainable agriculture program at least partly in response to the challenges of climate change. Every board of every company should be asking itself: “Are we prepared for climate change? What risks does it pose for this company?” Pepsico has thought through at least some of that. Yet for many companies, the only form of climate risk acknowledged in the annual report is regulatory risk.

No company is immune to the risks related to the physical manifestations of climate change. The problem is only becoming more pressing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Billion Dollar Weather/Climate Disasters’s website shows a generally rising trend in terms of number of extreme weather events between 1980 and 2011 in the United States. Severe storms and tropical cyclones accounted for over 55% of these events, and nearly 60% of the inflation-adjusted damages. Elsewhere in the world the status quo is just as sobering; the Association of British Insurers (ABI), for example, estimated the financial impacts of climate change by looking under some very specific lampposts: inland floods in Great Britain induced by precipitation, winter windstorms in the UK, and typhoons in China. ABI concluded that insured flood losses on 100-year storms in Great Britain could rise by 30%, and insured losses resulting from typhoons in China could rise by 32% as a result of climate change.

Remember: Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts. And political stalemate is not an excuse for private sector inaction.

Social TV startup GetGlue rolled out an update of its iPhone app Thursday, adding a programming guide, show feeds and the ability to chat with Facebook friends about a show. Also in the works is a partnership with Hulu, which serves as a good reminder on how much the TV space is changing.

The iPhone app brings many of the features previously rolled out on the iPad and the web to the mobile phone. This includes a new program guide as well as an activity feed that pulls in content from throughout the web, as well as specific feeds for individual shows.

Also interesting: GetGlue’s new iPhone app uses Facebook likes to determine which of your friends watch the shows you are into, and then offers you the ability to tag them in a Facebook post about the show, essentially extending the conversation beyond the core of GetGlue’s four million registered users. GetGlue founder and CEO Alex Iskold told me Wednesday that he hopes to relaunch the Android app with the same feature set in the next four to six weeks.

But wait, there’s more: GetGlue is currently working on a multi-faceted partnership with Hulu. There is going to be some promotional element that will give GetGlue users the ability to earn a month-long free trial of Hulu Plus, but more interesting is that GetGlue is committed to index all of Hulu’s original content, including shows like Battleground and the Awesomes. “We are not about linear TV. We are about what to watch,” Iskold told me.

That’s a reflection of how the world of TV is changing: There used to be a clear line between the short-form content posted on YouTube and the professionally-produced shows that air on TV, and possibly find their way online afterwards for catch-up viewing. But with companies like Netflix and Hulu pouring millions into the production of original content, that line is becoming increasingly blurry.

The most striking example for this was the launch of House Of Cards on Netflix, but Hulu and YouTube have increased their commitment to professional content as well. It only makes sense for GetGlue to surface that content through their app.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution
• What the shift to the cloud means for the future EPG
• Connected consumer third-quarter 2012

In the world of mobile advertising, Android phones reached a significant milestone during the fourth quarter of 2012: they drove more mobile advertising impressions than iPhones during a quarter, for the first time ever. That’s according to a report published Thursday morning by Opera Mediaworks, the mobile ad tracking arm of Opera Mobile. Still, the findings show that highest volume still isn’t translating to the highest value for advertisers.

Android phones represented 31 percent of the more than 500 million mobile ad impressions tracked by Opera between October and December across more than 12,000 mobile websites and apps. iPhones, meanwhile, had a 29 percent share of those impressions. Major reasons for Android taking the lead include: the popularity of Android devices in markets where users are more likely to access the internet on a mobile device – like Indonesia and Russian Federation countries, which saw double-digit gains in ad impressions during the quarter — and Samsung’s rapidly growing popularity among smartphone buyers in the U.S.

“In the U.S. we think that this is considerably helped by the emergence of Samsung and the Galaxy S III,” Mahi De Silva, EVP of Opera’s consumer mobile division, said in an interview. “They’re pouring a lot of dollars into the market, and they have favorable pricing with mobile operators, so that entire market has a lot of momentum [toward] adoption of Samsung Android devices.”

Earlier this week we reported that Apple just barely outsold Samsung in the U.S. mobile phone sales during the fourth quarter, but Samsung sold nearly 7 million more devices during all of 2012, according to Strategy Analytics.

iPhones are just one piece of the pie, however. When counting iOS’s overall impact, including mobile ads seen on iPod touches and iPads, Opera found that Apple’s devices still represent the largest overall number of impressions, about 42 percent.

And where it really counts — producing revenue for mobile advertisers — iOS is still comfortably in the lead.

“Even though you saw that for the first time Android phones have a larger volume of impressions, the dollars associated is still considerably in favor of Apple and iOS and iPhones,” De Silva said.

iPhones are responsible for 37 percent of the revenue made by mobile advertisers, versus about 30 percent from Android; and just over half of all revenues in the quarter came from some type of iOS device. So in terms of the ability to monetize, De Silva says iOS is still the more attractive platform for advertisers.

Android has a ways to go to catch up in revenue. And even though the platform is only going to grow and add more users, it’s not clear the monetization will catch up nearly as fast, he said. “The trend, as we’ve seen in the past, is iPhone continues to be the most monetization-friendly platform out there.”

 

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Takeaways from mobile’s second quarter
• Hyperlocal: opportunities for publishers and developers

Apparently, there were many more iPhones and Android handsets under the Christmas tree in 2012, which isn’t a holiday gift for the other smartphone platforms. On Thursday, ComScore released its smartphone subscriber share numbers for the U.S. and in the last quarter of the year, iOS and Android phones continued to rise over the prior quarter. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it got a lump of coal.

I’m not surprised by the growth in iOS and Android devices; combined these two accounted for 89.7 percent of U.S. smartphones used in the quarter, per ComScore’s research. What is surprising, not to mention disappointing, is Microsoft’s decline from the prior three-month period. BlackBerry’s share fell also, but that was to be expected: The company’s new BlackBerry 10 devices are only just now becoming available.

Although it didn’t have a full quarter to work with — Windows Phone 8 devices launched in early November — Microsoft actually introduced the new operating system in the last quarter of 2012 and Nokia, arguably Microsoft’s most important smartphone partner, debuted a line of new Lumia phones during the same period.

I subscribe to the “smartphone race is a marathon, not a sprint” theory, but when the gun goes off, you need to jump from the starting line. That didn’t appear to happen last quarter; at least not in the U.S.

For its part, Nokia said it moved 4.4 million Lumia handsets in the final quarter of 2012. I don’t doubt that figure. However, even with competitive pricing that puts a Lumia in your pocket for less than the cost of an iPhone 5 or comparable Android device, the percent of Lumia’s sold is surely a small bit of that 4.4 million sales figure. With fewer Windows Phone models from HTC, Samsung and others, this may be a case of “as Nokia goes in the U.S. smartphone market, so too does Microsoft.”

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Takeaways from mobile’s second quarter
• A look back at mobile in Q1

The holiday smartphone boost enjoyed by AT&T and Verizon was replicated at Sprint. In the fourth quarter, the country’s third largest mobile operator sold 6.1 million smartphones, 2.1 million of which were iPhones. But Sprint is also still feeling the pain of departing Nextel and Boost Mobile customers as it prepares to shut down its iDEN network completely in the second quarter.

Sprint lost 644,000 Nextel contract customers and 376,000 Boost customers, though Sprint was able to lure 521,000 of those departing subscribers over to its CDMA network. There are now 2.1 million iDEN customers remaining, which means Sprint has a rocky two quarters ahead before the network goes offline completely.

On the CDMA side of the house, Sprint added a net 401,000 contract customers and 525,000 prepaid customers, but the Nextel exodus still resulted in a net loss of 400,000 customers. Sprint now has a total 55.6 million mobile connections.

Sprint activated 2.2 million iPhones (as opposed to sales), which is just a quarter of the volume done by dominant iPhone distributor AT&T, but Sprint was able to use the device to lure in more customers. Of the 6.6 million iPhones sold in 2012, Sprint estimated that 40 percent were new customers, meaning Sprint isn’t just upgrading its existing subscribers to the iPhone. The carrier also said that it sold more Samsung Galaxy S III phones than any other carrier.

Sprint reported a loss of $1.32 billion in the fourth quarter off of revenues of $9 billion.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012
• What to watch in mobile in 2013

Energy Investors Funds and Midstream Capital Partners have partnered to identify and develop investment opportunities in the energy midstream space in the United States, the firms announced Wednesday. Financial terms were not disclosed. The firms will initially focus on natural gas gathering systems.

PRESS RELEASE
Energy Investors Funds (“EIF”) announced today it has formed an exclusive partnership with Midstream Capital Partners, LLC (“MCP”). The primary focus of the partnership will be to identify and develop investment opportunities in the energy midstream space in the United States, with an initial focus on natural gas gathering systems. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.

Midstream Capital Partners was formed by Lou Pai, Richard Kieval and Dale Miller, each of whom has decades of experience in the natural gas infrastructure space. Through the partnership, MCP will work with EIF to identify midstream investments through partnerships, acquisitions and greenfield development.

“We’re excited to announce this partnership with MCP, which we believe has some of the brightest minds in the midstream space,” said Terence Darby, Managing Partner at EIF. “With the shale boom that is currently underway in the United States, we believe there will be numerous opportunities to invest in the physical infrastructure used to transport natural gas.”

“We see this partnership with EIF as a validation of our business model and the high level of opportunity in the midstream space,” said Lou Pai, Managing Partner at Midstream Capital Partners. “We’ve known EIF for many years and believe their investment model and executive team to be one of the best in the industry.”

About Energy Investors Funds
EIF was founded in 1987 as one of the first private equity fund managers dedicated exclusively to the independent power and electric utility industry. Its consistent, proven investment strategy is to create geographically and technologically diversified portfolios of electric power-related assets that provide superior risk-adjusted equity returns with current cash flow and capital appreciation. EIF has raised over $5 billion in equity capital and currently manages multiple private equity funds from its offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. These funds have made over 100 diversified investments with an underlying asset value greater than $15 billion. EIF-managed funds own approximately 4,000 MW of capacity in facilities that are currently operating or under construction and an additional 6,000 MW in facilities that are in various stages of development. EIF closed on its latest fund, EIF United States Power Fund IV, L.P., in October 2011, with $1.713 billion in capital commitments.

The post Energy Investors Funds Partners with Midstream Capital Partners appeared first on peHUB.

Yahoo and Google are now working together on ads. Yahoo announced in a post on its corporate blog that it has teamed up with the search giant on contextual advertising.

The two companies have signed a global, non-exclusive agreement for Yahoo to display contextual display ads from Google on various Yahoo properties and “certain co-branded sites” using Google’s AdSense for Content and AdMob advertising offerings.

“By adding Google to our list of world-class contextual ads partners, we’ll be able to expand our network, which means we can serve users with ads that are even more meaningful,” says Yahoo in the post. “For our users, there won’t be a noticeable difference in how or where ads appear. More options simply mean greater flexibility. We look forward to working with all of our contextual ads partners to ensure we’re delivering the right ad to the right user at the right time.”

It wasn’t that long ago that Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt expressed interest in partnering with Yahoo, years after the companies tried to partner on a search advertising deal, which was shut down by regulators. Yahoo ended up partnering with BIng in that space, and so far, this new announcement will do nothing to change that.

Again, this is a non-exclusive agreement, and Yahoo is still partners with Microsoft (in addition to others) in this area too.

“Every day, people turn to Yahoo! for their daily habits — like search, weather, news or more. At Yahoo!, we’re focused on doing everything we can to make the user experience inspiring and engaging. One way we do that is by providing relevant and well-targeted content — whether that be editorial or advertising content,” says Yahoo. “Say you’ve been shopping for boots. If you see an ad for boots, that’s instantly going to pique your attention more than an ad for, say, a car battery. That’s better for users. This is why contextual advertising is such a powerful tool.”

According to the company, users won’t see much of a noticeable difference in how and where ads appear.

While this isn’t the huge news that an exclusive Google/Yahoo search advertising deal would be, it’s very interesting to see the companies working together, especially considering the rivalry between Microsoft and Google. It’s also interesting given the fact that Yahoo is now run by longtime Googler Marissa Mayer, who has brought other Googlers along for the ride at Yahoo. Will this relationship blossom into something more between Yahoo and Google? Time will tell.

A nanny in Staten Island has been arrested after a surveillance video captured her hitting and shaking a 5-month old because the child refused to eat.

The woman, 52-year old Mamura Nasirova, had displayed questionable behavior before in front of the child’s parents, so they decided to install a camera inside a carbon monoxide detector, which was on a live feed viewable to them while they were at work.

“I seen her one time, she just dragged them along. I said, ‘Don’t drag them like that.’ She said, ‘They don’t listen, you have to let them know who the boss is,’” neighbor Margaret Meekins said.

Nasirova was also in charge of the baby’s 17-month old brother, who was not harmed at the time, but the baby girl suffered redness and swelling where she was hit. The nanny has been charged with endangering a child and resisting arrest and is in jail on a $1,000 bond.

SAFE Security, a company backed by ICV Partners, has acquired 24,000 security alarm monitoring subscriber accounts from Utah-based Pinnacle Security. Terms were not disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE
ICV Partners, a leading investment firm focused on lower middle market companies, announced today that its portfolio company SAFE Security has acquired approximately 24,000 security alarm monitoring subscriber accounts from Utah-based Pinnacle Security. The newly acquired accounts represent $1.1 million of Recurring Monthly Revenue.

“This is an exciting and important addition to SAFE’s portfolio,” said Paul Sargenti, SAFE’s President and CEO who founded the company in 1988. “The transaction fits very nicely into our national footprint. The acquisition, in conjunction with SAFE’s robust dealer program, provides cash flow to optimize and execute SAFE’s growth strategy.”

Cory D. Mims, a Managing Director of ICV, said, “We have been working closely with SAFE Security’s founder and CEO Paul Sargenti and his management team to build on the company’s historically strong record of performance. A part of that includes supporting SAFE Security with the capital necessary to back management’s vision for growth. These new accounts add significant revenue to the company and we continue to review high quality acquisition targets.” ICV acquired SAFE Security in 2012.

About SAFE Security
SAFE Security® ranks among the largest security alarm companies in the United States, with operations in 44 states. SAFE Security (Security Alarm Financing Enterprise, L.P.), headquartered in San Ramon, CA is one of the nation’s leading security alarm companies engaged in the business of purchasing, financing and servicing residential and commercial security alarm monitoring contracts. SAFE Security actively markets and installs alarm systems and monitoring to homeowners across the nation in addition to growing a robust dealer account acquisition program. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.safesecurity.com.

About ICV Partners
Founded in 1998, ICV Partners is a leading private investment firm that supports management leaders of strong companies at the lower end of the middle market. The principals of ICV have crafted a strong track record of helping companies improve performance over the long term and across a variety of industries. ICV seeks to make control investments in market leading businesses with $25 million to $250 million in revenue. Additional information is available at www.icvpartners.com.

###

The post SAFE Security Buys Accounts from Pinnacle Security appeared first on peHUB.

Mark DeNatale and Scott Bynum have joined CVC Credit Partners, the firm announced. DeNatale joins the firm’s operating board as a partner and will be a senior portfolio manager and global head of trading. Bynum joins as a managing director and portfolio manager.

PRESS RELEASE
CVC Credit Partners (“CVC Credit”) today announced that Mark DeNatale and Scott Bynum have joined the firm. Mark joins the Firm’s Operating Board as a Partner and will be a Senior Portfolio Manager and Global Head of Trading. Scott joins as a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager.

Mark DeNatale spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Managing Director and Head of Loan Trading, managing risk across distressed, stressed and performing credit. Mark actively invested and traded across the capital structure including loans, bonds, equities and derivatives; he was also instrumental in developing a European loan trading platform. Mark is a former member of the Board of Directors of the LSTA and is a graduate of Boston College.

Scott Bynum spent 7 years at Goldman Sachs where he was a Vice President in the Bank Loan Distressed Investing business. In that capacity, Scott managed research coverage for a variety of sectors and led investments across the capital structure in both public and private companies. Scott also led the hedging effort for the investing portfolio consisting of loans, bonds, equities, derivatives, trade claims, and private financings. Scott graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in engineering.

Commenting on these appointments, Steve Hickey, Partner and Chief Risk Officer, said: “I am delighted to be working with both Mark and Scott again. Mark has a truly global perspective and brings extensive management experience as well as sourcing, investing and trading expertise to our growing platform. Scott is rejoining his former colleagues and will add valuable sourcing and investment experience across the credit spectrum. I look forward to working with them as we expand the product offerings at CVC Credit Partners.”

The post CVC Credit Partners Adds Mark DeNatale, Scott Bynum appeared first on peHUB.

Nothing says geek quite like Lego. Come on — you know you secretly still love those tiny multi-colored bricks from your youth. Except now they are not just bricks, and the simple projects of our youth have become the incredibly complex projects of our children’s youth…that we still love to “help out” with.

Lego Cuusoo is a “Labs” type of project where customers can suggest future kits and if the item gets at least 10,000 supporters then Lego pledges to consider producing it. And now the company is faced with an Android project that easily passed that requirement yesterday evening.

“Bugdroid” was created by GLHTurbo using “205 pieces of (mostly) Lime Green bricks. Using the approximate price per brick of $0.15 puts this kit around $30”. He also claims the design is “not 100 percent finalized”.

This is not just a statue either — the little figure can move. It has 360 degrees of head rotation and both arms have the same range of motion. The antennae can also move across a variety of positions.

The project hit 1,714 supporters within the first 24 hours and surpassed the required 10,000 supporters yesterday. The support button is now grayed out as the projects on Lego Cuusoo close when the goal is reached. We can only wait and see if the company responds with a pre-made kit for the child in all of us.

Photo credit: GLHTurbo

G20/EUROGROUP/EURO Q4 GDP/STATE OF THE UNION/BOJ/UST, GILT AND ITALY BOND AUCTIONS/EUROPEAN EARNINGS

Hiccup. February has so far certainly brought a more sober, if healthier, perspective to world markets. Global stocks are off about half a percent this week, letting the air out gently from January’s over-inflated 5 percent surge. The focus is back on Europe, where the threat of a euro FX overshoot (in the face of LTRO paybacks and rising euro interest rates alongside stepped-up “global currency wars”) has fused with a plethora of unresolved national debt conundrums and a stream of ‘event risks’ on the region’s calendar. Euro stocks have retreated to December levels as the currency move and fresh political angst has taken the wind out of earnings and growth projections after such a steep rally over the past six months. Name anything you want – the tightening race for this month’s Italian elections and Monte di Paschi scnadal there, a delayed Cyprus bailout and elections there this month, the Irish promissory note standoff with the ECB etc etc – when things turn, they all these get amplified again even if none really are likely to be systemic threats in the way we’d become used to over the past two years. The slight backup in Italian/Spanish yields to December levels shows sentiment turns still pack a punch, the European earnings season has been mixed so far, there are political murmurs about capping the euro and the political calendar over the next six weeks is a bit of a minefield for nervy markets. All the issues still look resolvable – the tricky Irish bank debt rejig looks on the verge of a resolution; few still believe Berlusconi be the next Italian PM (only 5 percent on betting website Intrade think so, for example); and Cyprus is expected by most to get bailed out eventually. Today’s ECB will be critical to most of those issues, but next week’s euro group gets a chance to update everyone on its role in them aswell). The issue likely to gnaw deepest at investors is the regional growth outlook  and,  in that respect, the euro surge is about as welcome as a kick in the teeth at this juncture. (Euro Q4 GDPs out next week). The French clearly want to rein in the currency but don’t have the tools or the German backing. Draghi and the ECB will likely have to come to rescue again, though he will not admit to euro targeting and so may drag his feet on this one until the move starts to burn. Interesting times ahead and interesting G20 finance meeting in Moscow next week as a result.

To keep this week’s market wobble  in Europe in perspective, however Wall St still continues to hover close to record highs as the Q4 GDP shock was probably correctly dismissed as a red herring; Japan’s TOPIX is now up 35% in three months (well, about 15% in euro terms), and Shanghai is up 18% in just two months. It’s curious to note that Shanghai was the top pick of the year when Reuters polled global forecasters in December and average gains for the whole of 2013 were expected to be… 17 percent. So, stick with the growth and the currency printing regions for now it seems – even if you do get whacked on the exchange rate.

So while a market pause at least has been well warranted, the big 2013 theme of a long-term investor retreat from core debt and re-allocation toward  equity will likely prevent major corrections as long as the underlying global growth story – modest as it is – holds up and builds some steam. ANd that is a long-term story and won’t be decided over a week or even a few months. US Treasury auctions next week may be the ones to watch in that regard.

                   

GLOBAL DATA/EVENTS TO WATCH NEXT WEEK:

UK/Swiss January inflation Mon

Euro group Mon

Indonesia rate decision Tues

Europe Q4 earnings Tues: ThyssenKrupp, Barclays, Glencore etc

ECOFIN meeting Tues

EZ Dec industrial production Tues

Swedish rate decision Tues

ECB’s Draghi in Madrid Tues

US 3-year Treasury auction Tues

US Obama State of the Union Tues

Europe Q4 earnings Weds: ING, SocGen, Peugeot etc

Italy govt bond auction Weds

US Jan retail sales Weds

US 10-yr Treasury auction Weds

SKorea rate decision Thurs

Japan Q4 GDP Thurs

BOJ decision Thurs

EZ/Germany/France/Italy Q4 GDP Thurs

Europe Q4 earnings Thurs: ABB, BNP Paribas, Nestle, Rio Tinto etc

UK gilt auction Thurs

US 30-yr Treasury auction Thurs

G20 finance ministers and central bankers meet Moscow Fri/Sat

UK Jan retail sales Fri

US Jan industrial output Fri

Michael Dell and his investment firm are ponying up $750 million in cash toward the $24.4 billion purchase of Dell Inc. to help bankroll the largest private equity-backed buyout since the financial crisis, Reuters wrote. The Dell founder and CEO this week struck a deal to take private the company he created out of a college dorm room in 1984, partnering with private equity house Silver Lake and Microsoft Corp. Michael Dell will contribute $500 million of his own cash, and MSDC Management – an affiliate of his investment vehicle, MSD Capital – will contribute another $250 million, according to a company filing on Wednesday.

(Reuters) – Michael Dell and his investment firm are ponying up $750 million in cash toward the $24.4 billion purchase of Dell Inc to help bankroll the largest private equity-backed buyout since the financial crisis.

The Dell founder and CEO this week struck a deal to take private the company he created out of a college dorm room in 1984, partnering with private equity house Silver Lake and Microsoft Corp.

Michael Dell will contribute $500 million of his own cash, and MSDC Management – an affiliate of his investment vehicle, MSD Capital – will contribute another $250 million, according to a company filing on Wednesday.

Dell Inc also said it is targeting the repatriation of $7.4 billion of cash now parked abroad to help finance the deal. That may dismay some shareholders, as a hefty tax is usually levied on cash brought back from overseas.

The deal, which ends Dell’s rocky 24-year run on the Nasdaq just as the once-dominant PC maker struggles to revive growth, is contingent on approval by a majority of shareholders — excluding Michael Dell himself.

Several shareholders, including prominent investor Frederick “Shad” Rowe of Greenbrier Partners, have spoken out against the deal, protesting a lack of specifics as well as a potential conflict of interest with Michael Dell being the company’s single largest shareholder with a roughly 16 percent stake.

“Some shareholders are glad. But there are others who feel it’s a raw deal,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee, who has spoken with several Dell shareholders since the announcement but declined to provide further details.

AND SO IT BEGINS

Dell was regarded as a model of innovation as recently as the early 2000s, pioneering online ordering of custom PCs and working closely with Asian suppliers and manufacturers to assure rock-bottom production costs. But it missed the big industry shift to tablet computers, smartphones and high-powered consumer electronics such as music players and gaming consoles.

Executives said on Tuesday the company will stick to a strategy of expanding its software and services offerings for large companies, with the goal of becoming a provider of corporate computing services – like the highly profitable IBM . They played down speculation the company may spin off the low-margin PC business on which it made its name.

The company has not given many specifics on what it would do differently as a private entity, angering some shareholders who said they needed more information to determine whether the $13.65-a-share deal price – a 25 percent premium to Dell’s stock price before buyout talks leaked in January – was adequate.

On Wednesday, an individual shareholder filed the first lawsuit, in Delaware, attempting to stop the buyout. The lawsuit – which is seeking class-action status – maintains that the $13.65 per share offered sharply underestimated the company’s long-term prospects.

“By engaging in the going private transaction now – in the midst of the company’s transition from a PC vendor to full service software and enterprise solution provider – the board is allowing defendants M. Dell and Silver Lake to obtain Dell on the cheap,” read the lawsuit filed by Catherine Christner.

Dell, the world’s No. 3 personal computer maker, broke down details of the equity and debt financing secured for the buyout in Wednesday’s filing.

Silver Lake is putting up $1.4 billion, while banks including Bank of America, Barclays, Credit Suisse and RBC will provide roughly $16 billion in term loans and other forms of financing.

Wednesday’s filing also disclosed that under certain circumstances if the merger cannot be completed, Michael Dell and Silver Lake could have to pay a termination fee of up to $750 million to the company.

The post Reuters – Michael Dell Ponies Up $750M in Cash for Deal appeared first on peHUB.

Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, has acquired a 29 percent stake in Glencore-controlled zinc producer Kazzinc, the fund’s deputy head said on Thursday, without disclosing the price, Reuters reported. Glencore, which owns 69.61 percent in Kazzinc, had earlier said it intended to boost its stake in the company to 93 percent for a total of $3.2 billion, including $2.2 billion in cash and $1 billion in equity.

(Reuters) – Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, Samruk-Kazyna, has acquired a 29 percent stake in Glencore-controlled zinc producer Kazzinc, the fund’s deputy head said on Thursday, without disclosing the price.

“The Kazzinc deal is closed, and today we own 29 percent in this enterprise,” Kuandyk Bishimbayev told reporters. “These were borrowed funds,” he added without giving further detail.

He said the shares had been bought from Kazakh company Verny Capital.

Glencore, which owns 69.61 percent in Kazzinc, had earlier said it intended to boost its stake in the company to 93 percent for a total of $3.2 billion, including $2.2 billion in cash and $1 billion in equity.

The post Reuters – Kazakhstan Sovereign Wealth Fund Buys Stake in Kazzinc appeared first on peHUB.

Apollo Global Management LLC-backed payment processor Evertec Inc. filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common shares. In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based company named Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Securities as the underwriters to the offering.

(Reuters) – Apollo Global Management LLC-backed payment processor Evertec Inc filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of its common shares.

In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based company named Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Securities as the underwriters to the offering.

The company did not reveal the number of shares it planned to sell or their expected price. The company is yet to decide the stock exchange it intends to list on.

Apollo Global Management, which acquired Evertec from Puerto Rican lender Popular Inc in September 2010, owns a 51 percent stake in the company. Popular retains 49 percent and is Evertec’s largest customer.

The company processes over 1.2 billion transactions annually, and manages the electronic payment network for over 4,900 automated teller machines and over 107,000 point-of-sale payment terminals, Evertec said in the filing.

The company earned $3.8 million on revenue of $250.7 million in the nine months ended Sept. 30.

The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filing is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different. (Reporting by Ashutosh Pandey in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

The post Reuters – Apollo-Backed Evertec Files for IPO appeared first on peHUB.

Microsoft’s efforts to downplay Google’s Gmail over its own Outlook.com service are well known amongst the tech crowd. In late-November the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation claimed that a third of new Outlook.com signups were people switching from Google’s email service, and after the web giant dropped support for EAS, Microsoft quickly advised Gmail users to make the same switch. Now Microsoft is at it again, launching a new crusade titled “Don’t Get Scroogled by Gmail“.

The purpose of the campaign, according to the software firm, is to “educate consumers that Google goes through their personal emails to sell ads”. Don’t Get Scroogled by Gmail is aimed at American Gmail users and is supported by a GfK Roper study commissioned by Microsoft that found “70 percent of consumers don’t know that major email providers routinely engage in the practice of reading through their personal email to sell ads”, with a vast majority of people, 88 percent, disapproving of this practise once the information was brought to their attention.

Well fine, but as you and I may ask: Why just target Gmail? Surely Microsoft could have taken various other email services to task as well. Fact is this has nothing in common with a “for the greater good” plan, but rather is a targeted plot to save Gmail users from the “evil” Google, by getting them to switch to Outlook.com.

Microsoft’s senior director of Online Services says that: “Emails are personal — and people feel that reading through their emails to sell ads is out of bounds. We honor the privacy of our Outlook.com users, and we are concerned that Google violates that privacy every time an Outlook.com user exchanges messages with someone on Gmail. This campaign is as much about protecting Outlook.com users from Gmail as it is about making sure Gmail users know what Google’s doing.”

Microsoft has a solution to this problem, as you might imagine, and has launched a petition on Scroogled.com to help “consumers have their voices heard” and “tell Google to stop going through their emails to sell ads”. Microsoft also states that Gmail users should “prioritize their privacy by switching to Outlook.com”.

But what the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation seems to fail to realize is that being a Gmail user is both a choice and a necessity.

In my case I use various other Google services connected to my Gmail account and I’m quite sure millions of other people are in a similar position. If I were to, hypothetically, switch to Outlook.com I’d still have to use my Gmail account to log into Google+ and check for notification emails, for instance. At the same time using Gmail with all the targeted ads is a personal choice, one that I favor over Outlook.com when it comes to features and adjacent functionality.

I can also chat with my Google+ friends straight from Gmail, whereas I’d be stuck with Facebook Messenger on Outlook.com. By implication I’d be an even more active Facebook user and we all know how much Zuckerberg’s social network values our privacy. To me that’s a huge no-go.