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Jenn Allen, an ex-girlfriend of Techcrunch/Crunchfund Founder Michael Arrington, recently took to Facebook to make abuse allegations against him. While rape was not mentioned in the initial post, she later brought that up in comments on a Gawker article about her first post. Arrington, who has strongly denied any abuse or rape, has now filed a suit against Allen.

Here’s what Allen said in her initial post:

Last post on someone i’m completely over. I’ve never been lonelier in my entire life. To all my friends who loved me for who I am – thank you. Power hungry people, I loved Michael Arrington for 8+ years starting when i implemented Eurekster search at the time on Techcrunch in 2006 and throughout the years i didn’t know he cheated on me multiple times, then tells people it was me immediately after he did it. It hurts when you love someone borderline and they can’t feel anything at all for you, and threaten to murder you if you told anyone about the physical abuse – all for keeping his reputation. The emotional abuse was equally bad. On a positive note, it can’t get any worse than this and I can’t get myself of this bed.

And here’s what she said in the comments on the Gawker article:

I’ve looked inward and outward long enough to finally say something and know exactly why I had to say it. His lies, abuse, threats and what he did to a friend of mine 5 months ago was unforgivable as well. He raped her, and she told me in person he called her to confirm he did it after the fact. I’ll leave it up to her if she ever wants to report it or say anything. This madness needs to stop, or he needs to start controlling his rage and rape ‘disorder.’

Arrington remained quiet for a period, while others rushed to throw in their judgments of his character, until finally, he put out a statement saying:

There have been some extremely serious and criminal allegations against me over the last week. All of the allegations are completely untrue, and I’ve hired a law firm to represent me in the legal actions against the offending parties.

I know this isn’t, for now, much information. I will have a full and complete response to these allegations sometime later this week. My goal will be to direct as much sunlight as possible on the issues so that the absolute truth can be known and I can begin to put my life back together.

I’ve also asked my attorneys to contact appropriate law enforcement agencies about these false allegations. Given the gravity of the claims, I think it’s important that the police be involved in this now.

The whole thing had largely been ignored by the media and blogs other than a select few, until Arrington’s statement, then everyone started covering it. Likewise when former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde jumped to Arrington’s defense. She wrote:

During my five years at TechCrunch, there were no complaints or cases of sexual harassment or misconduct against Michael Arrington. If there had been any rumors of misconduct from staff or other third parties, I would have taken the matters seriously and investigated them. Many people, including Michael’s friends and girlfriends, sought me out as a confidante for disagreements or challenges they faced with Michael, so I would have been aware of rumored bad behavior.

You can read her full post here.

About a month ago, Arrington posted a detailed letter refuting the allegations. Here’s that letter:

Demand Letter to Jennifer Allen

And now this week, the lawsuit has been filed. In it, Arrington alleges that Allen felt “betrayed and slighted,” and aimed to “destroy his reputation and to deter third persons from associating with him.” The suit includes a demand for jury trial, and seeks $75,000 in damages.

Here’s the court document:

Arrington

In September 2012, Jerry “The King” Lawler, the long-time ring announcer for WWE, collapsed during a taping of Monday Night Raw. Lawler had suffered a gruesome heart attack live on national television. Following surgery, Lawler was able to return to co-hosting WWE events in late October 2012.

Now, Lawler will be returning to the ring himself, in the role that made him famous during the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

According to a Miami Herald report, Lawler has been cleared by doctors to wrestle once again, despite his heart trouble. Lawler will return to the ring for the first time since his heart attack in an Ocala, Florida show titled Support Your Troops 91, Royal Combat.

During the show, Lawler will participate in a tag team match with another former WWE wrestler, Dory Funk, Jr. The 72-year-old Funk told the Herald that he felt “privileged” to fight with Lawler once again.

(Image courtesy Smart Mark Greene at en.wikipedia)

So is the best man for the job a woman?

Research by Hay Group, culled from its 17,000-person behavioral competency database in 2012, finds that when it comes to empathy, influence, and the ability to manage conflicts in the executive level, women show more skill than men. Specifically, women are more likely to show empathy as a strength, demonstrate strong ability in conflict management, show skills in influence, and have a sense of self-awareness.

“Women often face barriers throughout their careers that require them to develop these skills to excel and advance in their organizations,” says Ruth Malloy, global managing director for leadership and talent at Hay Group. Malloy adds that the shift from hierarchy where individual achievement matters to matrix organizations where teamwork counts put a premium on the skills that women have mastered.

“Influence and conflict management are not necessarily inborn, these competencies more often are learned,” Malloy added in an email interview. Research by Hay Group found that “women scored higher on these matrix competencies compared to their male counterparts. My hypothesis is that these women who broke the glass ceiling as a population acquired and demonstrated more of these competencies to overcome obstacles to succeed.”

“I think women leaders do have to manage the female stereotype of being more relationship focused, softer or nicer,” says Malloy. “Behaviors associated with strong leadership tend to be more consistent with the masculine stereotype.”

“Women face the double-bind when taking on leadership positions. If their behavior is too feminine they are seen as too soft and incompetent, however if their behavior is too masculine they are perceived negatively.”

So why, despite these strengths, don’t we see more women in senior management? The reasons are complicated, even for ambitious, highly skilled women. One reason may be that successful women managers must demonstrate more leadership skills. According to Malloy, “Research the Hay Group conduced on outstanding women leaders found that they navigate this double-bind by using a combination of both stereotypically masculine leadership styles (e.g., being Authoritative or Visionary) and feminine leadership styles (e.g., being more Affiliative or Participative).” Men by contrast only need to demonstrate the “masculine” leadership styles.

Another challenge is how these top job openings are framed. When the role is framed less as an opportunity to demonstrate acquired expertise and more as a role that would give a high potential candidate a chance to grow and learn, “women and other diverse constituencies are more likely to be recognized” as suitable for promotion to senior positions. That’s assuming, though, that their skills and strengths have been recognized. And that’s the third obstacle: recognition for strong interpersonal skills is not straightforward. As Malloy says, “these [interpersonal] competencies are also more challenging to demonstrate.”

Finally, the single area where both female and male managers need to improve is in self-awareness. While women did outperform men on that metric, notice how low the rates for both genders are — under 20%. “If you think about most people in our day-to-day lives we tend to run on auto-pilot,” says Malloy. “We often are not mindful about our impact on others or how and where we spend our time. We can easily get caught up in the task or the day-to-day distractions” and pay less attention to ourselves and effect we may have on others.

“Improving self-awareness requires getting some source of credible feedback, and being open to that feedback,” she advises. “Find a trusted colleague or someone from your personal life who can give you constructive feedback in real-time.”

Malloy continues, “Developing self-awareness also requires reflection… Schedule time every week on your calendar to reflect on what went well, what did not, and how could you react differently in the future.”

Self-awareness is essential to effective leadership. A leader must know herself — her abilities, her shortcomings, and her opportunities for growth in order to be able to provide direction, guidance and inspiration to others.

Leadership demands strong interpersonal skills. And while research may show that women leaders have the edge in certain areas, the lesson I take from this study is that both men and women have work to do in order to become the leaders their followers need.

In the UK, Pakistan is regularly in the news, and most of it is bad. So you may find it hard to believe that anyone would work here by choice. But I do – and I really enjoy it! Pakistan is a fascinating country with great people, stunning landscapes, and real potential for a brighter future. It’s a complex environment with many deep rooted challenges, but if you think that Pakistan is all about bad news, you’d be surprised by some of what’s going on here.

Let’s start with the big picture – which is certainly daunting. More than 60 million people in Pakistan live on around 30p a day; nearly one in ten of the world’s out-of-school children live in Pakistan; and one in eleven children dies before their fifth birthday. The population is growing by 3 million every year and is set to rise by 50% in less than 40 years. Decades of conflict, instability, weak governance and corruption have left the state unable to deliver the services that people need.

Set against this, some things are changing – and fast. After 60 years of democratic instability, national elections this weekend will mark the first ever democratic transition from one civilian government to another. Women are gaining a voice and rights. Landmark legislation passed last year finally provides legal protection against violence, and more women will vote in this weekend’s elections than ever before – one million of them thanks to support from the UK. The media – liberalised in the mid-2000s – is flourishing, and new media and new technologies are propelling changes to banking, industry, communications, and politics which have been visible even in the two short years that I’ve been working here. A full 50% of Pakistanis now have access to a mobile phone. And get this – Pakistan has produced two of the world’s top five most popular blackberry apps.

So the challenges are enormous, but I think there are important reasons for hope, and our support is helping to make a difference. I manage DFID’s health and education work here and over the coming years we’re aiming to transform education and deliver real improvements in health for poor people, especially women and girls. I’m mostly office based in Islamabad, but the best part of my job is getting out to see what’s happening on the ground, where we’re making progress and what still needs to be done.

For example, last Friday I went to visit some schools in central Punjab. The second one was most interesting. I walked into the headmistress’ office to find her talking sixteen to the dozen to my colleague Taimoor. Without pausing for breath she recounted how hard it was trying to get her teachers to turn up every day. She would phone, cajole, scold them. She was turning down their requests for days off. But (and here she mellowed) it was working. The teachers were turning up and as a result things had improved at the school.

This was the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School in warm and dusty Jhelum. Built in 1880, it was an impressive red brick building. On the wall beside me a big banner announced the importance of the ‘Punjab Schools Reform Roadmap’. This is what I went to explore – I wanted to know whether the UK’s support for the Roadmap was really helping to improve things in schools.

Two years ago, Mrs Cheema’s school, like most in Punjab saw around 25% of teachers fail to turn up to work on any given day. Without teachers to teach them, many of the 1700 female students would stop turning up too. Now, she told us, things were changing.

Mrs Cheema’s school is part of the turn-around happening in 60,000 schools across Punjab. Since the UK started work with the Punjab Government on the Roadmap in 2011, 81,000 more teachers have been employed in state schools. By tackling absenteeism, around 20,000 more teachers are in classrooms teaching kids each day. We’re helping to improve the quality of teaching by giving teachers lesson plans which guide them through what they need to teach, lesson by lesson. And this year, for the first time, every child in Punjab is being given a textbook for English, Maths and Urdu – a big step forward. The statistics speak for themselves, but I wanted to cross-check them against what was happening at local level.

As we walked around the school, Mrs Cheema complained that she got little recognition for all her work ensuring her teachers were in school. She, and thousands of other head-teachers across Punjab are the key to making things better. I thought she had a really good point, and vowed to raise this with the Secretary in charge of Punjab’s schools when I next met him.

So some things are changing – and fast. But it’s only the start. There are around 20 million kids in school in Punjab, but over 3 million don’t yet go to school at primary level alone. Transforming education is the focus of my work here. DFID invests in a range of education programmes across Pakistan. As a result some 4 million children in primary school will benefit from UK aid by 2015. We are helping them learn better and for longer. There are signs that all the hard work is beginning to pay off. It’s early days – to transform a system of 60,000 schools will take time – but it’s starting to happen. That’s why I’m here. And that’s why, despite all the challenges, and despite all the bad news, I’m hopeful.

I’ll put up another blog soon to keep you posted on progress, including what happens this weekend, when I’ll be out and about monitoring Pakistan’s historic elections.

Thomas H. Lee Partners and an affiliate of Goldman, Sachs & Co. have agreed to buy CTI Foods. Littlejohn & Co. is the seller. Financial terms weren’t announced. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs provided commitments for the debt financing. CTI, which has corporate offices in Fort Worth, Texas and Wilder, Idaho, provides custom food solutions to major chain restaurants in North America. Goldman provided financial advice to THL and Goldman.

PRESS RELEASE

Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (“THL”), a leading private equity firm, and an affiliate of Goldman, Sachs & Co. (“Goldman Sachs”), today announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which THL and Goldman Sachs will acquire CTI Foods, (“CTI”) from Littlejohn & Co., LLC.
With corporate offices in Fort Worth, Texas and Wilder, Idaho, CTI is a leading independent provider of custom food solutions to major chain restaurants in North America. Products that the Company supplies include value-added proteins, soups and dressings. With a focus on flavor and menu innovation, CTI partners with its clients to create custom culinary products that provide its customers a competitive edge. CTI has well-established and long-standing relationships with major quick service and casual dining chains in the U.S. and has a strong track record of innovation. CTI Foods has a national footprint, with seven state-of-the-art food processing facilities located in Idaho, California, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Texas.
“We at CTI Foods are excited to announce this partnership with THL and Goldman Sachs. In the past years, CTI has steadily expanded through organic growth, targeted and strategic acquisitions, and a commitment to R&D and innovation. The company has a compelling growth path and a well-defined offering of value-added food products. As we look to the next phase of our growth, we couldn’t be more pleased to be partnering with THL and Goldman Sachs, investors who share our commitment to our customers, and bring exceptional financial and industry expertise that will help propel us to the next level,” said Robert (“Bobby”) Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer of CTI.
“Bobby and the team at CTI Foods have created an outstanding company with a well-deserved reputation for quality, innovation, and customer service. CTI has demonstrated a track record of robust growth and has consistently developed strong partnerships with its customers. We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to invest in the Company and partner with its first class management team and employees,” said Jeff Swenson, Managing Director at THL.
“CTI is a leader in the custom food solutions industry and management has done an excellent job accelerating its growth trajectory,” said Nicole Agnew, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. “We are excited to bring additional support and resources to position the Company to continue its successful development.”
Goldman, Sachs & Co. acted as Financial Advisor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges acted as Legal Advisor to THL and Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley acted as Financial Advisor and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher acted as Legal Advisor to Littlejohn and CTI. Affiliates of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs provided commitments for the debt financing for the transaction.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.
About Thomas H. Lee Partners
Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (“THL”) is one of the world’s oldest and most experienced private equity firms. The firm invests in growth-oriented global businesses, headquartered principally in North America, across three broad sectors: Consumer & Healthcare, Media & Information Services and Business & Financial Services. THL’s team of investment and operating professionals partner with portfolio company management teams to identify and implement business process improvements that accelerate sustainable revenue and profit growth. Since its founding in 1974, THL has raised approximately $20 billion of equity capital and invested in more than 100 businesses with an aggregate purchase price of more than $150 billion. THL strives to build great companies of lasting value and generate superior investment returns. For more information, please visit www.thl.com.
About Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world. For more information on Goldman Sachs, please visit www.gs.com.

The post THL, Goldman to Buy CTI Foods appeared first on peHUB.

Littlejohn & Co. has agreed to sell CTI Foods. Neither financial terms nor the buyer were announced. CTI provides custom food solutions to major chain restaurants in North America. Morgan Stanley advised CTI.

PRESS RELEASE
Littlejohn & Co., LLC, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, CT, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell CTI Foods, a leading provider of custom food solutions to major chain restaurants in North America.  The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.

Littlejohn acquired CTI Foods in 2010 and shortly thereafter appointed Robert (“Bobby”) Horowitz as the new CEO of the business.  Littlejohn, together with the Company’s management team, expanded the company into a leading national provider of custom, value-added food products.  During Littlejohn’s ownership, CTI built a new state-of-the-art soup plant and R&D facility, completed two acquisitions and developed several major new accounts that diversified its customer base.

“This successful transaction is the culmination of our collaboration with a management team that flawlessly executed on a number of strategic growth initiatives.  The result is a much stronger company in terms of its customer base, product offerings, profitability, and safety,” said Steven G. Raich, a Managing Director at Littlejohn.  Michael Kaplan, also a Littlejohn Managing Director, added, “The business is well positioned for continued growth and we are confident that the new ownership will continue to support the Company’s development.”

Mr. Horowitz, said, “Littlejohn was instrumental in helping us capitalize on a number of opportunities to organically grow the business, as well as complete strategic acquisitions to build for the future.  We look forward to working with our new partners to build on these and other initiatives to continue the company’s growth.”
Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to CTI Foods in connection with the transaction.

About Littlejohn & Co., LLC
Littlejohn & Co. is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based private equity and distressed securities firm investing in middle-market companies that are undergoing a fundamental change in capital structure, strategy, operations or growth that can benefit from its operational and strategic approach.  The firm is currently investing from Littlejohn Fund IV, L.P., which has over $1.3 billion in capital commitments. For more information, visit www.littlejohnllc.com.

The post Littlejohn Inks sale of CTI Foods appeared first on peHUB.

Following Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of popular photo-sharing service Instagram, the company is reportedly now considering another billion-dollar deal. According to Israel-based newspaper Calcalist, Facebook is in the late stages of acquisition talks with Israeli social navigation service Waze and the deal could be worth between $800 million and $1 billion. The talks reportedly began six months ago and due diligence is now underway. TechCrunch previously reported that Apple was in talks to acquire Waze, but then later debunked its own report in a subsequent post.

World economies are unstable, making it increasingly difficult to lead a business over the past few years. The uncertainty that business leaders face today is palpable. Some of the news is good, some is bad, but it is altogether uncertain and seemingly random. On one hand, there are wars, terror, market crashes, bailouts, budget crises, cliffs, and sequesters. Yet we also have higher corporate profits, positive consumer sentiment, and low interest rates. This is part of the reason that the stock market, which used to move a fraction of a percent each day, now shifts in record swings with increasing volume. Yet as the global recession continues into its fifth year, there are signs that businesses are adapting.

The brain doesn’t like volatility, so it struggles to find a new “normal.” Often, after years of abuse, victims no longer recognize that they are being abused. The brain normalizes the abuse. An extreme version of this is Stockholm syndrome, so named after a Swedish bank robbery in 1973, in which after only five days of being held hostage, the victims identified with and defended their captors. On a smaller scale, the brain treats any kind of volatility as stress. In fact, the brain is well-equipped to manage short-term stress: it releases adrenaline, raises the heart rate, and makes us more alert so we can handle whatever situation is causing the stress. Long-term, however, the brain isn’t made to cope with stress. Long term stress causes fatigue, irrational behavior, and myriad physical ailments. In order to keep the mind and body safe from these effects, the brain attempts to normalize any kind of long-term stress it encounters.

Volatility and stress are as bad for business as they are for the brain. Business owners often pull back when faced with challenges like political instability, market inconsistency, and fluctuating consumer confidence. That means that they simply avoid making important changes in hopes of receiving more consistent information down the road. Over time, however, businesses become accustomed to bad news and adjust: Stockholm Syndrome Incorporated.

Today, the environment in which businesses must operate has become consistently inconsistent and predictably unpredictable.

We are starting to see how businesses are adjusting to this tumultuous business and economic climate. Last month in the United States, the “sequester” took effect, cutting $85 billion from defense, mental health programs, education, and a dozen other government programs. The day prior to the deadline, the Senate voted on each party’s plan to avert the crisis, but from their inception, neither bill had any chance of passing. The Democrats blamed the Republicans; the Republicans blamed the President. It was the latest headline with the same running theme: impending economic crisis and a federal government that is unable or unwilling to stave it off. This is a big deal and the response should have been palpable for the markets, businesses, and individuals. The actual response: nothing. The stock market continued its climb, business sentiment remained at the same level, consumer spending was constant.

That reaction was in clear contrast to the reaction of businesses and the markets in 2011, when the debt ceiling debacle actually caused markets to dip significantly. This past month we saw what has been described as “a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad jobs report.” A few years ago, that also would have thrown the world markets into a tailspin — but not this time. And it is not just the negative news that is being ignored: strong corporate earnings are evoking little more than positive sentiment from news anchors desperate for a story.

The world stage is no more stable than the domestic economy. Greece and Italy are broke, the UK’s debt rating has been downgraded, and many other European countries are wobbling. Most recently, the tiny nation of Cyprus asked for a bailout from the European Union, which was countered with the condition that Cyprus must take cash from depositor accounts held in Cypriot banks. This outlandish situation could cause a long-term banking collapse, but even this incident was largely ignored by the markets and businesses alike.

Business owners have an increasingly positive outlook despite our political and economic instability. They have come to accept variability and are becoming more immune to the economic drama unfolding across the world. Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. and Pepperdine University’s annual Economic Forecast Survey showed that 70% of small and mid-sized business owners in the United States felt as strong or more so about their business growth prospects in 2013 than they did in 2012. Business owners are feeling even more confident about their personal prospects — a majority expects to make more money this year than they did in 2012. That’s an optimistic outlook, particularly given that 61% reported making less money in 2012 than they did in 2011.

This is not to say that instability is not a concern. The same survey found that 62% of business owners think that political turmoil is negatively impacting their ability to hire. Similarly, in a recent Newtek survey, 60 percent of small business owners reported that Washington’s uncertainty is the factor that has most negatively affected business. But the relative health of the markets, and the fact that business owners are optimistic and confident in their futures, shows that unpredictability has become all too predictable.

We are stuck in an economic tunnel: there is no light and no end in sight, but at least we are getting used to the dark.

Bringing big data into the bedroom may not sound the least bit romantic. But if you’re trying to have a baby, it could put you on a faster track to getting there.

Or at least that’s the premise behind Ovuline, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that helps women track a range of health indicators to predict the days they’re most fertile.

Even before the Quantified Self movement became a thing, healthcare providers, health sites and iPhone apps encouraged women to track signals like their basal body temperature, cervical fluid, emotions and ovulation test results to figure out when they might ovulate.

But while most apps and traditional pen and paper methods typically rely on historical cycles to pinpoint a woman’s fertile window, Ovuline says it uses machine learning to more precisely predict ovulation.

“Now, it’s all based on what happened in the past. The problem is that a lot of people have irregular cycles,” said CEO and co-founder Paris Wallace. “We’ve created the first pro-active ovulation calculator. … We’re understanding your cycle based on information you couldn’t otherwise glean yourself.”

The startup, which first debuted its app in September, said it’s been used by about 55,000 women. Now that its algorithms have learned from more than 2.5 million data points (instead of the 10,000 data points it started with), Ovuline is on Thursday taking its product of beta and launching with a more robust service.

Like plenty of other fertility-tracking apps on the market, Ovuline starts by helping women track their health indicators. But it analyzes an individual user’s data within the greater universe of its entire database and clinical guidelines to identify meaningful correlations and advise her when she’s approaching ovulation. According to the company, its service can help women get pregnant three times faster than the national average (which is four to six months).

Its newest version integrates with wearable fitness trackers like Fitbit devices (see disclosure), provides push notifications with personalized advice and lets women easily view an entire timeline of their data. If a user frequently reports feeling “stressed,” the app might send a note alerting her to the negative fertility consequences of excess levels of stress, or if she records lower than normal hours of sleep, she might receive messages on how low sleep levels can result in fertility-impeding hormones.

Enthusiastic Quantified Selfers — who carefully log and analyze their health data to uncover helpful insights — tend to be men. But using machine learning to make sense of women’s personal health data points the way to a future of data-driven medicine and shows the meaningful application of health-tracking activities that some currently see as mere naval-gazing.

Ovuline offers a free app that predicts ovulation, but premium versions (which cost up to $49.99) give women access to fertility experts and personal advice, the option to share data with partners and doctors and other features. Later this year, the company plans to roll out another application for pregnant women that similarly helps them track symptoms and lets them see how common or rare their experiences are relative to other users.

Disclosure: Fitbit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

Image by Valentyn Volkov via Shutterstock.

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• The quantified self: hacking the body for better health
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Coda Holdings Inc., an electric car company in Los Angeles, California, has filed for bankruptcy after a 4-year start-up and after selling less than 100 electric cars.[i] The Coda Car, an all-electric four-door sedan, has an EPA-rated battery …

Sony on Thursday posted its full-year financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2013. The struggling Japan-based consumer electronics giant managed to eke out its first full-year profit in five years, posting net income of 43 billion yen, or approximately $458 million for fiscal 2012. Smartphone sales into channels came in at 33 million units while LCD TV sales fell 38% to 13.5 million units. Combined sales of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 fell to 16.5 million units in fiscal 2013, and Sony shipped a total of 7 million handheld Vita consoles. In fiscal 2013, Sony expects TV sales to rebound to 16 million units while smartphone shipments grow 27% to 42 million handsets.

EuNetworks Group has secured a debt funding commitment with Barclays Private Credit Partners Fund L.P. EuNetworks said €45 million is available and includes €30 million commitment to be used primarily for incremental organic and inorganic growth. Barclays Private Credit Partners has also retained an option to participate any future equity fundraisings by euNetworks. London-based euNetworks is a bandwidth infrastructure provider.

PRESS RELEASE

euNetworks Group Limited (SGX: H23.SI), today announced that it has entered into a term loan facilities agreement with Barclays Private Credit Partners Fund L.P.

Terms and conditions for the committed term loan facility including interest rate, total leverage incurrence test and delayed draw feature are favourable to market.

The term loan may be expanded to €45 million as organic or inorganic growth opportunities materialise. In addition, Barclays Private Credit Partners have reflected their commitment to euNetworks’ business by retaining an option to participate in any equity fundraising if euNetworks elects to pursue such an action in the future.

“We expect to utilise this funding from our new partner to deliver more bandwidth infrastructure services to our growing in-place customers and new customers,” said Brady Rafuse, Chief Executive Officer of euNetworks. “This is an exciting time for our business, and as ever, we are focused on delivering our targets for further scale.”

About euNetworks

euNetworks Group Limited (SGX: H23:SI) is a bandwidth infrastructure provider, owning and operating 13 fibre based metropolitan networks across Europe connected with a high capacity intercity backbone covering 38 cities in 9 countries. The Company offers a portfolio of metropolitan and long haul services including Colocation, Dark Fibre, Metro Wavelengths, Wavelengths, Ethernet, and Internet. Enterprise and carrier customers benefit from euNetworks’ unique inventory of fibre and duct based assets that are tailored to fulfil their high bandwidth needs.

euNetworks Group Limited is headquartered in London and publicly listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. For further information please visit www.eunetworks.com.

The post euNetworks in Debt Funding Commitment with Barclays Private Credit Partners appeared first on peHUB.

Connecting devices to the internet helps solve the problem of turning on your lights without ever leaving your chair, but a 1980s device called The Clapper did the same thing. To really bring connected devices into the future people are using them to build services. That’s fun, but it gets even better when you add machine learning to the data those devices collect.

That’s what ThingWorx did when it signed a partnership with Jeff Hawkin’s hot data startup Numenta. Hawkins who was the creator of the Palm Pilot, has tried to build out a series of algorithms that look at data in the manner a human mind does to make predictions. But it can process a lot more data than a human.

In this week’s podcast Russ Fadel, CEO of ThingWorx, talks about the partnership and how predictive intelligence plus connected sensors are changing farming and improving medical care.

(Download the Internet of Things Show)

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Show notes:
Host: Stacey Higginbotham
Guest: Russ Fadel, CEO of ThingWorx

• How farmers are using the internet of things to improve their crops.
• Adding more intelligence to connected devices means they can tell you what to do (and eventually those sensors may tell a robot what to do).
• Does a secure internet of things mean a closed system?

PREVIOUS IoT PODCASTS:

Podcast: Power to the people — and all their connected devices

What you really need to know before buying connected devices

How the internet of things may make parents less worried but more neurotic

Shark Week for the internet of things

What the Internet of Things can learn from Minecraft and Lemmings

Podcast: How IBM uses chaos theory, data and the internet of things to fix traffic

Electric Imp aims to make the Internet of Things devilishly simple

When devices can talk, will they conspire against you?

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Private equity investor Oaktree is in advanced talks to merge its German office real estate unit Acorn with competitor Prime Office, Reuters is reporting.

(Reuters) – Private equity investor Oaktree is in advanced talks to merge its German office real estate unit Acorn with competitor Prime Office, Prime Office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The combined companies would be listed and hold assets worth 2.3 billion euros, Prime Office said, adding the aim was to reach an agreement by the European summer.

Oaktree, which already holds 8.4 percent in Prime Office, would become the majority shareholder in the company after the merger. The deal would allow Oaktree to attract new investors for the merged company and, by floating on the stock exchange, give it the option of exiting the investment later.

“Should the talks progress positively, the companies plan to take the necessary steps that are required for a merger including the determination of the merger exchange ratio and the appointment of the merger auditor,” the statement said.

Prime Office’s share rose 15.7 percent to 3.70 euros at 0940 BST on Wednesday.

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Facebook Inc is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze for $800 million to $1 billion, business daily Calcalist reported on Thursday.

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze for $800 million to $1 billion, business daily Calcalist reported on Thursday.

Due diligence is underway after a term sheet was signed, Calcalist said, adding that talks began six months ago.
Waze uses satellite signals from members’ smartphones to generate maps and traffic data, which it then shares with other users, offering real-time traffic info.

Officials at Waze declined to comment on the report.

Waze and Facebook partnered in October 2012 when Waze released its updated version that allows users to share their drive with their Facebook friends.

This would be Facebook’s third acquisition in Israel. It bought Snaptu in 2011 for $70 million and Face.com in 2012 for $60 million.

In the last year, Waze tripled its user base to 45 million and in March alone, 1.5 million users downloaded the free mobile navigation app, Calcalist said.

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Today, gaming console and software company OUYA announced that they have closed a $15 million round led by Kleiner Perkins, and with participation from the Mayfield Fund, NVIDIA, Shasta Ventures and Ocean Partners. This marks one of the largest institutional investments to go to a project that had its humble beginnings on Kickstarter.

OUYA is a company that launched back in 2012 on Kickstarter under the guiding hands of Julie Uhrman, a video game industry veteran who believes that gaming should be affordable and enjoyable for everyone. She and the team developed a $99 Android gaming console, which hooks into the TV and comes with automatic access to free-to-try games. It launched on the crowdfunding site to much fanfare, scoring $8.6 million in funding, which ends up being around 9x more than OUYA asked.

Along with the $15 million round, which brings OUYA’s total amount of funding to $23.5 million, the company will also be bringing KPCB General Partner Bing Gordon on to the board of directors. Gordon brings with him years of experience from Electronic Arts.

Here’s what he had to say about the funding:

OUYA’s open source platform creates a new world of opportunity for established and emerging independent game creators and gamers alike. There are some types of games that can only be experienced on a TV, and OUYA is squarely focused on bringing back the living room gaming experience. OUYA will allow game developers to unleash their most creative ideas and satisfy gamers craving a new kind of experience.

The OUYA hardware has proven its spot in the market with the successful Kickstarter project, followed by an institutional investment led by a firm such as KPCB. “The message is clear: people want OUYA,” said Uhrman.

But the same story rings true for software, as the company has seen over 12,000 developers sign up for the platform to build games and monetize them in any way they’d like. This is up from 8,000 developer signups in March.

And if that weren’t enough, OUYA has been picked up by major retailers like GameStop, Best Buy and Amazon, with availability originally intended to begin June 4. OUYA is pushing that back to June 25, however, announcing the delay today as a result of a desire to be able to meet initial demand.

Clearly, the affordable gaming console speaks to people. But is it enough to make OUYA profitable? In an interview with TechCrunch, Uhrman explained that OUYA essentially breaks even on the hardware from the $99 gaming console, and that all games will be free-to-try. Curious if that was sustainable, we asked Uhrman if free-to-try would always be the case with OUYA games.

“Free to try is a core tenant of OUYA,” said Uhrman. “We wanted a gaming experience for the television that’s inexpensive to get into. Developers monetize however they’d like to, which is why we have games with unlockable demoes inside a fully paid version, or micro-transactions, and even a donation based game. I’m looking forward to the first episodic, subscription-based game,” she said.

According to Uhrman, the latest round from KPCB and friends will go toward further supporting game developers and development, bringing in exclusive and unique OUYA content, and meeting the demand seen from all parts of the world, including Japan, Brazil, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

GoodData and Box have launched the GoodBox Bash™, a cloud-based app that allows Box customers to process data about the effectiveness of highly-collaborative teams. Headquartered in Los Altos, CA, Box is backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Emergence Capital Partners, General Atlantic, Meritech Capital Partners, NEA, Scale Venture Partners and U.S. Venture Partners. GoodData is headquartered in San Francisco and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners, Next World Capital, Tenaya Capital and Windcrest Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

GoodData® and Box® today introduced the GoodBox Bash™, a cloud-based app that allows Box customers to process, view and analyze key business data about the effectiveness of highly-collaborative teams. Available immediately, GoodBox provides critical insights companies need to optimize efficiency and strategic decision-making across organizations.
“Enterprises are simultaneously facing a deluge of data and a deficit of real, actionable intelligence about how information is shared and used to drive their business,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “That lack of understanding leads to risk and lost productivity. The combination of GoodData and Box solves this challenge by giving IT an unprecedented amount of visibility and real-time analytics around their business content. It’s the foundation for a more secure, efficient and intelligent enterprise.”
Hundreds of thousands of organizations already use Box to collaborate more efficiently and securely in the cloud. Box gives businesses the ability to store, manage and securely share critical business content across departments and geographies, enabling a better way to get work done. The GoodBox Bash from GoodData gives Box customers a visually intuitive data-analysis app that helps them manage content using best practices, KPIs and dashboards.
“We live in a new age of enterprise software — pioneered by companies like Box and GoodData,” said Roman Stanek, CEO and founder of GoodData. “Customers are no longer tied to old-fashioned, inbred software that locks them into rigid and costly technologies. In today’s cloud economy, organizations can finally have the freedom to combine apps in fascinating new ways to satisfy changing business needs.”
GoodBox provides the following key business benefits:
Content Security and Monitoring.
GoodBox brings a new level of security and monitoring to customers’ Box accounts. With customizable alerting and monitoring, IT departments can easily track individual usage and patterns across the enterprise. Powerful visualizations compare current usage against trends, finding emerging risks like failed login attempts from unknown IP addresses, or unusually large content downloads. These capabilities result in improved information security for critical content across every department in an enterprise.
Adoption and Engagement.
With GoodBox, customers can analyze and fine-tune the use of cloud collaboration across their business. GoodBox includes out-of-the-box KPIs, reports and dashboards to help businesses of all sizes measure and understand employee engagement and adoption. By mapping the behavior of highly effective teams, customers can identify teams with lower levels of engagement, accurately assess the success of a deployment and build a blueprint for future success. By tying Box usage to other business KPIs tracked in GoodData, users can build more efficient processes and practices.
Monetize Content.
GoodBox enables executives to easily measure the value and effectiveness of content and identify which collateral has the greatest impact on their business. By tracking information shared by sales and marketing, business leaders can identify behavior common to high-performing individuals, and apply the insights to optimize their entire team. GoodBox is customizable and extensible, enabling the integration of critical systems such as CRM, HRMS and ERP. This provides a deep lens into the value of an organization’s content.
“Moving forward we have a strong focus on the customer adoption of the systems and solutions that Corporate IT provides to the business,” said Damian Fasciani, Technology Services Manager at REA Group. “GoodBox has the potential to allow us to measure and manage how content management is growing and being utilised across all lines of business. Measuring the impact of these tools is critical in defining how we are driving productivity through technology. Eventually, we expect to be able to provide predictive solutions based on the information GoodBox is gathering for us.”
For more information or to sign up for GoodBox, contact GoodData.
About Box
Founded in 2005, Box provides a secure content sharing platform that both users and IT love and adopt. Content on Box can be shared internally and externally, accessed through iPad, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone applications, among others, and extended to partner applications such as Google Apps, NetSuite and Salesforce. Today, more than 15 million people and 150,000 businesses worldwide use Box. Headquartered in Los Altos, CA, Box is privately held and backed by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Emergence Capital Partners, General Atlantic, Meritech Capital Partners, NEA, Scale Venture Partners, and U.S. Venture Partners, and strategic investors salesforce.com and SAP. To learn more about Box, visit www.box.com.
About GoodData
GoodData provides a cloud-based platform and apps that enable more than 10,000 global businesses to monetize big data. GoodData is headquartered in San Francisco and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners, Next World Capital, Tenaya Capital and Windcrest Partners. For more information, read our blog, visit our website and follow @gooddata on Twitter.
©2013 GoodData Corporation. All rights reserved. GoodData, Bash, GoodBox, GoodBox Bash, and others are trademarks of GoodData Corporation in the United States and other jurisdictions. Other names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Box and the Box logo are including without limitation, either trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of Box, Inc.
Contact Information
Media Contact for Box
Michael Moeschler
email: Email Contact
phone: 650-209-3465

Media Contact for GoodData
Ana Andreescu
email: Email Contact
phone: 415-200-0783

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Drug researcher Quintiles Transnational Holdings raised a more-than planned $947 million in its IPO, the latest listing from a private equity-backed company, writes Reuters. Strong investor demand for the deal helped Quintiles, which is backed by Bain Capital and TPG Capital, price 20 percent more shares than expected at the top end of the range and pushed up pricing a day early, writes Reuters.

Reuters – Drug researcher Quintiles Transnational Holdings raised a more-than planned $947 million in its IPO, the latest listing from a private equity-backed company as record highs for U.S. stocks encourage more exits from investments.

Strong investor demand for the deal helped Quintiles, which is backed by Bain Capital LLC and TPG Capital LP, price 20 percent more shares than expected at the top end of the range and pushed up pricing a day early, according to people familiar with the deal.

Other public floats from private equity-backed companies this year have included Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd , SeaWorld Entertainment Inc, Pinnacle Foods Inc and Intelsat SA.

The Durham, North Carolina-based conductor of clinical trials is also the largest of eleven IPOs pricing this week, which could mark the highest weekly IPO volume since late 2007, according to market data firm Ipreo.

It priced 23.7 million shares at $40, compared with its plan to price 19.7 million shares at $36 to $40.

Other deals which have priced this week include residential mortgage company PennyMac Financial Services Inc and biotech company Receptos Inc.

Bain and TPG became the lead investors in Quintiles in January 2008 after One Equity Partners sold its stake in the company. Britain’s 3i Group Plc and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings are also investors in Quintiles.

Quintiles sold 13.1 million shares in the IPO. The company’s founder and executive chairman Dennis Gillings and the private equity firms sold the remaining 10.6 million shares.

It will use IPO proceeds to pay outstanding debt, to terminate a management agreement with its private equity sponsors and for general corporate purposes.

Quintiles generated adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $177.5 million on revenue of $4.9 billion in the year ended Dec. 31, 2012.

The company’s rivals include Covance Inc, ICON and Parexel International, according to Morningstar.

Morgan Stanley, Barclays and JPMorgan are the lead underwriters on the offering.

Quintiles will list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol Q.

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Bank of America has refinanced The FNA Group. Livingstone acted as the exclusive financial advisor to FNA. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

Livingstone, the leading independent, international investment banking firm, is pleased to announce the successful refinancing of The FNA Group, Inc. (“FNA” or the “Company”) by Bank of America. The refinancing approximately doubles FNA’s borrowing capacity and provides the Company with the capital it needs to not only execute its core business plan but also aggressively evaluate product line expansion and other strategic growth opportunities. Livingstone acted as the exclusive financial advisor to FNA. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, FNA is North America’s leading manufacturer of pressure washers, pumps, hoses, and replacement parts to leading retailers throughout the United States. The Company’s portfolio of owned and licensed brands include DEWALT®, BLACK & DECKER®, SIMPSON®, DELCO®, POWERWASHER®, TASKMASTER® and MONSTER HOSE.
“We are thrilled with the opportunity to forge a partnership with Bank of America – a group that clearly articulated their understanding of our business from day one. With Bank of America’s financial wherewithal and the Company’s growth plan and vision, we look forward to a very long and prosperous relationship,” said Gus Alexander, Founder, CEO and President of FNA. “The refinancing process could not have gone smoother. The Livingstone team outlined a game plan at the onset of our process and executed the plan with precision.”
Livingstone Managing Director Joseph Greenwood added, “Working with a family-owned business like FNA it was imperative that we balanced not only the immediate needs of the Company but also the right long-term fit. Livingstone has been a trusted advisor to FNA for several years and we look forward to working with them as they accelerate into the next phase of their plan.”
“FNA follows on the heels of similar Livingstone capital raising transactions, with six completions in the last 12 months. Our ability to access the debt markets for our clients has resulted in several successful closings where the terms and structure have surpassed our client’s expectations,” commented Livingstone Debt Capital Markets Director Tom Lesch.

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Century Park Capital Partners has added three professionals to assist the firm with its investment and deal origination efforts. Zack Harrison has joined as an analyst; Pierce Coticchia as a business development associate and Rachel Itwaru as a marketing associate.

PRESS RELEASE

We continue to add depth to our team with the recent addition of three professionals to assist the firm with its investment and deal origination efforts.

We proudly welcome the following new members to our team:

Zack Harrison
Analyst

Zack assists with due diligence and execution growth equity and buyout transactions. He also monitors the performance of portfolio companies. Prior to joining Century Park, Zack was an Analyst at UBS Securities’ Technology Invesment Banking Group in San Francisco covering the software, hardware, internet and semiconductor industries.

Zack earned a B.S. degree in Accounting from Brigham Young University.

Pierce Coticchia
Business Development Associate

Pierce’s primarily responsibilities include deal origination and qualification. Prior to joining Century Park, Pierce was a Senior Associate with Revolution Capital Group, a Los Angeles based private equity firm.

Pierce earned a B.B.A. degree in Finance with a minor in Italian from the University of Notre Dame.

Rachel Itwaru
Marketing Associate

Rachel’s primary responsibilities include marketing and deal origination. Prior to joining Century Park, Rachel was an Analyst with Capcelona Advisors, a Los Angeles based private equity firm.

Rachel earned a B.A. degree in Anthropology from Harvard College.

Revenue:
$20-$100 million

EBITDA:
$4-$15 million

Add-on Acquisitions:
No size requirements

Typical investment size:
$10-$40 million

Investment Type:
Minority or Control

LOS ANGELES OFFICE

Martin Sarafa
Paul Wolf
Guy Zaczepinski
Steven Trembley
Mark Etchin
Tony Trevino
Zack Harrison
Pierce Coticchia
Rachel Itwaru

MENLO PARK OFFICE

Chip Roellig

2101 Rosecrans Avenue
Suite 4275
El Segundo, CA 90245
Phone: (310) 867-2210
Fax: (310) 867-2212

750 Menlo Avenue
Suite 200
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Phone: (650) 324-1956
Fax: (650) 322-1550

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