Top promising industries and companies. Only 6 Russian

A hundred of the most promising companies in developing countries are prepared to become transnational and change the existing order in the economy, only 6 Russian, and all of them raw - Rusal, Norilsk Nickel, Severstal, Lukoil, Gazprom and Evraz . But our company's most aggressive: for 2000-2010, 22% of all cross-border mergers, acquisitions accounted for one hundred Russian sixes.


Clean tech is the most promising industrie raised $7.8B in VC funding in 2010.
Stats for the year show smaller amounts per deal, but record-high number of deals.

The siren song to CEO’s who aren’t technical

CEO’s face the “rewrite” problem at least once in their tenure. If they’re an operating exec brought in to replace a founding technical CEO, then it looks like an easy decision – just listen to your engineering VP compare the schedule for a rewrite (short) against the schedule of adapting the old code to the new purpose (long.) In reality this is a fools choice. The engineering team may know the difficulty and problems adapting the old code, but has no idea what difficulties and problems it will face writing a new code base.

A CEO who had lived through a debacle of a rewrite or understood the complexity of the code would know that with the original engineering team no longer there, the odds of making the old mistakes over again are high. Add to that introducing new mistakes that weren’t there the first time, Murphy’s law says that unbridled optimism will likely turn the 1-year rewrite into a multi-year project.

My observation was that the CEO and VP of Engineering were confusing cause and effect. The customers aren’t asking for new code. They are asking for new features and platforms –now. Customers couldn’t care less whether it was delivered via spaghetti code, alien spacecraft or a completely new product. While the code rewrite is going on, competitors who aren’t enamored with architectural purity will be adding features, platforms, customers and market share. The difference between being able to add them now versus a year or more in the future might be the difference between growing revenue and going out of business.

Who wants to work on the old product

Perhaps the most dangerous side-effect of embarking on a code rewrite is that the decision condemns the old code before a viable alternative exists. Who is going to want to work on the old code with all its problems when the VP Engineering and CEO have declared the new code to be the future of the company? The old code is as good as dead the moment management introduces the word “rewrite.” As a consequence, the CEO has no fallback. If the VP Engineering’s schedule ends up taking four years instead of one year, there is no way to make incremental progress on the new features during that time.Dealmakers expect merger and acquisition activity to pick up in the first six months of 2010, with manufacturing, health care and financial services positioned to benefit most in the near term, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) and Thomson Reuters compile a twice yearly survey of investment bankers, private equity professionals, lawyers and other dealmakers.

Around 82 percent of the 921 people surveyed believed merger activity will increase over the next 6 months. That is up from 56 percent six months ago.

Forty percent of those surveyed believe a quarter to half of the deals in that period would be distressed deals, while about 52 percent thought that less than a quarter of those deals would involve distressed assets.

The biggest expected obstacle to deals in the first half of 2010 is expected to be sellers who won't sell at current multiples, according to 37 percent of survey respondents. About 29 percent of those surveyed were more worried about the credit crunch. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B750820091208



В сотне наиболее перспективных компаний из развивающихся стран, готовых стать транснациональными и изменить сложившийся в экономике порядок, всего 6 российских, причем все они сырьевые – «Русал», «Норникель», «Северсталь», «Лукойл», «Газпром» и «Евраз». Зато наши компании самые агрессивные: за 2000–2010 годы 22% всех трансграничных слияний-поглощений в сотне пришлось на долю российской шестерки.
Давос: после кризиса россияне обеднеют, а китайцы разбогатеют

Political Marketing

"Political Marketing" by E. Mushinsky in 2008 it was predicted that enough of the revolution in

http://hodorkovski.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-russia-will-repeat-fate-of-tunisia.html

Цепная реакция революций: Тунис, сегодня Египет и Албания
В книге "Политический маркетинг" Э. Мушинского еще в 2008 году было предсказано, что достаточно революции в одной стране, как психический вирус недовольства выльется в подобные события в странах со сходными условиями.

IT-convergence - added value created by the Internet

In addition about IT-convergence  http://znacomstva.blogspot.com/2011/01/eduprener-entrepreneur-of-education.html

concrete example of how IT-related industries absorb technology, in our case - distance education "Any added value created by the Internet refers to the distribution and personalization," - said Jose Ferreira, CEO and founder of the service Knewton - site of the breakthrough last year. "So far, all had a stake in the distribution, we have placed on personalization," - says Ferreira. The education system seems devouring monster budgets ineffective only to the people of the past. People from the future to see it something like an oil well.

 At the Technology Section of the International Economic Forum in Davos 

Knewton noted in the category "Technology Pioneers". Such recognition awarded Google, Mozilla, and Twitter. "Any added value created by the Internet refers to the distribution and personalization," - said Jose Ferreira, CEO and founder of the service Knewton

"So far, all had a stake in the distribution, we have placed on personalization," - says Ferreira.

The best investment idea 2012

The best investment opportunities nature gives: weakening Earth's magnetic field would lead to the emergence of new needs, the vital needs!

Experts are already saying that the current shift of the poles - not just their traditional walk. It is quite possible, they begin to shift its position. The point is familiar to the Earth. The only question is speed. Previously it was thought that it would take at least several hundred years (at current speed - three hundred years). But recent studies by Scott Boag and Jonathan Glenn of the U.S. Geological Survey have found evidence that a change of polarity of the Earth's magnetic field can occur very quickly, in about four to five years.

During this period the first time it will weaken, thereby reducing the protection from cosmic radiation. And then, in the second half of the term, to grow, until finally restored. The fact of the weakening of the magnetic field is diagnosed is already about a hundred years. During this time Earth's magnetic field has weakened by more than 10%, and the process continues, and with increasing speed.

This does not mean that "fall through the Earth from its axis." Look, the sun reverses polarity every 22 years. On Earth, too, there were periods when for three million years, was held back a dozen shifts. True, sometimes millions of years, nothing happened. Life is not interrupted by a planetary scale, but it looks kind of life ...

Reducing the magnetic field will substitute the planet under the flux of cosmic rays. It can cause mass death of plants and animals, as well as massive clouds and, consequently, a sharp cold snap. That is the atmosphere in the end to protect us from radiation, but at the cost of global cooling.

However, it is possible that the torture of the Earth by cosmic rays and the frost will not be so long. U.S. scientists studying ancient lava fields in Nevada, found that 15 million years ago, the shift of the poles was remarkably rapid: the pole was shifted at a rate of about 1 degree a week. It promises a complete inversion of the three and a half years. Ice Age occur will not have time, but especially do not need to fly: airports will be closed to the endless inventory of its navigation services.

Rely on electronics while also not worth it. The weakening of the magnetic field has already diagnosed the space stations. In case of further development of this process the magnetic zone of the planet will disappear, and the vast majority of our companions simply stop working. There will be no short-wave radio, the Internet will only have a wired, mobile phones will disappear.

http://newstodaynews.com/scott-bogue-and-jonathan-glen-reveal-that-two-poles-of-earth-north-and-south-shifting-each-other-takes-thousands-of-years-to-complete/14989

Venture capitalists in Central Europe

Drivers behind venture

Most venture capital investors are international firms that have started looking at the region, and there are also local managers such as 3TS, Eagle Ventures, MCI and Poteza.

In addition to a constant stream of people coming back from the West, it has recently also been observed that more talented people wish to stay in their home countries, which will also help increase the pool of qualified people and send a sign of confidence about the region to the world.

In CEE, the attitude towards starting an own business is somewhere between what it is in the US and Western Europe. Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures, who is focused on early stage deals in CEE as well as in Western Europe and in Israel, says that 'here the entrepreneur is a hero'. There is less fear of failure than in Western Europe, which is commonly regarded as one of the reasons why venture in Europe has not yet produced substantial returns. 'In CEE, the entrepreneurial mindset is more daring, more risk-taking, compared with the more conservative views prevalent in the West. It probably also plays a role that many Eastern European entrepreneurs have less to lose in terms of privileges such as healthcare, social security and high basic income,' explains Leitersdorf.

However, that is not always the case, as Jonathan Cooper of Poteza Projektno Svetovanje has observed: 'While the number of skilled, motivated and daring entrepreneurs in CEE has been increasing, CEE - just like Western Europe - still lacks the critical mass of people who want to start out on their own. Many young people I have met want to go and work for the government or the incumbent telecom - not start a company or work for a start-up. They value security more than anything.'

'We have been observing a significant increase in the number of skilled and motivated entrepreneurs over the past ten years,' Sylwester Janik of MCI Management comments. 'What the CEE market needs, however, is more examples of success stories of technology companies originated in the region. This is what drives entrepreneurship.'

(Good) job opportunities have been scarce as state-owned businesses collapsed or were broken up. Especially when it comes to challenging, well-paid jobs, the younger generation often looks for opportunities outside of the region, at least for a number of years at the start of their career. However, the all-new environment combined with low-cost staff make for an excellent environment for start-up entrepreneurs and management teams who dare going it alone and spin out of larger organisations.

CEE has an excellent academic track record and a reputation for outstanding scientific research. Young managers who have been gaining experience in the West increasingly look for opportunities to deploy their academic skills and management knowledge in their home countries. 'Everyone recognises that there is a lot of talent in the region. What many people do not know is that back in the days of communism, each country of the Eastern block had its specialisation. Hence, to this day, some countries are stronger in, for example twireless technologies, IT or biotechnology, than others,' says Orasche.

Cooper adds, 'Regarding cooperation with universities and technology parks, this is an area we have explored extensively, but with little results. The universities need to reform themselves before they can become hotbeds of innovation, and the technology centres need more experience and money. I would say the technology centres are moving in the right direction, but the universities seem to be stuck in the past. They do a good job when it comes to training engineers to work for Siemens or Ericsson, but a poor job in terms of supporting young entrepreneurs.'

Janik agrees: 'There is still a long way to go to leverage and unlock a commercial potential of universities, incubators and technology parks. The "Continental" model of "doing" the science is strong there and there are only a few examples of technology companies developed with success by entrepreneurs with academic backgrounds. However, the CEE region still has a viable opportunity to build on its advantage of the high quality of academic education.'

Two factors from outside the region have contributed to the growth of the venture industry in CEE: 1) the massive capital inflow into the private equity asset class during the credit boom years, which forced investors to look outside their traditional territories to put capital to work (although this trend contributed more to the growth of the buy-out rather than the venture industry in CEE) and 2) the more recent search for returns and investment opportunities at the smaller end of the investment spectrum following the credit crunch.

Hurdles in the way of further growth

Theentrepreneurial environment needs to improve to provide entrepreneurs and investors with a more solid base for growth, no matter in which region exactly they look to operate or expand. Investments in infrastructure are badly needed and form the basis for future growth.

Tax incentives for venture capital investors do exist in some countries but they need to be assessed and adapted to actually do what they are meant to do: attract investors from outside a country and motivate local investors to set up companies and venture capital funds.

This links in with a venture capital-friendly environment which still needs to be constructed in CEE. 'Certain local hubs, such as London, feature an established network of serial entrepreneurs, experienced venture capitalists, lawyers, accountants, intermediaries, journalists, bloggers and event organisers that provide a platform for innovation. This is still just in its early stages of development in CEE,' according to Leitersdorf. 'Western European entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have access to multiple government-sponsored programmes that offer debt financing to small-and-medium-size-businesses, tax breaks and various forms of assistance in attracting investment. Academic institutions offer incubation programmes and guidance. All those things are needed across CEE.'

In terms of labour cost, CEE is more expensive than India and China, which means that entrepreneurs, businesses and investors with a focus on low labour costs are likely to look at other emerging markets. Obviously, this is not a 'hurdle', more a fact, and needs to be compensated with other benefits that CEE can offer and other emerging markets cannot.

Another barrier to overcome, however, is related to language and cultural issues. CEE is very diverse, broken up into some larger and many smaller countries and regions, each with their very own identity. Not many people in the West, where most of the capital for innovation is expected to come from, speak any of those languages and people in the regions are often not fluent enough in Western languages. 'Communication between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs can be a bit tricky at the best of times,' Orasche, who speaks several languages himself, emphasises, and he adds, 'that is why we have set up a multinational team across the Balkans.' Cultural diversity is sometimes underestimated and experienced local investors and entrepreneurs often feel unhappy about investment firms trying to cover the whole of CEE from one single office.

Janik adds, 'The diversity of the CEE region in both culture and economic development requires fund managers with a local knowledge and on-the-ground presence in the major CEE markets.'

Orasche also stresses the lack of co-investors: 'Dealmakers in CEE often have difficulty in finding co-investors, especially those that add value. Nevertheless, we do not see this issue for technology companies with global potential, where the interest of international top VCs is significant.'

Another issue relates to the entrepreneurs themselves more than to the environment in which they operate. It is that oftentimes entrepreneurs lack the drive to become serial entrepreneurs, as is much more common in the US. 'In CEE, most entrepreneurs want to get rich on one deal. The problem with it is that they see their single idea as "the" idea of their lifetime, which makes it very difficult to negotiate a deal and make an investment, as entrepreneurs tend to hold on to their majority stakes. Consequently, companies become national champions worth several million euros, but are unable to take the next step to become regional or global players,' says Cooper.

He adds, 'I also hear about A round, B round, C round, etc., in Western Europe and in the US - this does not really exist in CEE. Companies are lucky to get an A round, and if it all goes well, maybe a B round. But by then, everyone is looking for an exit so they can claim victory with their LP's. We need LPs to be more patient and more risk tolerant in CEE. Another issue is that it is more common for a Polish company to look to partner with a UK company than, say, with a Czech company. In many cases this makes sense, but often it does not. In my opinion, this has to do with low self esteem in the region - a Polish company would be considered more successful if they partner or cooperate with a UK company than a Czech company. This needs to change to make the region stronger.'

'One can find an attitude of "a lifestyle business" among entrepreneurs in the CEE region and focus on building dominant positions in local markets,' says Janik. 'Some of the markets of the CEE region are big enough to make such a strategy viable. However, as the costs of running online companies dropped significantly due to the increase in internet penetration increased, more entrepreneurs started to aim at building regional or global companies.'

Pekka Mäki of 3TS says, 'We have seen that venture capital and private equity deals take longer to complete in CEE, mainly due to the fact that it is a less mature market. However, that has been changing.'

Need for angel investment

CEE is seeing a significant funding gap for investments below €500,000. 'Angel investing is just getting started in CEE. In fact, to support the establishment of angel networks, Poteza is a founder and sponsor of two new angel networks, one in Slovenia and the other one in Croatia. The idea behind both networks is to fill the sub-€500,000 funding gap for small companies,' says Cooper.

Some government grant programmes do exist for small companies, but the funds available too often are too insignificant, especially taking the lengthy bureaucratic process into consideration that entrepreneurs have to go through to secure some of that capital. Cooper is also worried about a lack of role models: 'I would say that there have not been many success stories for new entrepreneurs to follow. This makes for a "gap" with regards to mentors and experience with early stage companies in the region.'

Exit environment and returns

While venture capital returns across the whole of Europe have not been amazing overall yet, there have been some really good exits, among them some very successful IPOs on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. 'Emerging exchanges such as the Warsaw Stock Exchange have shown significant progress over the years, although valuations and liquidity are still low in global terms,' says Leitersdorf.

Prior to the recent stock market crashes, it was not just the Warsaw Stock Exchange that had been offering exit routes for venture-backed companies, but also the Prague Stock Exchange, which had clearly been on the up. It remains to be seen whether those stock exchanges will be able to continue the positive trend when the markets come back. AIM and, to some extent, the Vienna Stock Exchange and the small-cap exchange in Vienna have in the past also been very popular destinations for venture-backed companies looking to raise capital or investors to exit.

'There have been some rather sizeable IPOs in CEE,' Mäki stresses.

M&As seem more promising in CEE than IPOs because the region's start-ups are interesting targets for both Ameritern European strategic acquirers. In general, the exit environment had been improving steadily since 2005. It remains to be seen how much CEE is affected by the current downturn.

'It will vary from industry sector to industry sector, but I expect the exit environment to continue to be good because it is more trade sale-based and, hence, less affected by the turmoil in the stock markets,' Orasche says.

Cooper adds, 'M&A has been quite vibrant in the region. Many of the larger Western European companies or funds that are looking for expansion opportunities look towards CEE as a natural geographic extension of their business.'

Shortage of funding

Matthew Gertner is a local venture capitalist in the region. He says, 'My experience has been that it is still pretty much impossible to secure financing for an early stage software company in CEE from a venture capitalist. Funds here tend to focus more on the later stages.'

Gertner also stresses that for a venture capitalist to be a useful partner to an entrepreneur, the venture capitalists needs to have an extensive network of contacts to help portfolio companies succeed. Their networks should include large technology companies (as potential acquirers), other venture funds (for co-investments, follow-on rounds) and PR/marketing firms. 'There are very few people here in the region with those types of networks,' Gertner finds.

Future potential

Venture capital has a long way to go in CEE but there are many encouraging signs for future growth. 'In the years to come, CEE may prove to be more promising than Western Europe from a venture perspective. CEE entrepreneurs are generally more focused on their entrepreneurial challenges than their Western counterparts. At the same time, their cost base is a fraction of Western standards,' Leitersdorf thinks.

There is still just is not enough capital available for early stage investment. However, there are many reasons why CEE venture capital funds and entrepreneurs stand a good chance of attracting a good portion of the capital that is going to be allocated to the emerging markets by institutional and high-net-worth investors over the next few years. Orasche agrees: 'Several venture capital firms have recently started their activities in the region, and there are more to come in the future. The number of angel networks is also on the up.'

CEE venture capitalists expect to raise more capital from local banks, pension funds and insurance companies in the near future. Those institutions typically want to be seen as supporting local entrepreneurship and they are expected to open up more to the alternative asset class, and certain investors sometimes also go for direct investments.

Orasche confirms that he has 'observed a trend towards higher allocations to venture funds by local investors. However, pension funds are still very small compared to the West and rather conservative. Hence, I would not expect too much capital to come from local pension funds in the near future.'

Cooper adds, 'Our fund has 33 LPs, including banks, insurance companies and wealthy individuals. Of that total, one is from Western Europe (Italy), one is from the US, and all the other LPs are from Slovenia, Croatia, and Estonia. Without the support of local LPs, we would not have raised our fund.'

'The acceleration of ecosystem development is the main factor that can make early stage investing more successful in CEE. Government-sponsored programmes that encourage entrepreneurship and small-to-medium-size-enterprises (SMEs) such as making debt financing more accessible will help boost an already-existing entrepreneurial mindset. 'Reduced capital gains taxes, better employment and stock option legislation, more investment in education, and more active measures to encourage foreign investment can all help venture capitalists and entrepreneurs' Leitersdorf underlines, while Orasche stresses the need for more technology centres.

Cooper wants the venture capital community to work together better to help the industry evolve in CEE: 'Better cooperation between CEE venture capitalists would be very beneficial, as would cooperation between CEE technology companies. There should also be more cooperation between venture capitalists and tech companies in the West and their CEE counterparts.'


http://www.altassets.com/private-equity-knowledge-bank/article/nz14980.html

Google aquired law platform for startups LawPivot

this deal continued serie of  investment in emergent growing niches like http://vsocial.livejournal.com/113743.html

About LawPivot.com

It offers entrepreneurs a place where they can get their questions answered confidentially and for free (at least for now).
To use the service, startups just write their question, identify relevant legal keywords, then choose which lawyers to send the question to. Today, LawPivot is also unveiling its new recommendation algorithm, which takes data about users and trends to recommend which lawyer might be best suited to answer each question.

Venture capitalists will be involved in earlier transactions.

It is well known that venture capitalists of this kind - FirstRound Capital, TrueVentures. And, of course, Foundry Group, Union Square: they created a business model based on the idea that the cost of the sale will be less than 10 years ago, and if so, should invest in early stage. In addition, the new funds dealing with investments early stages

It's not just that the venture capital industry comes less money. Those who raise funds, often attracting really little money. Some, like Battery Ventures, contrary to the trend, could attract 750 million.

As a result, many investors tremendous early stages of rapid growth had taken place - talk about Softtech VC, Floodgate, Felicis Ventures, K9 Ventures, OATV, Lowercase Capital, Founder Collective and many others.
http://vsocial.livejournal.com/113279.html