Silicon Valley Wire

Facebook Shares Rise Slightly in Debut, Following Landmark IPO

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Hours after one of the most anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs) in history, shares of social networking giant Facebook rose less than 5% -- significantly less than expected -- by late Friday in their first day of trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The company late Thursday priced 421.2 million shares at $38 each -- the high end of its revised price range -- raising approximately $16 billion. The move means that shares owned by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 28-year-old co-founder and CEO, are worth approximately $19.1 billion. Following a brief delay, the stock began trading under the symbol "FB" at 11:30 a.m., opening up 11% before leveling off.
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512235588/d287954ds1a.htm

Palo Alto-Based Pinterest Lands $100 Million at $1.5 Billion Valuation

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Pinterest, the pinboard-style social photo sharing site operated by Palo Alto-based Cold Brew Labs, has landed a new $100 million round of funding at a $1.5 billion valuation, led by Japanese online marketplace Rakuten, the companies said on Thursday. Previous backers Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors, also participated. Pinterest said it will use the funds to improve its service and expand its community globally. The investment also marks the launch of a partnership with Rakuten, aimed at helping Pinterest expand in Japan and Rakuten's 17 other markets. "We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest's vision and Rakuten's model for e-commerce," said Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani. "Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world."
http://www.pinterest.com
http://global.rakuten.com/group
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120516007086/en/Rakuten-Leads-Investment-Pinterest

Santa Clara-Based Agilent to Acquire Denmark's Dako for $2.2 Billion

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies, the Santa Clara-based measurement technology giant, on Thursday announced the largest acquisition in company history, agreeing to acquire Denmark-based cancer diagnostic company Dako in a deal worth $2.2 billion. The acquisition is expected to close within 60 days, adding more than 1,000 employees and $340 million in annual revenue. "Agilent's strategy in acquiring Dako is about strengthening the company's presence in life science and about revenue growth," said Bill Sullivan, the company's president and CEO. Dako provides antibodies, reagents, scientific instruments and software to customers in pathology laboratories, and also collaborates with a number of major pharmaceutical companies. http://www.dako.com http://www.agilent.com http://www.agilent.com/about/newsroom/presrel/2012/17may-gp12009.html

Bertram Capital Promotes Ingrid Swenson to Partner and Managing Director

San Mateo, Calif. -- Bertram Capital, a private equity firm headquartered in San Mateo, said on Wednesday it has promoted Ingrid Swenson to partner and managing director.  Swenson, the firm's CFO, has been with Bertram since its inception in 2006 and oversees all of its finance, administrative and internal IT activities. She previously served as the controller of Mayfield Fund and was a senior manager in the life science and venture capital practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Bertram has made 22 investments and currently has $850 million in capital under management.
http://www.bertramcapital.com
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bertram-capital-promotes-ingrid-swenson-to-partner-and-managing-director-2012-05-16

Redwood City-Based Equinix to Acquire Germany's ancotel

Redwood City, Calif. -- Equinix, a Redwood City-based provider of data center services, said on Wednesday it will acquire Germany's ancotel, a provider of colocation and interconnection services in Europe. Financial terms of the deal, expected to close after mid-year, were not disclosed. Equinix will gain one data center in Frankfurt with 2,100 square meters of capacity and increase its European network density by adding more than 400 network customers. ancotel's assets also include edge nodes in Hong Kong, London and Miami, giving Equinix additional points of presence in these markets. "The acquisition of ancotel significantly strengthens Equinix’s value proposition and capabilities both in Europe and globally," said Eric Schwartz, the president of Equinix EMEA.
http://www.equinix.com
http://www.equinix.com/en_US/company/news-and-events/press-releases/equinix-agrees-to-acquire-ancotel-significantly-increases-network-density-in-europe/

Menlo Park-Based Facebook Again Increases Size of IPO

Menlo Park, Calif. -- For the second time this week, social networking giant Facebook has increased the size of its upcoming IPO, this time increasing the number of shares to be sold by 25%. The company now plans to sell 421.2 million shares in an offering that could raise $16 billion, making it the largest-ever technology IPO. The move comes two days after Facebook raised the price range of its shares to $34-$38 each -- up from earlier estimates of $28-$35. The IPO is expected to price by the end of this week.
http://www.facebook.com  
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512235588/d287954ds1a.htm

Bay Area Tech Companies Dominate 2012 Fortune 500

There is no short supply of Bay Area technology companies in the nearly released 2012 Fortune 500, an annual ranking of America's largest corporations, based on revenue. Among the top 100 are Palo Alto-based HP (No. 10), San Francisco-based McKesson (No. 14), Cupertino-based Apple (No. 17), Santa Clara-based Apple (No. 51), San Jose-based Cisco Systems (No. 64), Mountain View-based Google (No. 73) and Redwood City-based Oracle (No. 82). Oil companies dominated the top of the list, which was led by Exxon Mobil with $452.9 billion in annual revenue. Retail giant Wal-Mart, which had topped the ranking for the past two years, fell to No. 2. The 2012 list is available in the May 21 edition of Fortune, or at the links below.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/full_list/ (Full list)
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/states/CA.html (Calif.)

Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital Invest $70 Million in Qualtrics

Silicon Valley, Calif. -- In their largest-ever joint investment, with Palo Alto-based Accel Partners and Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital said on Tuesday they will invest $70 million in Utah-based Qualtrics, a developer of data collection and analysis software. The company plans to use the funds to expand its web-based product offerings beyond market research and accelerate its growth, beginning with the hiring of another 250 employees in the next year. Qualtrics, which has never before accepted outside funding, said it been profitable since its inception. Clients include Barnes & Noble, CVS Caremark, GEICO, Microsoft, Neiman Marcus, Royal Caribbean, Southwest Airlines, Thomson Reuters, Toyota, Vodafone and Zappos. "Qualtrics is the biggest software company you haven't heard of yet," said Bryan Schreier, a partner at Sequoia Capital. "They've become the foundation of market research and customer analytics for thousands of very happy customers."
http://www.qualtrics.com
http://www.accel.com
http://www.sequoiacap.com
http://cloudfront.qualtrics.com/q1/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/QualtricsMay152012PressRelease.pdf (PDF)

Menlo Park-Based Facebook Raises IPO Price Range

Menlo Park, Calif. -- Preparing for one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs) in history, Menlo Park-based Facebook on Monday raised the price range of its shares. According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the social networking giant new plans to price each share between $34-$38 -- up from earlier estimates of $28-$35. The new figures mean that Facebook would be valued at $93 billion-$104 billion, up from $77 billion-$96 billion. The IPO is expected to price by the end of this week.
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512232582/d287954ds1a.htm

Bay Area VCs Contribute to $8 Million Round for Lenddo

New York -- Bay Area venture capital firms Accel Partners, Blumberg Capital and Omidyar Network have taken part in a new $8 million round of funding for New York-based Lenddo, developer of an online community that helps people use their online social connections to build creditworthiness and access local financial services. iNovia Capital, Metamorphic Ventures and several angel investors also participated in the company's first round. Founded in 2011, Lenddo allows members to use their reputations on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to obtain loans. The company currently provides loans in Colombia and the Philippines, and plans to use the capital to grow its engineering team and expand operations to more emerging markets. "Lenddo has the potential to transform how millions of underserved in the emerging markets access credit," said Arjuna Costa, director of investments at Omidyar Network.
http://www.lenddo.com
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120515005370/en/Lenddo-Secures-8-Million-Series-Funding-Top

Yahoo CEO Resigns Amid Allegations; Reportedly Has Cancer

Sunnyvale, Calif. -- Scott Thompson has resigned as the CEO of Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, days after reportedly informing the company's board of directors he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Thompson, 54, disclosed the news to colleagues late last week, capping a tumultuous period in which he also was battling allegations that he misrepresented his academic credentials. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo's executive vice president and head of global media. Roy Bostock also has stepped down as the company's non-executive chairman, to be replaced by Fred Amoroso.  The news comes more than a week after allegations first surfaced that Thompson's resume incorrectly stated he had earned a degree in computer science.
http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/233946.aspx 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304371504577403271970040362.html?mod=djemalertTECH

Milpitas-Based Aquantia Raises $35 Million in Sixth Round of Funding

Milpitas, Calif. -- Aquantia, a Milpitas-based developer of high-speed chips used in cloud computing and large-scale data center deployments, said on Monday it has raised $35 million in its sixth round of funding, led by new backer Rusnano, which is investing $25 million. Previous backer New Enterprise Associates (NEA) also participated. The company said it will use a portion of the funds to establish a new design center in Russia, which will assist its Silicon Valley R&D group in chip design and software development, as well as product testing. Aquantia launched its 40nm 10GBASE-T PHY chipset last year. http://www.aquantia.com http://www.aquantia.com/workspace/uploads/series-f-funding-final-4fb0f5621ebc2.pdf (PDF)

Redwood City-Based OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Files for $115M IPO

Redwood City, Calif. -- OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, a Redwood City-based biopharmaceutical firm developing antibody therapeutics targeting cancer stem cells, plans to raise up to $115 million in its initial public offering (IPO), the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Details of the offering, such as the number of shares to be sold and their expected price range, have yet to be revealed.
The company plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "OMED."
http://www.oncomed.com/
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1302573/000119312512227061/d344523ds1.htm

Palo Alto-Based Curious.com Raises $7 Million in Funding

Palo Alto, Calif. -- Curious.com, a Palo Alto-based online education startup still in beta testing, revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has raised $7 million in a new round of equity funding. Five unnamed investors took part in the round. Curious.com is developing a service in which subject-matter experts create online lessons, charge for access to all or parts of them and interact with students. The company was co-founded by Justin Kitch, the founder of KartoffelSoft; Thai Bui, the co-founder of Homestead; and John Tokash http://curious.com/ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1549413/000154941312000001/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml

Underwriters Boost Size of IPO for Mountain View-Based Audience

Mountain View, Calif. -- Audience, a Mountain View-based developer of intelligent voice and audio tools designed to improve voice quality and user experience in mobile devices, said on Monday that underwriters of last week's initial public offering (IPO) have exercised their option to purchase another 791,000 shares of company stock. The move will boost the company's net proceeds from the offering to $87.7 million, after expenses. Audience on Thursday priced $5.3 million shares at $17 each. 
http://www.audience.com
http://www.audience.com/press/press-5-14-2012.php