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Facing Up to America's Pension Woes: WSJ Opinion Piece by David Skeel

7/25/2013

There's an interesting opinion piece in today's The Wall Street Journal "David Skeel: Facing Up to America's Pension Woes" that explores the argument that Chapter 9 federal bankruptcy law does not permit any changes to pension benefits. The author concludes that this argument is most likely wrong, and spells out the legal case made in support and opposed to the argument. The author David Skeel teaches bankruptcy law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324110404578625904218607438.html?

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Corporate Venture Capital Efforts in Silicon Valley - WSJ Article

7/25/2013

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The Wall Street Journal yesterday had a good article on corporate venture capital in Silicon Valley. "Mining Silicon Valley's Culture" discusses the efforts by a number of corporations to establish offices in Silicon Valley to tap into the new ideas and technologies being developed there. The article discusses some of the successful efforts, namely BMW and Wal-Mart, and some of the efforts that haven't been as successful. It's a good article, and worth a read.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323610704578626123357642626.html?

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The Coming IPO Parade - Term Sheet

7/20/2013

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Dan Primack, Senior Editor of Fortune, yesterday posted an interesting article "The Coming IPO Parade" on Fortune Term Sheet that shows that there are 11 companies set for their initial public offerings next week. Included in these 11 companies are several venture-backed biotech companies: Agios Pharmaceuticals, Cellular Dynamics, Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Heat Biologics and Onconova Therapeutics. There's also a video with Dan prNext week should be a good barometer for the interest in life science IPOs.

Here's the link for the article:

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/07/19/the-coming-ipo-parade/

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Marc Andreessen Interview on CNBC

7/11/2013

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CNBC has posted an article and video of an interesting interview with Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. While the article covers the main points, I recommend watching the video as it provides a fuller sense of Andreessen's thoughts. In the video, Mr. Andreessen discusses the following:

Tech Bubble or Boom? Andreesen thinks its a tech boom. The internet has entered prime time. Consumers love the internet. E-commerce and advertising are moving online. A lot of things we've been talking about for 15 years are happening in a big way now.
The IPO market is deeply broken. It's becoming a two class market: public companies and private companies. In general, the private companies are growin very fast and doing very well and delaying their IPOs much longer than they used to. There is a small number of public tech companies doing well, but a much larger number of companies that should be public but aren't. We're at an all-time low in tech IPOs and it's regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and Reg FD that need reform.
Andressesn Horowitz like to work with entrepreneurs who want to build big independent long-term companies, and its' these companies that will ultimately go public. They tell these companies to build a fortress before going public, make sure the business is well established, have a lot of predictability, there's a strong patent portfolio, etc.
Insider trading. He's glad to see the crackdown on insider trading. The market manipulation has become a problem for young public tech companies that see their stocks get whipped around by hedge funds.
Immigration reform needs to happen. 2/3 of Silicon Valley companies are co-founded by immigrants and those companies over the last 40 years have created millions of jobs. If one wants more high tech success stories, having more highly skilled immigrants is something easy to do.
Looking forward over a 5-10-15 year basis, he is bullish on the economy.
An area they like is crowd funding. The feel there's a whole phenomenon around how the economy would work if one can uncover signals and know in advance if consumers will want the product before it's built. Another is collaborative consumption. This includes companies like AirBnB and Lyft, which involve resource sharing where people are sharing their cars and homes. They think this is a powerful trend.

Link to the article and video:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100880994?

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Facing Up to America's Pension Woes: WSJ Opinion Piece by David Skeel

Corporate Venture Capital Efforts in Silicon Valley - WSJ Article

The Coming IPO Parade - Term Sheet

Marc Andreessen Interview on CNBC

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