Occam's Razor

Total immersion raises 4.5M€

Total Immersion raises new 4.5M€ round led by Elaia partners, with returned investors Partech and ISource. For the last  5 years the company  has invested in delivering D’FUSION, an Augmented Reality solution : .

Telecom Conference in Geneva

I'm putting the final touch on my panel presentation at the  Telecom World  Congres next Thrusday in Geneva. Let me know if you are in Geneva that day, as I will have some time after my panel.

14.50 Panel: Funding new, new telecommunications businesses

Funding innovation
New business models / new service providers
Technology and equipment start-ups
Venture capital and Private Equity appetites
Risk / return profiles
Incubators and spin-off businesses
Key success factors
Case studies

Peter Gardner, Global Sector Head, Communications, 3i
Duncan Lewis, Senior Advisor, Telco & Media, The Carlyle Group
Marc Goldberg, Managing Partner, Occam Capital

Telecom M&A

Comverse Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: CMVT) has agreed to acquire Netcentrex SA, a French provider of network-based software-enabling voice-video-data and fixed-mobile convergence solutions to service providers.

The deal is valued at approximately $164 million in cash, plus up to an additional $16 million in milestone payments.

Netcentrex has raised VC funding from firms like CDC Entreprises Innovation, Innovacom, Crescendo Ventures, Newbury Ventures, T-Venture, VPSA and Intel Capital. 

Reboot8

Reboot 8 is getting ready for June 1st and 2nd. I’ll be there and would love to meet up with you is you plan to participate (skype/email/call me).

CGS4.0 planned for April 28 in Paris

I'm exited to announced the next (yes it's now released 4.0) CGS (Clavier Goldberg Sepulveda) dinner, that we will hosted in Paris on April 28, same rules of engagement as before (register here by posting a comment on this post). Seating is restricted to 30. I will circulated all logistics information (where, where, name of guest speaker,  etc...) in a few days...

Looking forward - Marc.

Market heat wave

The current increase in transaction price, and entrepreneur value expectation can be observed in today's VentureOne private equity market metrics. According to VentureOne, Valuations of venture-backed companies for 2005 reached their highest point in four years as sizable acquisitions fueled an increase in the price of later-stage companies.

The median premoney valuation of U.S. start-ups reached $15.2 million, up from $12.5 million a year ago, according to a report released today from VentureOne, a unit of Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group. In 2001 overall annual median premoney valuations hit $16 million. Later-stage information-technology company valuations rose the most, by almost $8 million over 2004, to $30.3 million.

Within IT, the median largest valuations were $42.8 million for later-stage electronics and $44 million for later-stage semiconductor companies. Among round classes, U.S.premoney valuations increased for all but first rounds, which were relatively flat at $5.4 million, down from $5.6 million a year ago.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the median premoney valuation increased to $4.1 million, the highest since $4.8 million in 2002. The median value of European IT companies increased to EUR3.9 million from EUR3.2 million a year ago.

Are we going to all get burn again ?

Euro consolidation

Interesting new European-centric consolidation player around MySQL

MySQL AB, a Sweden-based developer of an open-source database, has acquired Netfrastructure Inc., a Manchester, Mass.–based provider of server software for building Web-based applications. No financial terms were disclosed.

MySQL has raised significant VC funding from  Institutional Venture Partners, Intel Capital, SAP Ventures, Presidio STX, Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures.

Meeting with Chris Shipley on March 7 in Paris ?

I had the opportunity last year to speak at the first edition of Innovate Europe, the European innovation conference put together by the Guidewire Group – which is also organizing DEMO.

The planning of Innovate Europe 2006 is under way, and the selection of startups that will have the opportunity to present at the conference is taking place soon. Chris Shipley will do a tour of Paris, London, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza between March 7th and March 17th.

If you want to meet with Chris and company, go check this post that explains it all, and fill in this form if you are interested in participating, or contact me at the Paris Occam Capital office.

Tag: innovateeurope06

I had the opportunity last year to speak at the first edition of Innovate Europe, the European innovation conference put together by the Guidewire Group – which is also organizing DEMO.

The planning of Innovate Europe 2006 is under way, and the selection of startups that will have the opportunity to present at the conference is taking place soon. Chris Shipley will do a tour of Paris, London, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza between March 7th and March 17th.

If you want to meet with Chris and company, go check this post that explains it all, and fill in this form if you are interested in participating, or contact me at the Paris Occam Capital office.

Tag: innovateeurope06

Preparing for Kinnernet 2006

I'm starting to prepare for the forthcoming Kinnernet 2006 conference which will be held by Yossi Vardi and co.  in Israel starting March 30.

I'll be at the conference on March 30/31/April 1 and at The Marker conference in Tel Aviv on april 1/2/3 , available if you want to meet.

Remembering Gilles Kahn

This picture from Gilles Kahn was taken during the 2003 RVC conference than Jeff Clavier and myself organized that September in New York. 

It captures a lot of the incredible qualities of Gilles from it's sheer passion (which radiates here), to his great strength, to his incredible humor and gentleness.

I spend today's afternoon at his funeral, where a large, sadden group of family, colleagues, friends pay their last respect to him. Gilles was only 59, and had been an adviser of RVC and of Occam Capital.

We spend of lot of time taking about leadership, and what the quality of a leader in action are, and how to recognize them. Watch the short 3 min (in French) video of Gille's new year greating to the INRIA staff, and observe and remember what an incredible man he was. I will only quote here the last sentence from his speech :

We must focus on seeding new trees, and hope that one day, when we will no longer be around, they will have mature, and bear new fruits...

Gilles Kahn was educated at the Ecole Polytechnique (class of 1964), then at Stanford University in the United States (1968-71). During his career he would have the opportunity to take two long sabbaticals in renowned scientific institutions: University of Edinburgh, UK (1976-76) and the Isaac Newton Institute at Cambridge, UK (1995). Twenty years later, in 1997, he would become the first member of the Institute to be elected to the French Academy of Science as a researcher in information systems. On his return from Stanford, he entered the CEA (atomic energy commission), then joined IRIA in Rocquencourt in 1977, at the head of a project for the development of programming environments. In 1983, he was one of the founding members of the INRIA Sophia Antipolis Research Unit, where he continued to head a research project while simultaneously coordinating research activities alongside the Unit's director. In 1993, Gilles Kahn became part of the Institute’s General Management, where he took up duties as Vice-President for Research, and later, in May 2004, became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. As Vice-President for Research, then as Chairman, he had a major influence on the definition of INRIA’s last two strategic plans. The last strategic plan (2003-2007) paved the way for joint research in information systems and life sciences.