I must be turning into a sceptic in my old age. I simply could not believe my eyes when I read that Microsoft had invested $US240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. This effectively valued Facebook, which anticipated revenues this year of just $US150 million, at $US15 billion dollars.
That’s a crazy valuation. […]
In 2006, for the first time in 108 years of head-to-head competition, PepsiCo was worth more (in market cap terms) than The Coca-Cola Company, even though Coke still outsells Pepsi almost 2-to-1.
In 1998, Coca-Cola’s market cap was $US220 billion and the company’s stock price was trading in the high-$80s. Fast forward to 2006, and […]
The following is an unedited draft of a regular column – Neely Ready – that I write for Australian Anthill, a new-ish magazine with a focus on innovation, commercial enterprise and breakthrough technologies. I will post articles or article excerpts from time to time, as well as other pointers to great content in the magazine or its web site.
—8<—
Are you ready for it?
The statistics are disturbing: a typical venture capital (VC) firm receives around 1000 business plans a year, and quickly rejects 90% without a detailed review.
The problem is not a shortage of investment funds – money will always be available for promising investment opportunities. Rather, most entrepreneurs do not understand the expectations and requirements of VC investors and are unable to communicate their business proposals as attractive investment opportunities.
[…]