The credit crunch may be slowing down M&A activity, but venture
capitalists have returned from their vacations ready for dealmaking.
Columbia Capital of Alexandria, Va., M/C Venture Partners of Boston, Oak
Investment Partners of Westport, Conn., Battery Ventures of Wellesley Hills,
Mass., and Centennial Ventures of Denver kicked off the end of summer surge in
dealmaking with the year's largest funding, a $225 million investment in Zayo
Bandwidth Inc.
Since the Aug. 31 financing venture firms have opened their wallets to invest
another $450 million in just the last seven days.
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Among the largest financings are:
-
$65 million for college sports Web site The Active Network, according to
Private Equity Hub
-
$52
million for solar panel technology developer SolFocus Inc. and its
European affiliate
-
$45 million for optical networking company Matisse Networks Inc.
-
$40
million for solar thermal power startup Ausra Inc.
-
$40
million for drug developer Hyperion Therapeutics Inc.
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$36 million for teen-focused cellular startup Kajeet Inc.
In addition to the money VCs are putting to work, they also have been
receiving some back. Among last week's larger exits were Yahoo! Inc.'s
agreement
to acquire BlueLithium Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based online ad network
backed by 3i Group plc and Walden Venture Capital for approximately $300
million. Likewise, LSI Corp. said it was buying Tarari Inc., a San Diego–based
maker of silicon and software for packet and message processing, in a deal
valued at $85 million. Tarari raised money from Crosspoint Venture Partners,
Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Morgan Stanley Venture
Partners, XML Fund and Miramar Venture Partners.
For more on how private capital firms are shaping deals in the technology and
media, but sure to attend Tech Confidential's
Convergence
2.0 conference on Sept. 17. —George White
See
The Deal's Sept. 4 story on Bluelithium
See
The Deal's Sept. 4 story on Solfocus
See
The Deal's Sept. 10 story on Ausra
See
The Deal's Sept. 5 story on Hyperion Therapeutics
More
on Convergence 2.0 conference
Tags: vc,
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