Daniel Blomquist of Creandum, a Swedish early stage venture capital company, has posted an excellent post to their blog analysing the differences between the Nordic countries to other countries as well as analysing the differences within themselves. In essence, Daniel goes on to confirm what Will Cardwell said some time ago.
Creandum has gathered a lot of knowledge about the Nordic venture capital market over the last two years to understand the ecosystem better and thus be able to work in it better. They now share some of this knowledge with us. Their main findings from the report were:
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Today, Kauppalehti wrote that the Finnish computer electronics store founder and owner Samuli Seppälä is going to take the company public in a few years time. He’s doing this with the help of the Swedish private investment company Rite Internet Ventures who have invested 3 million euros to the company with a 15% stake. This brings the company’s valuation to a mere 20 million euros. Why do I say a mere 20 million euros, you might ask. The reason is simple, the company’s 2008 turnover was about 140 million euros with 2,4 million euro profit before taxes and amortisation.
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The Swedish travel startup Traveas is going public – it will be listed on AktieTorget, the stock exchange for developing companies. They will be offering Traveas stock for the public between 7th of May and 25th of May. Trading with Traveas stock will begin on 26th of June. Traveas pre-money valuation is at 17,5M SEK (1,65M €)
We had a brief chat with Jack Melcher-Claësson, co-founder of Traveas about the listing. Jack told us that there are basically two factors in why this new stock emission is interesting. Firstly, as we told in the title Traveas will become a public company. Secondly, the reason for them gathering up money is the need to be able to run faster in the European market. Their press release tell us that they are looking for an investment around 3,5 M SEK (330k€).
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Ebay just announced a plan for 2010 IPO of Skype. A lot can be said about the journey of the two companies so far, but we think it’s hight time for the relationship to end – For Skype’s and and for Ebay’s benefit. By not letting the Skype founders buy back the company, Ebay is sending a message of it’s own, but an Initial Public Offering pushed all the way to 2010 means practically nothing but that Ebay is not happy with Skype’s performance so far and that they are taking bids.
By pushing the date that far into the future and annoucing that “specific timing of the IPO will be based on market conditions” the company is effectively saying that anything can happen between now and then. They might not even let Skype go if it starts to perform or if it becomes a real strategic asset, which it hardly will.
The message to take away from this is that now even Ebay has confessed that there are no synergies between the two companies and that they made a bad investment -Ebay thought it would be an ideal way for buyers and sellers to talk to each other before the seller makes the purchase decision. All well, except that naturally the sellers don’t want to talk to all the buyers and answer all questions about the product. Skype is not a bad investment per se, but a bad investment for Ebay. I believe Skype will have a bright future ahead with eight percent of all international calls and $551 million in revenue, but I would not hold my breath to see an IPO even in 2010. Much can happen before that.
You can read more about the announcement from the press release.
While we cover the startup market, we do keep an eye on the investors as well and this is a story from the East that needs to be told. Renaissance Capital, a leading Russian investment bank, will be the sole underwriter of the $460 million FriendFinder IPO in the United States.
FriendFinder is the parent company of the notorious AdultFriendFinder ads that can be found all over the internet. Penthouse is also one of the products of the company and has one previous failed IPO attempt behind it from 1993. The company is in good health as it’s net revenues for the first nine months of 2008 were $262.4 million, resulting in operating income of $36.1 million and EBITDA of $66.6 million.
Renaissance Capital, head quartered in Cyprus (like many Russian companies), has been relatively active in the startup scene lately. They were the one of the underwriters of the Yandex IPO, which was later postponed due to market conditions.
Furthermore in the internet sector, Renaissance Capital was an advisor in the sale of 30 percent of Mail.ru stock for $165 million to Naspers of South Africa in January 2007. Mail.ru is the one of the largest internet portals in Russia. Renaissance Capital also played an advisory role in the 55% acquisition of Rambler by Prof-Media in October 2006.
Kauppalehti, a Finnish business daily, reported yesterday that Sulake’s CEO, Timo Soininen, is planning to take the company public. According to Mr. Soininen the earlierst possible date for the listing would be sometime next year.
Soininen thinks Sulake starts to be big enough for an IPO. Soininen’s comments takes place after Sulake was valued 9th in Alley Insider valuation (at 25 times revenues) for digital startups. Read more on the story here.
Soinen added that Sulake is profitable and aims to a 20 percent increase in turnover this year. Last year’s turnover was 43 million euro.
Despite the Alley Insider estimation Soininen himself refuses to comment on his company’s valuation.
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