LivingSocial再融資之謎
????團購網(wǎng)站LivingSocial到底出了什么事? ????上周三上午傳出消息,LivingSocial在最新一輪融資中融得1.1億美元。對這家團購網(wǎng)站來說,這似乎是一個期待已久、見證奇跡的時刻。尤其是考慮到此前,這家公司的投資者亞馬遜(Amazon.com)在最近的季度財報中剛剛大幅減記了它手頭所持這家股份的價值。 ????但烏云很快籠罩過來,一家名為PrivCo的研究機構稱,這輪融資其實附帶著大量的苛刻條款、消除創(chuàng)始人和員工股份價值的可轉(zhuǎn)換債務。PrivCo還稱,這是一輪“緊急”融資目的是讓LivingSocial避免立即破產(chǎn)的命運。 ????上周四上午早些時候,多位投資行業(yè)消息人士都在跟《財富》雜志(Fortune)進行交流時對PrivCo的報告提出質(zhì)疑,現(xiàn)在我們獲得了LivingSocial首席執(zhí)行官蒂姆?奧肖內(nèi)西發(fā)給員工的一份備忘錄,以下是備忘錄全文: ????伙伴們: ????鑒于最近一份關于我們公司融資的報告包含了顯著的誤差和錯誤,我想在這里提供關于那輪融資的更多細節(jié)。 ????如果你們看已經(jīng)看到了其中一些錯誤的信息,下面我要說的才是真實的情況: ?????這并不是一輪緊急融資。我們在12月23日收到第一份風險投資協(xié)議,也就是近兩個月前,這輪融資是有組織、經(jīng)過深思熟慮的。 ?????這輪融資是股權投資,而不是債務輸注。 ?????我們沒有對之前幾輪融資確定的投資者股份進行重新定價。 ?????這輪融資不包括發(fā)行認股權證。 ?????不存在“兩位數(shù)的”現(xiàn)金股利(跟典型的融資——包括我們公司過去幾輪融資——一樣,我們只針對一類股票象征性地發(fā)放3%的現(xiàn)金股利)。 ?????不存在“4倍的優(yōu)先清算權”(再次重申,跟大多數(shù)融資一樣,我們的融資涉及優(yōu)先清算權,但它根據(jù)一個關鍵指標上下浮動,絕對達不到4倍)。 ?????報告中引用一位所謂“LivingSocial高級傳媒主管”的說法純屬捏造。 ?????PrivCo網(wǎng)站上列出的參與本輪融資的投資者中有三分之二并沒有參與,其中有一位甚至不是投資公司的成員。 |
????What really happened at LivingSocial? ????Yesterday morning, news leaked that the company had raised $110 million in new financing. Seemed to be a long-awaited hallelujah moment for the daily deal company, particularly after investor Amazon.com (AMZN) significantly wrote down its LivingSocial investment in recent quarterly earning reports. ????But the storm clouds came quickly, when a research group called PrivCo claimed that the financing actually was convertible debt that wiped out the value of founder and employee liquidity and included a whole rash of onerous terms. PrivCo also claimed that the round was "emergency" round of funding that staved off imminent bankruptcy. ????Multiple investor sources took issue with the PrivCo report during background conversations earlier this morning, and now Fortune has obtained a memo that LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy just issued to employees. Here it is, in its entirety: ????Hey folks, ????In light of a recent report on our financing round that contained significant inaccuracies and errors, I wanted to provide some additional details on yesterday's round. ????If you've seen some of that misinformation, here's the real story: ??????This was not an emergency round. We received our first term sheet on December 23rd, nearly two months ago, and this has been an organized, thought-out process. ??????This was an equity round, not a debt infusion. ??????There was no re-pricing of investor shares from previous rounds. ??????There were no warrants issued as part of this round. ??????There were no "double-digit" cash dividends. (Typical of many financing rounds, including our own past rounds, there was a nominal 3% dividend for a class of shares.) ??????There is no "4x liquidation preference." (Once again, typical of almost all venture rounds, there is a liquidation preference, but it slides up or down based on a key metric and gets nowhere near 4x.) ??????The quotes from a "senior LivingSocial communication executive" are straight up fiction. ??????Two of the three investors listed on the PrivCo site as participating in the round didn't participate, and one isn't even an investor in the company.? |