Private Equity’s Fast and Furious Entry into Healthcare (Part III of III) The third of this three-part series examines why private equity and venture capital firms are targeting the healthcare industry and the issues that they encounter managing their healthcare portfolio. Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms are attracted by the potential for growth that exists in the healthcare industry; how ...

In an age of rapid technological change, the traditional corporate R&D process just won’t cut it.  Bureaucracy and slow decision making are impediments to a company’s ability to innovate and the speed of execution.  As younger companies like Tesla are surpassing incumbents in their industries, the established players need to change to keep up.  Megan Richards, financial analyst with Mercer Capital, expl ...

The annual Southern Capital Forum sponsored by Mercer Capital brought to light several interesting comments.  Matthew Crow, President of Mercer Capital, looks at some of these dealing with stretched valuations. To read more about the results of this report in the Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting Blog, click: Valuation concerns mark Southern Capital Forum: Are VC trends the canary in the RIA coal mine?  ...

Unicorn valuations are not directly comparable to public company valuations.  Travis Harms, leader of Mercer Capital’s Financial Reporting Valuation Group, looks at how the numbers could potentially be misleading. To read more about the results of this report in the Mercer Capital's Financial Reporting Blog, click: Unicorn Valuations: What’s Obvious Isn’t Real, and What’s Real Isn’t Obvious.  This article i ...

Issues in Hedge Fund Valuations The proliferation of hedge funds presents an opportunity for valuation analysts. In this article, the author provides an overview of the hedge fund industry, compares the manner in which hedge funds operate vis-à-vis private equity and venture capital, and outlines the opportunities and challenges for valuation analysts interested in serving this market sector. ...

So, You Want to Become a Venture Capitalist? In this article, Edward Mofrad shares his views on what it takes to become a successful venture capitalist. ...

Investors Cool on Tech A survey of tech firms' valuations shows many companies are challenged.    Here's detail from various reporters: ...

UConnect v. Facebook Showed How 409A Valuations Can Destroy Value. Here’s What Shareholders and VCs Need to Know—and Some Ideas About How to Better the Situation. Lorenzo Carver previously explained how 409A valuations destroy value for shareholders receiving grants, and provided a case study of how this all played out in UConnect v. Facebook. In this final article in a three-part series, Carver presents us ...

The Winklevoss Twins Realized Too Late the Value They’d Agreed to for Their Common Shares of Facebook. Here’s How it Played Out. Last week Lorenzo Carver introduced the topic of how 409A valuations destroy value for some shareholders.  Today’s piece is a case study in how a wide disparity in value estimates largely created by the 409A process played out in the UConnect v. Facebook lawsuit. ...

Why Built-up Volatility Rates Produce Better Value Indications In part one of a three-part series, Lorenzo Carver explains how the interaction between auditors and valuation professionals during dual-purpose 409A valuations of common stock and employee stock options destroys value for hundreds of thousands of employees receiving stock options every year by granting options at strike prices that are above th ...