EDIT: Several sources are reporting a deal for Facebook to purchase Oculus VR, maker of Oculus Rift, for $2 Billion in cash and stock. More on this tomorrow.
Box, the cloud content management file-hosting site, filed publicly for an Initial Public Offering under the NYSE ticker "BOX" yesterday, revealing plans to raise around $250M through the IPO. In light of Box's propensity to burn through capital, a notable line in the S-1 states "We have a history of cumulative losses, and we do not expect to be profitable for the foreseeable future." (You can read through the S-1's risk factor page here.) Whether that's enough to deter investors in a white-hot file sharing space remains to be seen.
King Digital, the digital entertainment company behind Candy Crush Saga, announced its intentions to go public this week, setting its IPO valuation as high as $7.6B. Despite fears of a "dot-com"-like bubble, its important to note that, unlike Box, King has both significant profits and a profitable track record.
Dan Primack of Fortune.com offers a stat comparison of King to competitor Zynga, which had a 2011 IPO that notably fell flat.
For context, Zynga opened trading today with a $4.3 billion market cap, while King is looking for an initial market cap of between $6.6 billion and $7.5 billion (based on a $21-$24 per share IPO offering range). In the below stats, the first figure is for King Digital while the second figure is for Zynga:
2013 Revenue: $1.88 billion vs. $873 million
2013 profit (loss): $568m vs. ($37m)
2013 Adjusted EBITDA: $825m vs. $46.5m
Avg monthly active users (Q4 13): 408m vs. 112m
Avg daily active users (Q4 13): 124m vs. 27m
Monthly unique payers (Q4 13): 12.16m vs. 1.3m
Employees: 665 vs. 2,034
Palo Alto Networks buys Israeli cyber-security startup Cyvera for $200M, and Blackstone Group announces early intentions to open an office in Israel. Recent interest in Israel's startup scene has been driven by its high GDP growth, low unemployment, and low inflation.
RelateIQ, a company looking to automate tedious manual data entry tasks in offices, raised $40M in a Series C funding round led by Redpoint Ventures and joined by KPCB and News Corp. VentureBeat notes RelateIQ's more data-driven approach may help it unseat larger competitors in the CRM space, such as Salesforce.com.
Personal Blogs
One of my favorite VC bloggers, Tomasz Tunguz, dives into Box's S-1 filing, comparing 7 key metrics to other SaaS companies.
Marketer Seth Godin pens a lighthearted piece about musical chairs, and why he thinks teaching kids to make the team is okay, but teaching them to make a team is great.
Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures talks ageism, and why the older generation is still relevant in a youth-centric tech field.
Lists and Lessons
MIT Tech Review lists 5 interesting things about the Box IPO, including that Box doesn't actually own or run any data canters.
FastCompany gives a few management anecdotes from Juice Software founder Kim Scott, a boss who "actually gives a damn."
