Rakuten, the largest e-commerce site in Japan, is expected to be the lead investor in the much-contested next round of funding for Silicon Valley’s hottest start-up, Pinterest. The Tokyo-based Internet giant will invest upwards of $50 million in a $100 million round that values the social bookmarking phenom at $1.5 billion. There might other individual investors in the new round, but those were still to be determined tonight by Pinterest co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann. While the latest round of funding for Pinterest has been the mostly hotly sought of late in tech circles, one source said Silbermann was looking for a global strategic investor and had talked to several large Asian companies. Said one source on why he settled on Rakuten: “He just really liked them.” The current investors in Pinterest, which is a social collection site where users can “pin” their interests via a handsome graphical interface, include Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital, as well several well-known angel investors. That group had valued the company at $200 million last October, and are joining the new round pro rata. Founded in 2008, Pinterest had previously raised a little under $40 million in funding. It’s interesting that the latest round was not led by an institutional investor, since everyone and their mother wanted in on the deal. Sources said no new venture capital firms were included in the round and that is the way Pinterest’s quirky leadership wanted it. Sources said Silbermann has been concerned with Pinterest’s global growth as well as fending off international clones, and was looking for a partner with which the start-up could work closely. “Ben did not want anymore VCs,” said one source. “He wanted an investor that moved the company forward.” It’s a good choice of partners in that regard. Rakuten is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, with a flagship site Rakuten Ichiba. It was founded in 1997 and had revenues of $4.7 billion in 2011. Its CEO is Hiroshi Mikitani, whose nickname is Mickey. One the richest men in Japan, Mikitani is one of the best known entrepreneurs there where he’s been described as “Richard Branson meets Michael Dell.” Earlier today, The Next Web reported that the funding was coming this week and said the company was looking at international partners, but it did not name Rakuten. Rakuten Leads Investment In Pinterest Global social commerce pioneer takes stake in online sharing service TOKYO, May 17, 2012 – Rakuten, one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, today announced that it is leading a $100M investment in Pinterest, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors. The funding will allow Pinterest to continue improving its service and expanding its community globally. The investment also marks the start of a strategic partnership between Rakuten and Pinterest to help expand in Japan and into Rakuten’s 17 other global markets. Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten said: “While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining. We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.” Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, said: “Our goal is to help people discover things they love, by connecting people through their shared interests. Bringing Rakuten on board gives us an amazing opportunity to move a step closer to this goal.” Rakuten ranks among the top 10 internet companies in the world. Among its numerous online properties, its flagship B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) model e-commerce site Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world’s largest by sales. Its global presence has been reinforced through the acquisitions of leading online marketplaces Buy.com (US), Priceminister (France), Ikeda (now Rakuten Brasil), Tradoria (now Rakuten Deutschland) and Play.com (UK), and investments in Ozon.ru and AHA Life. Whereas other marketplaces may compete directly with sellers, Rakuten’s model seeks to empower merchants to deliver Omotenashi, a Japanese high service mindset, which helps sellers create lasting relationships with customers.
Mobile carrier NTT Docomo today announced a move in its strategy to grow its content business outside of its traditional base of Japan: it issued a tender offer to acquire Buongiorno, a mobile content company based in Italy, paying up to ¥24 billion ($300 million) for the assets. Docomo notes in a statement that the acquisition would be made by its Germany-based subsidiary, Docomo Deutschland, and that Maruo del Rio, Buongiorno’s majority shareholder and chairman with 20 percent of Buongiorno’s stock, has already agreed to sell his stake to the carrier. The deal would see Buongiorno become a subsidiary of NTT Docomo. This is not the first time that Docomo has made moves to build up its European/rest-of-world business in mobile content, but it is an area that has been lying somewhat dormant for a while. A decade ago, well before the mobile world was hit with the revolution that became the iPhone and then Android following closely behind, Docomo made a foray to bring its popular i-mode mobile content service to the Continent, starting out first with a partnership with France’s Bouygues Telecom with plans to extend that to other markets. That never really followed through as a successful business, though, when the game for mobile content changed from walled gardens run by operators to app stores run by the handset makers. Since then, Docomo has also been involved in an LTE chip joint venture (with Samsung) that endedlast month, as well as other European initiatives. For example, it inked a partnership with France Telecom’s Orange to co-sell a Sharp 3D handset, the Aquos SH80F. And it also owns, in Germany, a mobile payments business net mobile, which in September 2011 got an investment from Docomo of €28.4 million so that it could in turn take a controlling stake in Bankverein Werther, a private German bank with e-commerce and payment service operations. “Utilizing Bankverein Werther’s existing banking license and credit card licenses, as well as the bank’s main systems, net mobile will be able to greatly enhance its mobile payment platform,” Docomo said at the time. This time around it looks like Docomo, which has 60 million customers in its home market, wants another local/international partner to help export its business model more effectively. Buongiorno is one of the oldest mobile content companies around, first being established back in 1999 and currently employing 848 people. And it is profitable: in 2011 it reported revenues of €228.6 million (¥24.52 billion; $295 million) and operating profit of €7 million (¥7.5 billion; $9 million). Its services — which include a sprawling list of direct-to-consumer offerings and those it creates in partnership with carriers and others — cover gaming, music, casual content like wallpapers and ringtones, and mobile payments. Its services are used by some 2 billion customers in 57 countries across four continents, the company says, and you can see how this distribution channel could get used by Docomo for the services that it has created itself, in addition to those from Buongiorno. “The acquisition will combine Docomo’s innovative mobile business and services know-how in Japan and other countries with Buongiorno’s advanced mobile technologies and extensive global customer base,” Docomo notes in its statement. “As part of expanding the businesses of both companies, Docomo expects to strengthen the foundation of its mobile platform businesses overseas.” This is also part of the ongoing trend that we are seeing from the likes of other carriers, like Telefonica, to create new lines of revenue that take operators beyond their traditional business of mobile voice and data sales in their traditional geographic footprints. Telefonica last week launchedTU-Me new app that offers an all-in-one free voice, text, photosharing offering to all iPhone owners that it hopes can help it snag a new base of users. Pending regulatory approval, Docomo says that it will officially begin its tender offer at €2 per share, which will last 25 days. Del Rio’s 20 percent holding is equivalent to 111,888,895 shares in Buongiorno. via http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/14/ntt-docomo-will-pay-up-to-300m-to-buy-italian-mobile-content-company-buongiorno/
New ideas from Berlin: Telekom starts new program for startups- With hub:raum, Telekom is launching its own incubator program in Berlin
- New ideas wanted for telecommunications services, Internet services and digital media
Deutsche Telekom is pushing its partnering campaign and increasingly relies on new, creative ideas from startups alongside its own innovations: in order to support young companies in their early stages, in particular, Telekom has today launched hub:raum, its own incubator program in Berlin, at NEXT conference. hub:raum opens up access to an experienced group of experts for ambitious start-upteams who receive specific support in an environment where they can further develop business ideas and bring them to market with the best possible chances of success - similar to an incubator. The program allows start-ups to benefit from Deutsche Telekom's size and reach, as well as from the know-how of its experts who support the core team made up of Dr. Min-Kin Mak and Peter Borchers. At the same time, they maintain their entrepreneurial independence. Start-ups are provided with exhaustive support from knowledgeable mentors who can share their experiences of establishing their own successful companies. Deutsche Telekom also offers comprehensive seed funding of up to 300,000 euros. “With hub:raum, our incubator in Berlin, we wish to promote promising business ideas and establish contact with innovative talent so as to recognize innovations and growth markets and tap into new business fields early on. The incubator represents an important interface between the flexibly and highly responsive startup scene and the corporate world,” explained Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product & Innovation Officer at Telekom. Interested startups can apply right away to participate in the program by visiting www.hubraum.telekom.com. Approximately ten to fifteen startups are to be included each year. Deutsche Telekom has well-known expert mentors on board including alando co-founder and managing director of eBay Deutschland for many years, Jörg Rheinboldt. About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 129 million mobile customers, 34 million fixed-network lines and almost 17 million
broadband lines (as of December 31, 2011). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 235,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenue of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year – over half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011).
|
