Kursverdoppelung bei Actua Corporation (vorm. Internet Capital)

December 13, 2005 Grasshopper Investments plc (‘Grasshopper’) has today agreed to acquire GoIndustry AG, a global leader in auctions and valuations of used industrial machinery and equipment, subject to the consent of shareholders. Grasshopper will issue up to 160,002,965 shares for GoIndustry valuing the Enlarged Group at circa £32.6m. The Enlarged Group will be renamed GoIndustry plc and the shares will commence trading on AIM on 5th January 2006 (under the AIM symbol GOI), following a meeting of shareholders that has been arranged for 4th January 2006. Cenkos Securities Limited is the broker and Grant Thornton Corporate Finance is the nominated adviser.

Formed in 1999, GoIndustry has grown rapidly both through acquisitions and organically. It now has offices in 15 countries, employs 246 staff, and has sold equipment into more than 60 countries so far in 2005. The used machinery and equipment market is highly fragmented and estimated to be worth more than $100bn per annum of which approximately 45 per cent. is GoIndustry’s core addressable market of ‘inside the factory’ equipment, such as machine tools, plastics, textiles and food processing equipment.

Revenues are generated either on an agency or principal basis. The seller pays GoIndustry a percentage of the gross sales value of the equipment and in addition an incremental fee or Buyer’s Premium is added to the price of each lot. Fees are charged separately for valuations. GoIndustry also buys equipment and re-sells it as principal or guarantees the seller a minimum sales realisation value. This involves additional risk but offers higher margins and the company believes that this part of the business can be expanded with the additional cash resources that will be available to it following its acquisition by Grasshopper.

GoIndustry is joining AIM in order to raise the profile of its business and improve brand recognition. It will also gain access to Grasshopper’s cash to help finance expansion. GoIndustry will use its shares to help finance organic growth and further acquisitions, which would expand the group into new markets and consolidate its position in existing core markets.

GoIndustry Chief Executive John Allbrook said: “Our scale and global presence puts us in an ideal position to take advantage of current market trends. Companies relocating their factories to lower cost countries and mergers and acquisitions activity creates demand for our valuation and auction services. Secured lending products require accurate valuations for insurance and risk mitigation. We have an experienced team, which can provide all the valuation and auction services required by our customers. We also have a very scalable business model with the infrastructure to cope with much higher sales volumes. We believe that by joining AIM we will gain access to London’s institutional investor base, which will help us accelerate our growth.”

An Internet Capital erinnere ich mich noch gut aus Zeiten des Internet-Hypes. Aber Yahoo hat ja gezeigt, dass man durchaus Geld verdienen kann.

wird sich Internet Capital nicht an seine Höchstkurse heranpirschen. Denn Internet Capital kommt ja schließlich von einem Höchstkurs von 4280 (damals 212, es gab einen 1:20 Split)und liegt momentan um die acht Dollar, nachdem da auch schon einmal Tiefstkurse von 3,40 Dollar waren. Fiele behaupten ja, dass gefallene Engel nie wieder kommen - vergessen dabei aber die Ursachenanalyse. Bei den meisten Fallen Angels ist eine Überschuldung der Absturz - und das ist eine Wiederauferstehung in der Tat schwer. Das ist aber bei Internet Capital nicht der Fall, denn die haben momentan ca. 200 Millionen Cash und Wertpapiere, denen nur 40 Millionen Schulden gegenüberstehen. Weit mehr als die Hälfte des Kurses ist durch diese Nettocash und marktgängige Wertpapiere abgedeckt. Die restliche Marktkapitalisierung von  ca. 130 Millionen entfällt auf ca. 20 Beteiligungen, von denen anteilige Umsätze auch von etwa 130 Millionen Internet Capital zurechenbar sind. Das ist ein schlechter Witz, denn ein Kurs-Umsatz-Multiple von im Schnitt 4 bis 5 wäre angebrachter. Vor einiger Zeit haben sie ihre wohl wertvollste Beteiligung Linkshare zu Geld gemacht, da sie das Reifestadium für einen Venture Capitalisten wie Internet Capital erreicht hatte. Die dafür erzielten 150 Millionen entsprachen in etwas einem Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnis von 6. Logischerweise gibt es auch Beteiligungen, die weniger als den Durchschnitt von 4 bis 5 bringen, wie vermutlich in Kürze GoIndustry, aber ein Wert wie Freeborders, über den ich heute noch schreiben werden, bringt es sicher auch auf höhere Kurs-Umsatz-Verhältnisse.

John Cestar: We were founded on the premise that we could build software in China for delivery to major industries here in the US. The economics for doing that are extremely attractive for clients. At the time -- in 2000 -- you couldn’t get a financial services firm to do that. They were too nervous about China. India at that time was extremely cost effective and successful. So most financial services firms were not interested [in China].

The industry that was interested was retail. It kind of makes sense. Retailers have been working in China for decades. Many of them have infrastructure in China. They’ve been getting their core products from China. China’s no big mystery to most big global retailers. They felt comfortable having their software products built and delivered from China as well...

Our initial investment went to building out the retail vertical of the business. So we invested in hiring retail experts here in the US, because it’s not enough to have engineers in China to build software. If you do that, you’re just a commodity. You have to really have industry-specific business process experts here in the US to drive strong results.

We did that and gained process maturity.

In what kinds of projects?

At that time, most custom non-packaged software the retailers were consuming was and continues to be on the supply chain side of the business. Retailers will buy a package to manage retail point of sale, for example, or buy a package to manage CRM -- customer-facing software.

Retail supply chains are extremely complicated, and retailers typically build large custom systems around categories like PLM, which we specialize in -- product lifecycle management -- around workflow and other supply chain management applications, plus applications that touch logistics and integrate into ERP systems...

Retailers see that as strategic to their businesses. We’ve got 30 retail clients in this business. They all approach it differently. They all have some twist on it that they see as competitively important. Which is why vendors have not succeeded at selling fixed packages on the supply side to retail.

Is that retail vertical business coming from the US or China reps?

[TAL Apparel Group] is an investor. They are part of this $20 million expansion round. TAL is one of the largest retail products manufacturers in the world. [Major customers include Brooks Brothers, L.L. Bean, J.C. Penney, Giordano, Land’s End, Liz Claiborne., Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger.] They’re a private company. They are extremely profitable and strategic to retailers.

Fountain Set is another one. Fountain Set produces 50% of the Gap’s knit fabric. It’s the largest fabric supplier in the world. They’re a shareholder in the company.

What’s going on in retail is a concentration of strategic work with highly technology-enabled partners. It’s kind of the opposite of what went on [in retail] in the early ’80s -- which was, just find more sources of supply, cheaply.

So we were...able to attack the market with a deep knowledge of how key strategic suppliers need to communicate with retailers here in the US.

How do you make the leap to providing services for financial services firms then?

The core strategic value that we have developed is the ability to build complex software products from scratch in China for delivery to the US. That requires a huge degree of process maturity. We work differently today than we did five years ago. Five years ago in China our infrastructure wasn’t as automated as it is now. We were much more focused on heavy lifting -- everybody jump on a new project and do it to perfection. Now we’ve got serious process maturity and repeatability...

Those processes do migrate to other industries well. We’ve completed major work for financial services firms, and the key is bringing on front end talent here in the US -- but using the same processes for defining requirements, getting technical specs to China, communicating well in a formal process with the engineers in China, then delivering back and implementing in the US... It’s all around process maturity.

We’re in the final evaluation for [Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)] level 5. We should have it in December... We’ve had our auditors living with us for two years. And the audit firm is from India because CMMI -- as a value -- was really developed and proven by the major outsourcing firms in India. We realized we didn’t want to have an auditor from China who was basically looking for us to get to Level 5 as a marketing matter.

Why are financial services so important to your company?

FTVentures [is] a special kind of firm. [Their] limited partners -- people who gave them the capital to invest -- are the 33 largest financial services firm in the world -- everybody from Citigroup to UBS to Deutsche Bank to JP Morgan. They really are a consortium of financial services firms with a mission of giving companies expansion capital to deliver services to financial services.

Delivering technologies to financial services requires the same degree of industry knowledge as delivering in retail. If you’re going to work on a supply chain in retail, you’re going to have to know how the retail supply chain really works. If you’re going to work on a core banking system, a trading system, a cash management system -- whatever in financial services -- you really need to have the industry expertise to have credibility.

We were interested in their partnership, in their ability to recruit top talent, in their track record in building outsourcing services firms. You can see on their Web site, they’ve built some successful firms in India that deliver services to Wall Street firms.

The reason [the financial services firms] invested in FTVentures was to turn around and be the client for the firms that FT [funds]. It’s a virtuous circle. It’s really the bank’s money. The banks give it to FT to decide where to place it, and then the banks become customers of the companies that FT invests in.

We’re not exclusive to financial services. But in our business, you say, “Hey, let’s not reinvent the business model. India did it.” ...The top Indian firms work in multiple verticals, not just one. Of the top five Indian firms, financial services is the largest vertical. The reason is, there’s huge profit. Financial services firms dedicate a large percent of their budgets to IT and outsourcing.

I think last year, there was about $12 billion that went from the US to the firms in India... Half of it was from Wall Street.

Most major Wall Street firms decide, we are going to outsource. Then it’s a question of, what are we outsourcing? What are we keeping in-house? How strategic do we get with our outsourcing firms? Do we throw projects over the wall? Or do we actually bring them inside our firewall? So from China, they’re inside our firewall in NY and can do large-scale maintenance and integration work. It’s really a co-sourcing or co-location model. That’s where you get groups like Infosys inside Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch has got 2,000 people at Infosys.

Who’s your competition?

If you go in the Internet and put in “China software outsourcing” or “China solutions outsourcing,” you’ll see a bunch of entrepreneurs from China who have no understanding of how major global companies consume services... Lots of companies that are working in the China market are not sophisticated enough in terms of their process, in terms of their English language, in terms of their business knowledge [or] knowledge of how major western clients work, to deliver to them.

[So the competition] really is the guys from India.

Now, China has an advantage over India that’s significant. We’re not saying that all the business in the world is going to move from India to China. But China is more cost effective than India, significantly. And part of that is what I call “the disease of success.” India has been so successful, it’s gone haywire. So many firms are out there now, and there’s been wage inflation. There’s been a lot of turnover at the firms. And the clients feel this. India firms are passing on price increases to clients, because their own wage bases have gone up 60% in the last 18 months.

That’s driving people to look at China for the first time.

Also, more importantly, in the financial services world, there’s the sense that major firms got overcommitted to India. Just as a matter of risk mitigation and diversification -- they are bankers after all -- they need to send 5%, 15%, half of it, whatever the number, to China. They have to diversify away from India a bit.

The only place where you can get the kind of scale that you can get in India is China.

What are your goals?

We have 400 [people] now in China. We plan to be at a thousand in 12 months. We’re hiring between 30 and 50 people a month. And we’re being selective in hiring. The good news is the talent pool is huge and well qualified. The education system is producing results. More importantly, multi-nationals are training good technologists in China.

So IBM has huge facilities in China. Microsoft has huge facilities in China. What they’re doing is not what we’re doing, which is offering talent from China to the rest of the world. They’re taking Microsoft products from the US and using teams from China to localize that product for the China market.

Since we started four years ago, what’s gone on in China is a dramatic shift in multi-nationals going to China. There’s not an industry in the US today that has not identified China as their number one growth story. Four years ago, Microsoft had 50 people in China. Now it’s 5,000.

It’s enabled us to tap into that. It’s great training. We’ve hired many people from multi-nationals.

They know as technologists that their careers become valuable if two things happen: One, if they work in an English-speaking environment. So if you’re localizing an IBM product for China, you’re speaking Chinese, you’re delivering a product for the Chinese market that’s Chinese-based. English is important. The other is the opportunity to work for multiple western-based clients outside of China. You know if you’re delivering to a major bank in NY and you succeed, that is a major accomplishment and career builder.

What is recruiting like in China vs. the US?

...The key to success in operating in China is not having expatriates run the technology facilities. Expatriates meaning Americans, Indians, anybody outside of China.

What’s lacking in China -- which is true of many developing economies, but particularly in China -- there are outstanding technologists -- world-class. We have many clients who will attest to that. The challenge is identifying and recruiting good senior managers, who know what it means to be good custodians over someone else’s assets, not theirs.

Part of it is the history of the country. There are many bureaucrats in that economy... In the US, on the left hand side [of a bell curve], there are relatively few bureaucrats in our economy as a percent of the working population. Relatively few people work in government. Most people work in the middle, and professional management. And we have relatively few entrepreneurs on the right hand side as a percent of the working population. China is the exact reverse of that curve. There’s a huge group of bureaucrats who are well trained technologists, who work for state-owned industries. And they want to make the leap to a private company. But if you hire those guys, nothing gets done. They just don’t know how to deliver the quality. On the right hand side of the curve, there’s a huge group of entrepreneurs in China, but if you’re going to rest your company’s fortunes on that group, it’s a big risk. You’re not really sure what they’re up to. In the middle of the curve, there’s a tiny group of professional managers.

We spend all of our effort, identifying, recruiting, training and retaining those people. Initially we recruited at the top -- 20 people from the US who were Chinese citizens, who were from the US or Canada or Europe who were on H-1 visas or some kind of visas and working for western software companies... They had a taste for how western clients consumed technology services.

So we were able to populate our initial management ranks in China with those people.

Then [those management groups] spend a great deal of effort identifying and recruiting in China.

We’re well known in China. Where we are in Shenzhen -- in southern China, fairly close to Hong Kong -- [there’s a] national draw. If you go around the facility and ask people where they’re from, nobody’s from Shenzhen. But they all go there because of the opportunity and because major firms like IBM and Microsoft are set up there.

We recruit through our network in China. We use Web sites. We use job fairs. We do use recruiters as well...

Last year, we went through 20,000 applications and invited 3,400 for first-round interviews and testing. We invited 800 back for second round interviews and further testing. We gave 200 offers and 170 accepted.

What we were recruiting for last year, we definitely emphasized English language. People must speak English as well as being strong technologists. We tie our comp plan to demonstrating increasingly proficient English skills. You can be a great technologist, but if you can’t pass a level 2 English exam that’s online, then you don’t get your comp.

...We do a lot of training around how to speak with clients. What clients are concerned about, how to ask questions, how to listen. These things are not obvious to people who are good technologists in China but haven’t worked with Western clients...

What are the US-based folks doing?

We’re working in three distinct industries: financial services, retail and high tech. The main expert [for retail, for example,] used to run the women’s business at Levi Strauss & Co. She has a couple of decades in retail. All of our retail team has great degree of retail credibility and business credibility. So what they do is initiate discussions with the client. Clients typically are very vague in the beginning: “We need a system to coordinate with 10 suppliers.” It’s the CIO’s job and his or her team’s job to translate that mandate into a technology project that meets the needs of the end users and that works and that is cost effective.

The industry experts on the front end will work with the business users to really flesh out what the use of this product is, will define the high-level requirements, will drive those high-level requirements into detailed use cases and detailed functional specs.

Ultimately those specifications are transferred in standardized documents we’ve developed over the years to a team lead in China...someone with eight to 12 years of experience in application development and in running teams. That team lead will take the hand-off.

And we have deployed in China solutions managers who will get assigned to the project as well, who will clarify any questions on the spot in China about requirements, will build a sizing plan and execute against the documentation.

Sizing?

Sizing is the key to the whole thing. It’s the key to setting the project delivery schedule, setting customer expectations, it’s the key to pricing. And we are very highly productive in China. Yet we don’t push people 80 hours a day. It’s important to setting client expectations.

Most of the clients take our deliverables and use them in their business. If we slip on timelines, it’s very painful for them. We’ve gotten sophisticated about understanding, “OK, in a product cycle in this retailer, they need this system in place by June 1st, in order to hit a Jan. 1 set of deliveries that need to be in stores by May 15th.” The implications of our delivery slipping is major for their business because we understand how that retailer deploys software. We understand that retailer’s own merchandising calendar.

One of the reasons our growth has been so swift is that we are close to the client, and we make decisions close to the client. We push decision authority in this organization down to client partners who live with our clients.

We’re doing the same with financial services. We’ve been building HR systems for financial services most recently. And the whole compliance area in financial services is a very big growth area. [Sarbanes-Oxley] is a subset of that.

Like retailers, financial services firms are global. They work in many different geographies and legal environments.

We’re working on a number of systems that give early warnings to managers back in the US if managers in a different country are out of compliance, either with specifics of regulations in that country or with the global regulations internally at the bank. So it’s these training systems that will ask critical questions of key managers every week. [As a manager] you’re able to understand pretty quickly if their understanding of regulations is sufficient. And if not, you get them additional training.

What systems are you using?

We’re heavy users of Skype. We’re heavy users of formalized process. If you start talking informally on the phone -- you can do that to clarify specific issues, but if that’s the process, there will be communication error. If we’re ever off a 10th of a degree in a delivery, it’s because of communication errors. You want to squeeze out all communication error. So we have documentation and processes around issue resolution, around decision checkpoints, around escalation procedures. We constantly train on and reinforce process. You cannot work in an ad hoc way.

We’ve invested in systems to do it, very sophisticated software systems from companies like [IBM Rational Software] and others that help to put a workflow process around issue resolution.

Talk about intellectual property. I can see it be important to financial services, but retail?

I think the whole category needs to be taken very, very seriously. I wouldn’t want to distinguish between industries. It is true, if you build a complex back end system [for retail], there’s no commercial value to anybody. You’re not going to sell that thing on the streets of Shenzhen. But at the same time, these systems are delivering competitive advantage to the client. They don’t want any of that knowledge going anywhere else.

It’s important that we have security inside our facility... When you come to our facility, it looks like it’s in San Jose CA. It happens to be in China. It happens to enjoy the world’s most cost-effective environment for doing this kind of work. The teams are dedicated and the infrastructure is secure. And there’s no chance that work from one client is suddenly going to show up in the environment of another client. We encourage our clients to visit us. This is a big reason we’ve grown so swiftly. When people do come to visit, they say, “Wow, this place does look like it could be in California.”

For example, there is no paper. You will not see a scrap of paper. No one can bring anything in, no one can bring anything out. Everyone is searched on the way in and on the way out. We have no USB ports. They’re all blocked out. You can’t email, except for dedicated people in dedicated rooms.

...It looks almost like we’ve gone too far. The people in China weren’t used to that. [They’d say,] “What are we building in this place?” It looks like a government lockdown.

Now it’s clear, you’re working on important work. This work you’re doing is for the world’s largest companies. And it’s strategic and competitive to them. It actually adds seriousness to the environment. It’s like if you wear a suit to work, you probably act more serious than if you wear jeans.

So what is the dress code?

...We don’t require people to wear coat and tie, but everybody has to wear a collared shirt with slacks. No short skirts.

At first, people said, “Wait a minute. We’re executing over here. We can’t be marketing.” And we said, “No, no. You may not be explicitly marketing, but this facility is a big part of our company’s presentation, because people want to come see it.”

We want to squeeze out the whole thing that this is a college all-nighter. It’s not a college all-nighter. It’s a professional environment. We’re going to do all we can to eliminate all the heavy lifting. We want to run a facility that’s highly automated. The work is very professional, but well meted out, well planned. We’re not having  a lot of crisis. It’s not a success in my view if we have to get our best people around a problem, stay up all night for three days, to deliver to the client, even if the client is happy. That’s too much heavy lifting.

Useful Links:

Freeborders
www.freeborders.com/

An interview with Freeborders' other co-CEO, Ramsey Walker
www.sourcingmag.com/Home/home.aspx?i=02_12/12/2005_plink_895_1

How To Start Working with China (18 Practical Tips)
www.sourcingmag.com/home/home.aspx?i=02_12/...5_cn_740_5_00_00

TAL Group
www.talgroup.com/eng/home.html

FTVentures
www.ftventures.com/

Internet Capital Group
www.internetcapital.com


Dian Schaffhauser is the editor and publisher of Sourcingmag.com. Reach her at dian@sourcingmag.com.




Improve your IT outsourcing efforts
Get articles like this sent to you free once a week!


Click Go! to start your subscription
Your work email here:    
We value your privacy  We will not rent your email to anyone.

 

 


Home   |  Manage Subscriptions   |  Privacy Policy   |  Contact Us   |  What's RSS?  
 
© 2005 sourcingMag.com, a division of CTQ Media  

There is just a huge new supply of qualified, educated technical programmers coming out of schools, coming out of some of the captive sites that Microsoft and others have set up. So what we see is just a tremendously educated, tremendously motivated supply of labor. That is enormously attractive to US and European and rest-of-the-world clients. So, start with the labor pool.

Behind that is, of course, an education system, and the education system in China is outstanding and really very horizontal. Unlike India, where you have much more elite type of an education system with relatively few people coming out of [one of the Indian Institutes of Technology] schools and some of the other [schools], China is much more broad, and so that is driving the labor supply.

The other aspect is no one has broken out on the vender side with any kind of scale. We think we are in the process of doing that. What I mean by that is real scale -- in this business, many thousands of people, not 50, not 100, not even a couple of hundred. It is many thousands of people. We will have 700 or more by the end of this year -- between 1,000 and 2,000 next year. We have Fortune 100, Fortune 1000 customers today, and we are simply adding to that.

We are optimistic both on the supply side and on the competitive landscape and on the demand side.

When you talk about the China market, there is a focus on regions. How do clients even decide? Is it the case that most of the US or European companies going over there are looking for sourcing solutions and are sticking with regions where they have already got a toehold through their manufacturing?

We are in Shenzhen -- right across from Hong Kong, a 40-minute ferry boat ride. That is a tremendous advantage. It has 11 million people. It is obviously a big city. It has increasing amounts of first-world infrastructure. In Shenzhen there are a couple of advantages. Number one, the supply of labor is strong. It is a point of attraction for many of the regions all around China, people coming into Shenzhen.

Number two, the proximity to Hong Kong is a tremendous advantage for us because customers are coming to Hong Kong all the time. They either tack on this trip, or they come to see us and then they will tack on other stuff. They are in Hong Kong, the business center of the world and so it is very easy for them.

The costs in Shanghai are actually higher, and the supply is lower. Beijing, to be honest, I don’t have the statistics on.

What kinds of mistakes are American companies making around doing business with China?

One mistake would be to drop a bunch of westerners in to manage the operation. That is not what we have done. We have used Chinese nationals to manage the team there. That is one thing -- how you set up the organization.

Two is, of course, respecting the culture, respecting the holidays. Don’t force them to buy US holidays and that sort of thing.

I think the other thing is to recognize that doing work offshore is not the same as doing work onshore. You don’t get the water cooler conversations. You need to have really well documented processes to succeed.



comments (0) | PermaLink |


Improve your IT outsourcing efforts
Get articles like this sent to you free once a week!


Click Go! to start your subscription
Your work email here:    
We value your privacy  

endlich wieder sagen sicher manche. Zeitweilig, als IPO's und Verkäufe nicht liefen, hatte sich Internet Capital schon einmal dem Weg zum integrierten Technologiekonzern verschrieben. Das war Quatsch, das können andere besser - nicht dagegen Wagnisfinanzierer sein, wo man im Internetbereich lange Erfahrungen hat - auch bittere. Aber nach Popper führt ja nun einmal der Weg zur Erkenntnis durch unsere Irrtümer.

Erfreulich ist, dass sie nach Metastorm jetzt mit Whitefence erneut eine Neuerwerbung aufweisen, die in das Raster eines Wagnisfinanzierers fällt: Hoffnungsvolle kleine noch nicht weit entwickelte Firmen kaufen, ihre Weiterentwicklung begleiten und sie dann beim Erreichen einer bestimmten Reife verkaufen.

Das ist die Neuerwerbung wo sie jetzt 39% halten:

www.whitefence.com /corporate/index.html

Ich glaube hier wird ganz deutlich, dass sie sich wie ich meine richtigerweise wieder auf ihre ursprüngliche Vision des Inkubators besinnen: Beteiligungen in frühem Stadium übernehmen und anschließend verkaufen.

Sie haben ja einiges verkauft: Linkshare für 150 Millionen, Blackboard wird momentan nach und nach versilbert - insgesamt dürften da auch um die 80 Millionen rausspringen. Und letzte Woche war da ja auch noch der Verkauf von Co-nect an den weltweit größten Bildungskonzern Pearson - nach meinen Schätzungen dürften da so um die 10 Millionen erlöst worden sein. All das waren reife Gesellschaften und von denen hat Internet Capital momentan noch einige: Die Erntezeit ist da. Aber man muss logischerweise auch neu säen (siehe obige Internetadresse). Das ist noch ein sehr kleines Unternehmen, das in 2005 ca. 9 Millionen umsetzen wird, aber auch in 2005 ein Umsatzwachstum von 70% hatte.

“We have built something unique,” adds Maxwell. “We are not only a marketing company, we have developed our own highly advanced transaction and server-to-server integration technologies, which support our nationwide partner network consisting of several hundred service providers and channel partners. Our technology, which has processed 2.2 million transactions to date, provides our service providers with tremendous operational and cost savings, and makes us rapidly scalable within a large market opportunity.”

Walter Buckley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Internet Capital Group, noted “We’ve spent significant resources evaluating online marketing companies, and believe WhiteFence represents a valuable addition to the ICG network. With a web-enabled Internet software platform, a comprehensive, scaleable solution that captures important transactional data, and a very large market opportunity, WhiteFence is positioned to create long-term value for ICG and its stockholders.” “Our vision is simple,” said Maxwell, “. . . to become the one-stop electronic marketplace for all consumers to shop, buy and pay for essential home services, as well as other ongoing services and relevant products, both residential and commercial, domestic and abroad.”

Revolution Partners, LLC, a Boston based investment banking firm, provided placement services in connection with this financing.

About WhiteFence

WhiteFence, a Houston-based company, is the nationwide leader in online service transactions for essential home services. WhiteFence provides a unique service that enables consumers to compare available service provider offerings at their particular address, and immediately complete all of their transactions through one easy-to-use online platform – no call-backs, link-offs or need for consumers to repeat information. WhiteFence also creates significant value for its service provider partners, which include major phone, video, high speed internet, electricity, natural gas and banking providers. In addition to being a great customer acquisition source for service providers, WhiteFence also provides order processing efficiencies through its patent pending transaction and server-to-server integration technologies, which include multi-lateral electronic communications with and within back-end provisioning systems. WhiteFence reaches millions of moving households with timely move and home-related services through company-owned websites and through exclusive relationships with hundreds of channel partners, such as multifamily property owners, real estate companies, relocation services, web portals, home builders and other organizations.

WhiteFence headquarters are located in Houston, Texas. For more information, please visit www.WhiteFence.com.

About Internet Capital Group

Internet Capital Group (www.internetcapital.com) owns and builds Internet software companies that drive business productivity and reduce transaction costs between firms. Founded in 1996, ICG devotes its expertise and capital to maximizing the success of these platform companies that are delivering on-demand software and service applications to customers worldwide.

-###-

Safe Harbor Statement under Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

The statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties including but not limited to risks associated with the uncertainty of future performance of our partner companies, acquisitions or dispositions of interests in partner companies, the effect of economic conditions generally, capital spending by customers and development of the e-commerce and information technology markets, and uncertainties detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.

Formed in 1999, GoIndustry has grown rapidly both through acquisitions and organically. It now has offices in 15 countries, employs 246 staff, and has sold equipment into more than 60 countries so far in 2005. The used machinery and equipment market is highly fragmented and estimated to be worth more than $100bn per annum of which approximately 45 per cent. is GoIndustry’s core addressable market of ‘inside the factory’ equipment, such as machine tools, plastics, textiles and food processing equipment.

Revenues are generated either on an agency or principal basis. The seller pays GoIndustry a percentage of the gross sales value of the equipment and in addition an incremental fee or Buyer’s Premium is added to the price of each lot. Fees are charged separately for valuations. GoIndustry also buys equipment and re-sells it as principal or guarantees the seller a minimum sales realisation value. This involves additional risk but offers higher margins and the company believes that this part of the business can be expanded with the additional cash resources that will be available to it following its acquisition by Grasshopper.

GoIndustry is joining AIM in order to raise the profile of its business and improve brand recognition. It will also gain access to Grasshopper’s cash to help finance expansion. GoIndustry will use its shares to help finance organic growth and further acquisitions, which would expand the group into new markets and consolidate its position in existing core markets.

GoIndustry Chief Executive John Allbrook said: “Our scale and global presence puts us in an ideal position to take advantage of current market trends. Companies relocating their factories to lower cost countries and mergers and acquisitions activity creates demand for our valuation and auction services. Secured lending products require accurate valuations for insurance and risk mitigation. We have an experienced team, which can provide all the valuation and auction services required by our customers. We also have a very scalable business model with the infrastructure to cope with much higher sales volumes. We believe that by joining AIM we will gain access to London’s institutional investor base, which will help us accelerate our growth


Noch einmal zu der Bewertung von Godindustry mit 33 Millionen britischen Pfund. Der tatsächliche Wert von GoIndustry wird sich im Januar aufgrund von Angeobt und Nachfrage einspielen. Warum also dann die Wertangabe 33 Millionen britische Pfund. Wie ich auch schon früher angeführt hatte, benutzt man weitgehend einen Börsemantel um an die AIM-Börse in London zu gelangen. Nun muss aber der Wert des Mantel und eventuell vorhandener Restvermögen ins Verhältnis zum Wert GoIndustry gesetzt werden. Der Wert von Grasshoppers beträgt momentan ca. 5 Millionen. Käme GoIndustry dazu, müssten es logischerweise 38 Millionen sein.

Un jetzt kommt die spannende Frage: Wie bewertet der Markt das imneuen Jahr? Sehr positive Entwicklungen sind also angesagt.

wie Ihr der folgenden Adresse entnehmen könnt:

thomson.finance.lycos.com/lycos/iwatch/...w_ticker?ticker=icge

So extrem wie gestern war es noch nie, denn die Non-I-watch, hinter denen sich die Hedgies verbergen, sorgten für 70% der Umsätze, Institutionals für für ihre Verhältnisse sehr hohe 30% (dabei nicht Umsätze mit Haltequoten verwechseln, die liegen bei den Institutionals bei Internet Capital bei über 50%, die Umsatzanteile liegen normalerweise sehr viel niedriger als die Haltequoten, da die Institutionals sehr wenig umschichten)und nur 3% der Umsätze kamen von Privaten.

Gestern hatten wir das für einen Kurssprung optimale Muster: Shorter Hedge verkauft leer an Institutionals.

Holdings Summary
 
  ICGE  
Internet Capital Group, Inc. NASDAQ-NM  


 Ownership Summary  Description    
 

 

   
INSTITUTIONAL  
Total Number of Holders  88  

% of Shares Outstanding  51.41%  

Total Shares Held  20,208,423  

Total Value of Holdings  $158,434,036  

Net Activity  2,177,090  

 
Top 5 Holders  Shares Held  
BARCLAYS GLOBAL...  2,804,182  

TRAFELET & CO L...  2,602,000  

GRUBER & MCBAIN...  2,504,056  

BLAIR WILLIAM &...  1,869,989  

GENDELL JEFFREY...  1,658,100  

und die Institutionals im vorhergehende Posting auch

und die beiden Vorstände weiter oben mit ihren Insiderkäufen auch.

Re: icge has NO VISION
by: onlyearn
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Buy  12/15/05 02:27 pm
Msg: 238719 of 238735

Pass is pass all the stock after the boom of the new economy lost billions.
But now you can see that ICGE is improving,they have cash in the hand as much as them capital and many others assets,they rebuilding step by step and they doing fine.Of course this is only my opinion but i belive so.

Ich glaube, dass gegen die vielen guten Fundamentals, die Ihr auch in diesem Thread nachlesen könnt, der Shortseller nicht den Hauch einer Chance hat. Ehe das der Fall ist, solltet Ihr aber schon drin sein.

In addition to our transaction services, CreditTrade provides credit data subscription services that include CreditTrade Benchmarks - ideal for mark-to-market purposes; and CreditTrade Market Prices - a comprehensive set of intra day market prices. CreditTrade Insight, a web-based user interface to our extensive CDS database, was launched in January 2003. This new service allows our clients access to all of CreditTrade's data and offers users tailored search, graphics and data download facilities. CreditTrade Insight also includes a new set of credit default swap indices and other analytical datasets.

CreditTrade is focused exclusively on credit: our aim is to give our clients the best possible service for all their credit market needs.

Background

Founded in 1999, CreditTrade began to establish a reputation for innovation by being amongst the first companies to execute an asset swap, credit derivative and secondary loan on-line.

CreditTrade continues to innovate with a number of new services including real time market pages and a credit data subscription service. In addition, we capitalise on our strengths in default swaps and other credit derivatives and have built a business in a broad range of credit products including asset swaps and loans. With our exclusive focus, independence and backed up by our leading market position, CreditTrade is now a pre-eminent platform for trading credit and other credit services.

Constantly striving to provide clients with the service they need, CreditTrade quickly recognised the importance of the hybrid approach to trade execution by hiring a team of expert brokers in November 1999.

CreditTrade has continued to build on our strengths and as well as a broad range of products and services, our transactional teams provide worldwide coverage, serving our clients from London, Singapore and New York based offices. We also have an exclusive correspondent relationship with Prebon Yamane in Tokyo.

As an information and service provider, CreditTrade offers a range of credit data subscription services including CreditTrade Benchmarks and CreditTrade Market Prices. CreditTrade has launched real time liquid market website and our credit data subscription services based on a historical database going back to 1997.

A brief history of expert innovation

Management Profiles

A reputation for excellence, integrity and commitment is supported by our established and qualified teams

Chief Executive - Paul Ellis

Prior to founding CreditTrade in 1999, Paul had a 13-year career in investment banking with a variety of roles in corporate finance and derivatives including the role of MD and Global Head of Structured Derivatives at BZW. Paul then set up the financial IT business, Mutant Technology, in 1997 which won the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 award in 2001.

Adviser to the Board - Adam Wethered

During 24 years in investment banking, Adam held several senior positions at JPMorgan including Chairman of London Management Committee, Head of Credit, COO Europe, Co-head of Corporate Finance and Head of Private Banking and Asset Management, EMEA.

Chief Operating Officer - Mike Bardrick

Mike has 22 years banking & financial services experience in a variety of roles; the last 5 years of which have been at CreditTrade. Before that Mike’s experience spanned Technology and Operations within the Treasury and Retail Banking environment of Barclays Bank. His scope of experience includes managing day-to-day dealing operations, international payment systems, business process re-engineering and IT operations. Mike is responsible for the day to day running of the transactions business.

Regional Offices

Experienced regional management in place in New York, London and Singapore.

Core Services

Well qualified London based teams manage our Legal, Compliance, IT, Operations, Finance, HR and Marketing requirements.

During the current year equipment from GoIndustry has been sold into 75 countries. The group has a presence itself in 15 countries around the globe after making several acquisitions. The company claims to be the market leader auctioneer in Europe and Asia. Chief executive John Allbrook joined from global giant GE last December.

He says the business has thrived in recent years from ‘companies relocating their factories to lower cost countries and mergers and acquisitions activity creating a demand for our valuation and auction services.’ He hopes the AIM admission will accelerate the company’s growth.

Cenkos acts as broker to GoIndustry and Grant Thornton is nominated adviser.

Christopher Spink

Handel eingegriffen und Scheinaufträge eliminiert. Dazu wurde der Kanal für diese Art von Aufträgen, Island, der Hauskanal der Shortseller, teilweise aufgehalten.

Ich hatte hier ja schon sehr häufig mich gewundert, dass in den USA Dinge möglich sind, die z.B. in Deutschland nach dem Wertpapierhandelgesetz als unerlaubte Kursmanipulation gelten. Dazu gehört z.B., dass man etwas über dem Limit Aufträge stellt, die man aber sofort zurückzieht, wenn ihre Erfüllung droht.

Ich vermute einmal, dass der von mir vermutete heugtige Eingriff der Börsenaufsicht vieles verändern wird, das Verändern der Kurs entgegen der jeweiligen Marktlage wird schwieriger und extre beäugt werden.

Ehe das vollständig zum Tragen kommt, sollte man auf jeden Fall drin sein.

Was sich dann im Januar für eine Marktkapitalisierung herausstellt, wird das Ergebnis von Angebot und Nachfrage sein. Orientieren wird man sich zum Beispiel an den Umsätzen, die für 2004 mit 45 Millionen Dollar angegeben werden (wenn man Pfund- oder Euro-Beträge umrechnet). Ein positives Ebitda ist schon vorhanden, wie man Aussagen bei Internet Capital werten kann, die das bei sieben von neun Kernbeteiligungen am 30.9. so sahen, zu denen auch GoIndustry gehörte, beim Gewinn ist das vermutlich noch nicht der Fall. Hinzu kämen die Wachstumsausssichten, die nach der Ebay-Delle jetzt wieder besser zu sein scheinen.

Portfolio Company News  

Leading Industrial Machinery and Equipment Auctioneer, GoIndustry, Reverses into AIM Listed Grasshopper Investments Plc


December 13, 2005 Grasshopper Investments plc (‘Grasshopper’) has today agreed to acquire GoIndustry AG, a global leader in auctions and valuations of used industrial machinery and equipment, subject to the consent of shareholders. Grasshopper will issue up to 160,002,965 shares for GoIndustry valuing the Enlarged Group at circa £32.6m.  The Enlarged Group will be renamed GoIndustry plc and the shares will commence trading on AIM on 5th January 2006 (under the AIM symbol GOI), following a meeting of shareholders that has been arranged for 4th January 2006. Cenkos Securities Limited is the broker and Grant Thornton Corporate Finance is the nominated adviser.

Formed in 1999, GoIndustry has grown rapidly both through acquisitions and organically. It now has offices in 15 countries, employs 246 staff, and has sold equipment into more than 60 countries so far in 2005.  The used machinery and equipment market is highly fragmented and estimated to be worth more than $100bn per annum of which approximately 45 per cent. is GoIndustry’s core addressable market of ‘inside the factory’ equipment, such as machine tools, plastics, textiles and food processing equipment.

GoIndustry is the market leader in Europe and Asia and has a significant presence in North America, yet it still only has a small percentage of the market.  It has built its strong market position through a combination of online and live auctions, negotiated sales and valuation services and in 2004 organised more than 600 on-site and online auctions generating net revenues of €36m.  More than 40 professionals conduct valuations across many sectors and over the years a large database has been built up to assist in establishing   accurate valuations in the future. Additionally, GoIndustry has built a global database of more than one million equipment buyers, which gives it the edge over competitors’ looking to break into the market.

Equipment predominantly becomes available for sale though plant closures arising from business failure or downsizing; plant closures arising from the need for lower cost/higher productivity manufacturing; when equipment is replaced or ‘‘Traded Out’’; or when replaced or ‘‘Traded Out’’ equipment is re-furbished/re-manufactured for re-sale.  GoIndustry’s main clients are insolvency practitioners, corporations and finance houses. They include Ernst & Young, PWC, GE, Barclays, HSBC, Bosch and General Motors. Multinational companies have already developed long-term relationships with the company which involve GoIndustry managing their equipment assets and surplus equipment disposals.

Revenues are generated either on an agency or principal basis.  The seller pays GoIndustry a percentage of the gross sales value of the equipment and in addition an incremental fee or Buyer’s Premium is added to the price of each lot. Fees are charged separately for valuations.  GoIndustry also buys equipment and re-sells it as principal or guarantees the seller a minimum sales realisation value. This involves additional risk but offers higher margins and the company believes that this part of the business can be expanded with the additional cash resources that will be available to it following its acquisition by Grasshopper.

The GoIndustry management team has extensive mergers and acquisitions experience having successfully acquired and integrated a number of international businesses. Between 2000 and 2001 it bought Henry Butcher International, the market leader in the UK and a major player in Asia, Karner & Co GmbH and Plohmann GmbH, two of the leading equipment auctioneers in Germany, and Appelboom NV, a leading Belgian auctioneer. It also bought the outstanding 50% of Henry Butcher International’s US joint venture AssetTrade.com, which brought with it Michael Fox International, one of the largest used equipment auctioneers in the US. GoIndustry has retained all the brands, successfully retained the experienced staff in these acquired businesses, and despite the time and cost expended in integrating these acquisitions, has achieved positive Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (‘‘EBITDA’’) year on year since 2002.  The Board hopes to use this experience to acquire additional businesses.

GoIndustry is joining AIM in order to raise the profile of its business and improve brand recognition. It will also gain access to Grasshopper’s cash to help finance expansion.  GoIndustry will use its shares to help finance organic growth and further acquisitions, which would expand the group into new markets and consolidate its position in existing core markets.  

GoIndustry Chief Executive John Allbrook said: “Our scale and global presence puts us in an ideal position to take advantage of current market trends. Companies relocating their factories to lower cost countries and mergers and acquisitions activity creates demand for our valuation and auction services. Secured lending products require accurate valuations for insurance and risk mitigation. We have an experienced team, which can provide all the valuation and auction services required by our customers. We also have a very scalable business model with the infrastructure to cope with much higher sales volumes. We believe that by joining AIM we will gain access to London’s institutional investor base, which will help us accelerate our growth.”

DIRECTORS

Following completion, the Board will consist of the following individuals:

William Fox, Non-Executive Chairman (aged 63), has been in the auction business since 1961 and has conducted real estate and machinery and equipment auctions throughout the United States and around the world. He is past President and Chairman of the Board of the Auction Marketing Institute, and is a charter member of the Certified Auctioneers Institute (CAI).  William is also on the teaching faculty of the CAI at Indiana University, is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Auctioneers Association and a past President of the Auctioneers Association of Maryland. He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Auctioneers Association Education Institute and is serving a second term on the National Auctioneers Association Board of Directors.  William has been Chairman of GoIndustry since October, 2004.  

William’s professional and business experience includes the practice of law as a Maryland attorney, brokering real estate transactions in numerous US states, a five-year career in the securities industry in sales and management, and holding senior executive positions with two New York Stock Exchange member firms.

John Allbrook, Chief Executive Officer (aged 44), has been involved in equipment sales, asset finance and business management in an international context for more than 20 years. He has had extensive involvement and experience particularly in corporate and strategic planning, acquisitions and in integration and general management in a multi-cultural environment. He spent nine years at General Electric, during which he held a variety of positions including Managing Director (Europe, Middle East and Africa) of Sun Microsystems Finance (a GE managed alliance), European Commercial Director of GE Fleet Services and Managing Director of GE European Financing Solutions. Prior to GE, John held various commercial roles at Dana Commercial Credit, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Pitney Bowes. John has a BA (Hons) Degree from the University of Sussex and is a Six Sigma certified Green Belt.

Alex Hoye, Chief Financial Officer (aged 36), has a background in finance and corporate restructuring, is GoIndustry’s CFO and has been with GoIndustry since co-founding it six years ago. He previously worked in the Finance and Strategy Division at Disney where he developed experience in M&A, equity analyst communications support and $400 million plus film financing fund management. He also project led the launch of the international Theatrical Productions division. In addition, Alex has been a consultant at McKinsey & Co. where he worked in corporate restructuring, M&A, eCommerce and market entry strategy in the Americas and in Europe. Alex has an MBA from Harvard University and received a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Stanford University.

Kamal Advani, Non-Executive Director (aged 45), is currently a Managing Director at Internet Capital Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICGE). In this capacity, Kamal holds directorships with GoIndustry AG, Freeborders, Inc., eCredit.com, Inc. and Marketron International, Inc. Prior to this Kamal was with Advanta Corporation Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVNA) where he held several positions including the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Advanta Business Cards, a leading issuer of credit cards to small businesses. Earlier in his career, Kamal was a senior manager in the financial advisory services group at Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP), where he provided financial consulting services to a broad range of companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, financing transactions and business reorganizations.

David Macnamara, Non-Executive Director (aged 48), was a stockbroker for 25 years specialising in market making in UK smaller companies. He was a director of NatWest Investment Bank and a founding director of Winterflood Securities, a wholly owned subsidiary of Close Brothers Group plc. Until his retirement in 2004 he was Joint Chief Executive of Winterflood Securities and an executive director of Close Brothers Group plc.

David Bailey, Non-Executive Director (aged 56), was a stockbroker with Phillips and Drew for 18 years from 1970, specialising in equity and derivative markets. Since 1988, he has been a non-executive director of a number of public and private companies, including Appleyard Group plc, Hay & Robertson Group plc, Finsbury Asset Management Limited and Sutherlands (Stockbrokers) Limited. He is currently Chairman of DataCash Group plc, the AIM listed payment service provider. David’s wide experience includes mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, business angel financing and corporate governance through membership of various audit and remuneration committees.  

unter den Beteiligungen von Internet Capitals sind diejenigen Beteiligungen, die einen Wert von über 100 Millionen Dollar verkörpern bzw nicht weit davon entfernt sind: ICGCommerce, Freeborders, Starcite und vermutlich auch Credittrade.

Am sichersten bin ich mir beim Übersteigen eines 100-Millionen-Wertes einer Beteiligung bei ICGCommerce, u.a. auch deshalb weil Internet Capital da mit 75% einen besonders hohen Anteil hat. Mit knapp 350 Beschäftigen dürfte diese weltweit größte Pure Play im Bereichd des Outsourcing der Beschaffung indirekter Güter in 2005 ca. 45 Millionen umsetzen. Bei einem von mir sehr vorsichtig angesetzten Multiple von 4 ergibt sich dann ein Wert für diese Beteiligung von 180 Millionen, die 75% von Internet Capital wären dann 135 Millionen wert. Dass ist in etwa so viel wie nach Abzug der vorhandenen Nettocash/Wertpapier von der momentanen Marktkapitalisierung von 310 Millionen übrig bleibt, um den Wert von ca. 20 Beteiligungen darzustellen. Wie Ihr seht schafft das schon eine der besonders wertvollen Beteiligungen, die restlichen 19 Beteiligungen gibt es dann umsonst. Dass eine derartige Konstellation enorme Kursspielräume eröffnet, ist wohl einleuchtend.

Hier noch einiges zum Betätigungsfeld von Internet Capital:

www.ism.ws/ConfPastandOnlineDaily/Files/May05/DC-Hausmann.pdf

Der letzte Satz im letzten Posting hätte heißen müssen:

Hier noch einiges zum Betätigungsfeld von ICGCommerce:

www.ism.ws/ConfPastandOnlineDaily/Files/May05/DC-Hausmann.pdf

ICGCommerce ist ein nur ein von ca. 20 Beteiligungen von Internet Capital

ICG Commerce's market leadership is most evident through its strong track record with customers. IDC specifically highlighted the company's numerous long-term outsourcing customers stating that: "ICG Commerce has been providing services to 20 of them for longer than three years. The fact that ICG Commerce is among the first to land a client (Avaya) that is in its second wave of comprehensive procurement BPO lends testimony to its efforts. [ICG Commerce] has a core base of large customers with whom it has comprehensive, longer-term outsourcing relationships and a larger set of accounts that are smaller in scope for whom it manages a select number of categories."

IDC believes that ICG Commerce is a "recognized brand" in the market and lauded the Procurement Services Provider for making "great strides in thought leadership around procurement BPO issues." ICG Commerce's sophistication of thinking and dedication to educational efforts were cited as keys behind the company’s recognition as a leader among prospects. Combined with a strong, long-term track record of success and a complete, mature set of services, ICG Commerce’s forward-thinking approach positions the company well for continued growth in procurement BPO, according to IDC.

"IDC has been closely researching the procurement BPO landscape for some time, and we are pleased to see the firm recognize ICG Commerce as a leader and innovative voice in the market," said Edward H. West, chairman and chief executive officer for ICG Commerce. "We believe our operational focus, depth of experience and commitment to delivering exceptional results enables us to truly differentiate ourselves in the marketplace."

# # #

About ICG Commerce, Inc.
ICG Commerce (www.icgcommerce.com) is a leading Procurement Services Provider exclusively focused on helping companies buy more effectively and efficiently in order to reduce costs significantly and continuously. The company offers an unmatched combination of process and category expertise, market insights and benchmarks and a world-class operational Buying Center to deliver Sourcing and Procurement Outsourcing Services. ICG Commerce Inc., a privately held company founded in 1992, is a member of Internet Capital Group’s (Nasdaq: ICGE) network of partner companies. For four consecutive years, ICG Commerce has been as a Forbes Best of the Web: B2B honoree, and the company also has had multiple executives recognized in Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine’s annual "Pros to Know" listing.

Bei ICGCommerce haben wir ja schon einen Wert von ca. 135 Millionen festgestellt, und zwar für die 75% Anteil von Internet Capital. ICGCommerce ist somit vorläufig unsere Nr. 1. Die Nr. 2 unter den ca. 20 Beteiligungen dürfte Freeborders sein. Wie Ihr den obigen Postings entnehmen könnt, wollen die die Infosys Chinas werden - wenn es etwas weniger gut kommt, sind wir aber auch schon zufrieden. Freeborders ist der wohl größte selbständige IT-Outsourcer in China mit Standbeinen in den USA/Europa (ca. 100 Beschäftige) und China (fast 500 Beschäftigte, die Zahl in China soll bis Ende 2006 auf 1.000 steigen). Der Umsatz dürfte in 2005 zwischen 40 und 50 Millionen liegen, die Wachstumsrate lag in 2005 über 100%. Angesichts solcher Zahlen ist ein Umsatz-Multiple von acht eher ein sehr niedrig gewählter Wert. Freeborders wäre danach 360 Millionen wert und die 33% von Internet Capital hätten dann einen Wert von 120 Millionen.

Nach nur 2 von 20 Beteiligungen sähe die Rechung für Internet Capital schon wie folgt aus:

Nettocash/Wertpapiere = 170 Millionen

ICGCommerce = 135 Millionen

Freeborders = 120 Millionen

macht zusammen: 525 Millionen.

Das sind nach zwei von 20 Beteiligungen schon mehr als die 310 Millionen gegenwärtige Marktkapitalisierung und weitere 18 Beteiligungen warten noch drauf, dass wir sie in die Berechnung einbeziehen, auch wenn die Werte der restlichen Beteiligungen nicht so hoch sind wie díe der ersten beiden.  

While that effort centered on selling to the Chinese domestic market, Freeborders is focused squarely on international clients. The company already has snagged big-league customers such as Target and DuPont and is now going after financial services companies.

Although revenue from information technology services is rising in China, it is barely half of India's $12.7 billion a year, according to a recent report from consulting firm McKinsey.

Cestar, though, argues that offshoring to China potentially is as big or bigger than offshoring to India, thanks partly to a lack of wage inflation in the world's biggest country.

"In the next 18 to 20 months, the Infosys of China will emerge," he said.

Freeborders seems to be in the running for that title.

wo ich ICGCommerce vorgestellt und den 75%-Anteil von Internet Capital mit 135 Millionen bewertet hatte:

 
What the industry analysts are saying about ICG Commerce.



"ICG Commerce is strong, focused player in the procurement BPO space, given its decade-long specialty focus on procurement services. The vendor has a core base of large customers with whom it has comprehensive, longer-term outsourcing relationships, and a larger set of accounts that are smaller in scope for whom it manages a select number of categories for a handful of processes on an outsourced basis."

Romala Ravi, IDC

"ICG Commerce is the poster child of the burgeoning outsourced procurement industry -- not to mention a good illustration of the complex business models that have developed in recent times. They are a group purchasing organization -- in a sense, a hosted e-procurement provider -- and also have 300 sourcing professionals on staff. They bundle these services all together to evaluate your spending, then serve up the hosted e-procurement on-ramp with appropriate pricing."

Pierre Mitchell, AMR Research

"As leading PSP, ICG Commerce extends beyond sourcing to assist companies in savings implementation, procurement execution, supplier enablement, contract compliance, and other total cost management activities."

Tim Minahan, Aberdeen Group

"Processes that could benefit from a BPO utility model include traditional services like payroll processing (for example, Automatic Data Processing - ADP), or new services in customer relationship management (Exigen) or procurement (ICG Commerce)."

Gartner Group

"E-procurement business process outsourcing. This is an emerging subsegment, with ICG Commerce and ePlus having success finding clients."

Andrew Bartels, Giga Information Group

"ICG Commerce ranked as the procurement BPO market share leader."

Rachel, Stormonth, NelsonHall

"ICG Commerce is one of the major players in procurement BPO— the "hot" issue in the market today.

Julie Murphree, Aberdeen Research

denn es sind nur noch ganze zehn Tage Zeit, um Internet Capital-Aktien zu kaufen und den Kursgewinn bei einem Kauf in den letzten Tagen des Jahres 2006 steuerfrei kassieren zu können. Verkauft ihr vorher, fällt die bisher übliche Spekulationssteuer an, ihr müsst nach dem Halbeinkünfteverfahren die Hälfte des Kursgewinnes mit Eurem persönlichen Grenzsteuersatz versteuern. Wartet ihr bis 2007, müsst ihr dann vermutlich unabhängig von der Haltedauer Euren Kursgewinn mit vielleicht 20% versteuern.  

Man muss allerdings auch sagen, dass wir hier in einer Nische arbeiten, auch wenn sie nicht ganz klein ist. Da die Umsätze pro Geschäft sehr viel größer sind als bei Individualreisen fallen hier logischerweise die Provisionen sehr viel kleiner aus als die 5 bis 10% bei Individualreisen - es dürften nicht einmal ganz 1% sein. So liegt der Umsatz von Starcite in 2005 auch vermutlich erst bei 19 Millionen Dollar - aber das Potenzial ist ja, wie aufgezeigt, enorm. Ein Umsatzmultiple von 10 ist bei diesem Potenzial hier die alleruntersten Grenze, vergleichbare Werte wie Travelzoo lagen selbst bei ihren Tiefstständen noch über diesem Wert. Das liefe auf einen momentanen Wert von 190 Millionen für Starcite hinaus, die 61% von Internet Capital wären dann 115 Millionen wert.    

Nach nur 3 von 20 Beteiligungen sah die Rechung für Internet Capital schon wie folgt aus:

Nettocash/Wertpapiere = 170 Millionen

ICGCommerce = 135 Millionen

Freeborders = 120 Millionen

Starcite = 115 Millionen

macht zusammen: 640 Millionen.

Das waren nach nur drei von 20 Beteiligungen schon mehr als doppelt so viel als die 310 Millionen gegenwärtige Marktkapitalisierung und weitere 17 Beteiligungen warten  jetzt noch drauf, dass wir sie in die Berechnung einbeziehen, auch wenn die Werte der restlichen Beteiligungen nicht so hoch sind wie díe der ersten drei.

ICGE - BIG PICTURE
by: gjlarsen (44/M/San Jose)
Long-Term Sentiment: Hold  12/18/05 09:49 am
Msg: 238742 of 238746

1999 - Astronomical rise from $280 to $4200
2000 - end 2002 - three years of death spiral, dropping from $4200 to $3
2003- 2005 - three years of flat range trading
2006 - ?

We've gone down 3 years, sideways for 3 years. Wouldn't it be great if we now went up for 3 years? Would be a great XMas present...

That idea became StarCite, and when it was spun off from what was then McGettigan Partners, Pino went with it.
Like other dot-coms, StarCite attracted area investors Internet Capital Group Inc. and TL Ventures, both of which are based in Wayne. Unlike other dot-coms, its founder wasn't a 20-something MBA or techno geek, but a veteran of the business his company dealt with.

We've come to this with a really rich base of experience of people who know the industry and the related pieces of the industry," Pino said.
That base enabled StarCite to survive the collapse of the dot-com bubble and the downturn in the travel industry that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In 2002, it picked up its growth pace and today employs more than 100 people. It doesn't reveal financial figures, but Pino said its revenue has increased significantly year-over-year.
Boult is looking to boost that growth into the stratosphere.
A travel industry veteran who worked for Rosenbluth International, Boult started Eclipse Advisors in 2001. That Rosenbluth subsidiary focused on helping procurement departments in corporations cut their employers' travel bills by dealing with the entire travel expenditure, not just individual trips.
By the time Rosenbluth was bought by American Express Co. in 2003, it had 110 of the Fortune 500 as customers. But Boult prefers making companies big to helping them stay that way and, after a year and a half, he left to look for another entrepreneurial venture.
"I'd never be really happy dusting the pyramids," he said. "I'd be really happy in getting the rocks there and getting them up to the top."
Boult's plans fit perfectly with those of StarCite, whose number two position had been vacant since last fall waiting for the right person to fill it.
The company is well known to meeting planners and popular with the hotels that can get meeting requests for proposals relayed to them electronically by StarCite's customers. While it has plenty of competitors, StarCite claims none of them offer the range of services it does.
"Hotels actually change their own internal (computer) systems to work with StarCite's system," said Doug Alexander, a managing director with Internet Capital Group, which has increased its stake in StarCite to 53 percent from 17 percent at the beginning of last year.

Boult intends to make StarCite well known among the procurement department chiefs who made Eclipse Advisors succeed. He thinks they'll embrace it because it enables them to manage the entire category of meeting expenditures, rather than just individual meetings.
Doing that, he said, can enable them to cut their meeting bills by as much 20 percent a year -- a savings they can't attain in any other travel-related category.
"It's the last frontier in travel," he said. "It's both the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge."
StarCite, Boult thinks, can help procurement officers make it much less of a challenge and much more of an opportunity.
In addition to adding customers, Boult sees StarCite growing by attracting more spending per customer, adding suppliers, increasing its international operations and through acquisitions.
"This company could easily be 10 times its size with a whole lot of headroom left."
pkey@bizjournals.com | 215-238-5141