個案總覽

In August 1998, the partners of Columbia Capital in Arlington, Va. made a decision about whether or not to raise an outside fund for venture capital investing. Columbia had begun in 1988 as a boutique investment bank focused on the telecommunications industry, but had over its history become progressively more involved in making direct private equity investments; from 1994-98, the firm made over $100 million in such investments. Unlike traditional venture capital firms, however, Columbia made these investments entirely with its partners' own personal money.

Securicor Wireless (SWN) sold software products to wireless telephone carriers. The company was incorporated in January of 1995 as a 40%-owned subsidiary of Securicor Telesciences (STI), itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of British security giant Securicor PLC. Just over a year later, in February of 1996, SWN had the opportunity to merge with STI, creating a 70%-owned subsidiary of Securicor PLC and bringing it further under the umbrella of the British conglomerate. In presenting the events leading up to this decision, this case examines the dynamics of starting up a company with a large corporate investor, including the interplay between such a corporate partner and their traditional venture capitalist co-investors. Also touches on issues of corporate culture and differences in attitudes between U.S.-and U.K.-based companies/investors.

In September 1997, John Hansen called together his board to debate an interesting choice that his company had to make. Hansen--the CEO of Metapath Software, a provider of software and services to wireless carriers--had two offers to describe. The first was an offer to be acquired by CellTech Communications, a wireless products company which had only recently gone public. Under the terms of the deal, Metapath's shareholders would at closing receive common stock in CellTech valued at $115 million. CellTech at that time had a market capitalization of approximately $260 million. The second offer was from a consortium of investors led by Robertson & Stephens Omega Fund and Technology Crossover Ventures to buy $11.75 million of stock at a $76 million pre-money valuation. The terms of the preferred stock the funds were proposing to buy were much stricter than the terms of the stock owned by existing shareholders.