Good Tuesday Morning and Good Lord, last night Trump fired Sally Yates, acting attorney general for the United States. I’ve watched Mrs. Yates build a spectacular career over the past 20 years and her husband, Comer, is the nicest friend anybody could have. You don’t associate “You’re Fired” with either, but I never imagined either working for Trump. Comer has attended and spoken at our Briefings because of his passion for education and what we do in the arena. I am going to ask Comer to come again – see calendar at end.
Daylight – I didn’t get fired, but took live rounds yesterday from folks who thought I slighted immigration and Starbucks because I lead with the company, but did not mention the coffee giant had offered to hire 7,500 refugees. My blog model has always been pretty simple: run opposite of the herd. Starbucks’ generosity was covered around the clock, so I went out and picked up what the herd thinks really doesn’t matter – Starbucks’ sales are soft due to traffic jams caused by rolling out mobile pay too fast. Entrepreneurs need to know you can run people off who were waiting to do business with you. System screw-ups are the fastest way down that road. By the way, if Starbucks – or any Entrepreneur – doesn’t fix that problem, there might not be any jobs for anyone. If you don’t believe me, ask David’s Tea. It blew out its rising star status with a system blow-out, or ask Caribou Coffee, which that company is boarding up stores by the day. I don’t ride the herd, but stand beneath the lights of Neon Moons – always room for the one and only.
M&A – McDonald’s agreed to sell its 435 restaurants in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden to Terra Firma Capital Partners’ founder and chairman Guy Hands.
Style – See Master Calendar through May and Pictures Galore, as you asked. By the way, we had two groups in New York. Thank You.
Rice – Russell Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
QVC
Oxford Dean
Talking Smack
Ted’s New York Lawyer, Zillion Dollars an Hour
King of Yarn
Life Beyond RaceTracks
Super Soaker, Rocket Scientist or Both?
Insiders and an Outlier
Who owns 350 coffee pots?
Texas, LA & Ole Mexico
Trump Towers
Trump Steaks
Trump Media Strategy
Not Totally Convincing, Caleb
Love Story
Family Affair
Class Lasts
Ducks Unlimited
Who flew in from Israel and who flew in from Pelham, Georgia on their plane?
Breakout the Champagne Business
Smiling, Dreaming & Doing
Don’t Mess with Texas
Atlanta, Tampa & Nashville – NFC South
Find Members Mom & Son – Both have their own companies!
Hooters & Tooters
PE, CEO & Founder
Where did Andrew play QB in college?
Rice – Russell Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Find the QALO Ring!
Strategic Son Sitting. Thank you Ms. Deupree
IPO Coffee Pots
I’m With Her
My Name is Trinity
Real Deal
Nashville Now
Dallas Cowboys
Live Rounds – The personal stenographer of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels died in Munich at 106. Brunhilde Pomsel was one of the last surviving members of the group that hid in a Berlin bunker with Hitler in his final days. “We tried to make sure we didn’t run out of alcohol,” she said.
Buzzard’s Roost – The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is shutting down, after dwindling attendance and criticism from animal rights’ groups. Some extreme fans are extremely upset. They include a Queens man, who has created a scale model of the circus at Madison Square Garden. The president of the Circus Fans Association of America got existential, saying, “To me, the circus has always been the elixir of youth. When I visit the circus, I’m 5-years-old again, and I have no life span. That immortality has been destroyed.”
Culture – The Washington-Hollywood lovefest that is normally the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has some Entrepreneurial competition. The comedian Samantha Bee promises to “properly roast the president” at “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” the same night, April 29. The lineup has not been finalized, but she says there are “binders full” of possibilities.
Tuesday’s Waterfront View of Big Deals
IPO – Snap Inc, the parent company of the social media app Snapchat, is expected to publicly file for an IPO this week. The company, which has already confidentially filed to go public, could be valued somewhere between $20 billion and $25 billion.
Exits – Ampersand Capital Partners and 1315 Capital agreed to acquire Genoptix’s commercial laboratory.
Celgene Corporation acquired Delinia, a biotechnology company developing therapeutics for autoimmune diseases, for $300 million with an additional $475 million in performance-related incentives.
Venture Capital – Altiostar Networks, a developer of equipment designed to extend mobile network operators’ LTE networks, raised $27 million.
The Bouqs, an online flower retailer, raised $24 million.
UberCloud, a cloud simulation for engineers and scientists to discover, test and buy computing on demand, raised $1.7 million.
Biscayne Neurotherapeutics, a spin-out of Biscayne Pharmaceuticals that is working to a develop anti-epileptic drug, raised $3 million.
Amplify Partners, an accelerator and seed-stage VC firm, raised $10 million.
Private Equity – JW Capital acquired Eco Flower, a sustainable floral bouquet company.
Northlane Capital Partners acquired PAR Excellence Systems, a provider of automated supply chain management systems and related support services to hospitals across the United States.
Harvest Partners acquired a $62.5 million minority stake in GPM Investments, an operator of convenience store chains in the U.S.
Thoma Bravo completed its previously announced purchase of a majority stake in Planview, a provider of collaboration and resource management products, from Insight Venture Partners.
And that’s what’s ahead, Cliff
The post When Donald Met Sally, Neon Moons and Pictures Paint the Story, UberCloud Rises appeared first on Oxford Entrepreneurs.