Random Ramblings
Bob Grady, a close confidant of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former chairman of the $81 billion New Jersey Investment Council, has agreed to join mid-market private equity firm Gryphon Investors as a partner, as first reported yesterday by Fortune. He also will lead Gryphon’s general industries group, which is one of the San Francisco-based firm’s four areas of investment focus.
Grady and Gryphon CEO David Andrews were classmates at Stanford Business School in the 1980’s, and have remained close friends ever since.
When Grady stepped down from the NJ Investment Council chairmanship last November, we reported that he was considering whether or not to continue on with his day job as a managing director with private equity fund-of-funds manager Cheyenne Capital. He ultimately decided to move on, citing a desire to be more involved with direct investing.
“I remain very friendly with Cheyenne and will be a senior advisor, probably pro bono,” Grady explains. “But this is a way for me to get back to investing in companies and helping them achieve their goals which, for me, is a little more satisfying than the fund-of-funds business.”
Grady has plenty of experience in direct investing, having joined Robertson Stephens & Co. after leaving the White House in 1993, where he had served as deputy assistant to President George H.W. Bush and executive associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. He then went on to spend nine years with The Carlyle Group, as head of global venture capital and growth capital investing.
But it was his experience with New Jersey’s pension system that really generated headlines, particularly after pay-to-play allegations were raised last year against a VC firm that had received NJ Investment Council money (a state attorney later exonerated the firm and NJIC staff, but not before NJIC sold off the investment to a third party).
Grady, a New Jersey native, originally took the unpaid NJ Investment Council position as a favor to Chris Christie, after Christie was elected governor. There has been some suggestion that Grady could be a major part of any Christie presidential run, particularly given his past political experience. But Grady insists that his decision to take a new private equity position — even for a firm that is in the early days of raising a new fund — should not be read as reflective of Christie’s political plans.
“He has not told us anything one way or the other,” Grady says. “If he does choose to run, I’m sure I’d be involved on a volunteer basis to support and help him, whether that’s with policy or writing speeches or whatever, but that has nothing to do with what’s really just a switch of day jobs.”
Grady primarily will work out of Jackson, Wyoming, where he has lived for years. Gryphon has never received investment from the NJ state pension system.
• Courtroom: Adam Lashinsky, who co-wrote Fortune's 2012 cover story on Ellen Pao, attended Day 2 of the Pao vs. Kleiner Perkins trial. His coverage can be found here.
• Moving on: Akamai Technologies co-founder and former Zipcar chairman Jonathan Seelig has officially left Globespan Capital Partners, the Boston-based venture capital firm where he had been a managing director since 2005. He doesn’t have any specific plans yet, except that he intends to either start a new company or join an early-stage startup.
• Nothing new: The Blackstone Group is getting press this morning after private equity chief Joe Baratta, speaking at the SuperReturn conference in Berlin, said that the firm is seeking to get commitments from certain investors to make large, control deals with longer time horizons than are typical of private equity. Or, put another way, Blackstone wants to diversify into Berkshire Hathaway's world. If this sounds familiar, it's because this was first reported on last fall. Here's our story on it at the time.
• Publishing note: I'll be judging a regional VCIC event in Boston tomorrow morning, so your morning missive will be written by the estimable Erin Griffith (@eringriffith). So have a great weekend, and we'll chat again on Monday...
THE BIG DEAL
• Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is in talks to acquire wireless network infrastructure company Aruba Networks (Nasdaq: ARUN), as first reported by Bloomberg. Aruba had an initial market cap of around $2 billion before the first news of HP’s interest, following which it hit more than $2.4 billion. Read more.
VENTURE CAPITAL DEALS
• 3D Robotics, a Berkeley, Calif.-based maker of consumer drones, has raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Qualcomm Ventures. Read more.
OpenDoor, a San Francisco-based platform for expedited home selling and buying, has raised $20 million in Series B funding. GGV Capital led the round, and was joined by return backer Khosla Ventures. Read more.
• Exablox, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of cloud-managed storage solutions, has raised $16 million in Series C funding led by Dell Ventures. The company previously raised $22.5 million from DCM, Norwest Venture Partners and US Venture Partners. www.exablox.com
• Branch Metrics, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of mobile app referral solutions, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by seed backer New Enterprise Associates. The company previously raised $3 million from NEA, Pejman Mar Ventures, Ben Narasin and TriplePoint Capital. According to Dow Jones, the new round was done at a $75 million post-money valuation. Read more.
• Zimperium, a provider of mobile threat defense solutions with offices in Israel and San Francisco, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Telstra Ventures led the round, and was joined by TOYO Corp. and return backers Sierra Ventures, Lazarus Israel Opportunities Fund and Samsung. www.zimperium.com
• Trov, a San Francisco-based company that helps users “organize, value and protect their things,” has raised $6.5 million in new VC funding. No investors were identified, although the company did say that it hass added two new board directors: Ken Rudin (director of analytics at Facebook) and Sean Park (founder of the Anthemis Group). www.trov.com
• Getable, a San Francisco-based app for ordering and tracking construction equipment, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The Social+Capital Partnership led the round, and was joined by Brick & Mortar Ventures, Ghilotti Brothers, Pacific Structures, Zachary Construction, DPR Construction and Darren Bechtel. www.getable.com
• Chefs Feed, a San Francisco-based food media and technology platform, has raised $4 million in Series A funding. ARTIS Ventures led the round, and was joined by Structure Capital, Haas Portman and Subtraction Capital. www.chefsfeed.com
• CENX, a Winnetka, Ill.-based provider of “service orchestration” solutions for software-defined networks, has raised an undisclosed amount of new funding from existing backers Highland Capital Partners, Mesirow Financial Private Equity, Verizon Ventures, Ericsson, DCM Ventures and Cross Creek Advisors. www.cenx.com
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
• Deltek, a Herndon, Va.-based portfolio company of Thoma Bravo, has acquired HRsmart, a Richardson, Texas–based provider of talent management solutions. No financial terms were disclosed. www.deltek.com
• Norwest Equity Partners has invested in Old Hickory Smokehouse LLC, a South Elgin, Ill.–based maker of branded and private-label smoked meat products sold into the retail grocery and foodservice channels. No financial terms were disclosed. www.oldhickorysmokehouse.com
IPOs
• Kornit Digital Ltd., an Israeli provider of digital printing solutions for the global printed textile industry, has filed for a $115 million IPO. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol KRNT, with Barclays and Citigroup serving as lead underwriters. The company reports around $3 million in 2014 net income on $66 million in revenue. Fortissimo Capital holds a 69.6% pre-IPO ownership position. www.kornit-digital.com
EXITS
• Catamaran (Nasdaq: CTRX) has agreed to acquire Healthcare Solutions Inc., ,a Duluth, Ga.-based provider of healthcare services for the workers' compensation market, from Brazos Private Equity for $405 million in cash. www.catamaranrx.com
OTHER DEALS
• Cyberonics (Nasdaq: CYBX) has agreed to acquire listed Italian cardiac surgery device maker Sorin SpA for approximately $1.4 billion in stock. Read more.
• Iberdrola (CATS: IBE), a Spanish utility, has agreed to acquire Connecticut-based power and gas company UIL Holdings Corp. (NYSE: UIL) for approximately $3 billion in cash and stock. The $52.75 per share deal represents around a 25% premium to yesterday’s closing price for UIL stock. Read more.
• The Mizuho Financial Group (Tokyo: 8411) has agreed to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland's (LSE: RBS) U.S. and Canadian loan portfolios for approximately $3 billion. Read more.
• Petrobras, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, has hired J.P. Morgan for $3 billion in planned asset sales, according to Reuters. Read more.
• SFX Entertainment (Nasdaq: SFXE), a New York-based concert promotion and production company, said that its founder, Robert Sillerman, has offered to take the company private. Sillerman currently owns around 40% of SFX, ands his bid is for $4.75 in cash for each share he does not already own. Read more.
FIRMS & FUNDS
• AXA (Paris: CS) has launched a €200 million venture capital fund focused on “emerging strategic innovations relevant to insurance, asset management, financial technology and healthcare service industries.” www.axa.com
MOVING IN, UP, ON & OUT
• Russell Diamond has joined Spectrum Group Management as a managing director, and head of marketing and business development. He previously led marketing and business development for Gates Capital Management. www.spectrumgp.com
• Greenbriar Equity Group has promoted Michael Weiss to managing director. He joined the private equity firm in 2004, and currently serves as a director of portfolio company Nordco Holdings. www.greenbriarequity.com
• Philip von Mehren and Michele Maney have joined law firm Venable LLP as New York-based partners focused on mergers and acquisitions. Von Mehren also will co-chair Venable’s New York corporate group. Both attorneys previously were partners with Baker & McKenzie. www.venable.com
• Thomas Massey and Marc van der Lubbe have agreed to join the investment banking business of Evercore. Massey is the former head of European M&A for Citigroup, and will be a senior managing director at Evercore in charge of the firm’s global chemicals advisory business. Van der Lubbe previously was a managing director with Citigroup, and will be a managing director with Evercore focused on European chemicals companies. www.evercore.com
• Patrick Shuttleworth has joined First Avenue Partners as a London-based vice president, covering institutional investors in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. He previously was with Zouk Capital. www.firstavenue.com
• William Winters, the former co-head of investment banking at J.P. Morgan Chase, has been named the next CEO of British bank Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN), effective in June when current CEO Peter Sands retires. Read more.
• Bruce Wolfson and Eva Lo have joined Jaguar Growth Partners as general counsel and chief compliance officer/SVP of operations, respectively. Wolfson previously was with law firm Bingham McCutchen, while Lo was with Rockwell Partners. www.jaguargrowth.com
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