Tom Taulli
California - http://taulli.com

Tom Taulli is the author of various books on finance, including The Complete M&A; Handbook (Random House) and Investing in IPO's (Bloomberg Press). In addition to his writing, Mr. Taulli has appeared on high-profile television venues such as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and has been quoted in the various print media sources such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and LA Times.

M&A can be tough -- especially in the tech world. After all, things can move pretty quickly.

And, unfortunately, this has been the case for CNET Networks (NASDAQ: CNET). That is, Thursday the company announced that it sold its Webshots property for $45 million to American Greetings.

Keep in mind that CNET paid $70 million for Webshots in August 2004.

Ouch.

No doubt, the online-photos category is fairly saturated. And, unfortunately, Webshots didn't keep up with Web 2.0 darlings like Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s Flickr. Oh, and Facebook and MySpace are also getting into the game.

If you rewind back three years ago, CNET said it bought Webshots so as to diversify its Web platform. But, if anything, it's been mostly a distraction.

For example, in today's Q3 report, CNET announced a loss of $16.6 million.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

One of the hot things in software is the "mash-up." Basically, this is combining different web applications to create a new one. A classic example is mashing-up Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Maps with a database of customer contacts.

A top player in the mash-up space is JackBe. Actually, this week the company announced a new round of capital of $9.5 million. The investors include Harbert Venture Partners, Core Capital Partners, Intel Capital (NASDAQ: INTC), Darby Technology Ventures and Blue Chip Venture Company.

Despite its funky name, JackBe has created very serious technology and helps improve complex information technology (IT) environments. Some of its clients include Nutrisystem and Tupperware.

However, JackBe must contend with some tough rivals, including IBM (NYSE: IBM) and BEA Systems (NASDAQ: BEAS). In fact, IBM recently launched a new mash-up system (which, based on the demo I saw, was pretty good).

Also, visit DealProfiles.com to check out other VC activity.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Pzena Investment Management (NYSE: PZN) got its start in 1995 -- and has been quite busy since then. These days the firm manages about $30.6 billion.

In fact, today the company hit the public markets in a successful IPO. Pzena priced its offering at $18, which was at the top of its $16-$18 range. The underwriters include tier-1 firms Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and UBS Investment Bank (NYSE: UBS).

Pzena's investment approach is on the value side. What's more, the firm is a big believer in providing high-end services. Then again, the clientele tends to be fairly affluent.

In the restaurant business, it's fairly difficult to come up with a successful concept. But as for Del Frisco's Restaurant Group, it operates two successful concepts: Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House and Sullivan's Steakhouse.

Now the company has filed to go public.

There are currently 22 locations across 14 states. What's more, they go beyond just stakes and include things like lobster tails, lamb chops and fresh seafood. Oh, and of course, there's a good selection of wine.

In fact, the Del Frisco's chain has posted 20 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth -- and all locations are cash-flow positive.

What's more, the company has the backing of private equity firm Lone Star Fund. I suspect it wants to get some liquidity from the public offering.

The lead underwriter is Piper Jaffray and the proposed ticker symbol is "FINE."

You can find the Del Frisco's prospectus at the SEC website. Visit DealProfiles.com to get more information on recent IPO activity.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

As wealth surges in China, there's also been a spike in luxury spending. For example, the country's jewelry industry was $14 billion in 2005 and is expected to be the largest – in the world – in about two years.

Riding the wave is Fuqi International (NASDAQ: FUQO -- quote not available on AOL yet), one of the top jewelry makers in China. In fact, the company has gone public today, with the stock rising 16% to $10.47 (this is after the stock priced at the high end of its $7-$9 range).

The company has an extensive set of luxury products, which count more than 20,000. What's more, Fuqi has a vertically integration operation, which includes development, sales, marketing, order fulfillment and delivery.

No doubt, it's a high margin business. In fact, Fuqi marks up its products by over 40% on average.

So far, the growth has been particularly strong. From 2002 to 2006, revenues increased an average of 57% per annum (to $92.4 million).

With the proceeds from its public offering, Fuqi will have the resources to continue ramping growth. For example, the company plans to have eight to ten retail stores by next year.

Also visit DealProfiles.com if you want to get more information on recent IPO activity.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Sequoia Capital is a pioneer of the venture capital space, having invested in such game-changing companies like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). No doubt, they've helped create many millionaires -- and some billionaires.

Well, the same thing is now happening in China, although the wealth management business in the country is still in the early stages.

As a result, Sequoia wants to be a player and has invested several million for a 20% stake in Noah Private Wealth Management Centre, which is headquartered in Shanghai. With the cash infusion, the firm can expand into other cities as well as add new consultants and perhaps some tech systems.

It's a very savvy move. And, yet again, it should result in a big payday for Sequoia.

Visit DealProfiles.com if you want to check out other recent venture capital fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

It's been mostly sporadic, but we are seeing some deals in the private equity world. In fact, today there was a fairly decent transaction: Goodman Global (NYSE: GGL) agreed to a $1.8 billion buyout. The buyer is Hellman & Friedman LLC.

Goodman manufactures heating and air-conditioning systems, and while impressive in the numbers, the deal wasn't much of a surprise. After all, the company recently announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives.

With the soft U.S. economy and ongoing troubles in real estate, the situation had been lackluster with Goodman. But, as a private entity, the company will have some shelter to make some changes (such as cutting costs and perhaps moving operations offshore).

Interestingly enough, Goodman went private back in 2004 (and came back to the public markets in 2006).

In today's trading, Goodman's stock is up 11% to $24.25.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Public key encryption – which allows for securing information – has been around since the mid-1980s. However, it's been tough to implement.

But that's starting to change, as seen with the success of Voltage Security. In fact, this week the company snagged $12 million in venture capital. The investors include Trident Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Cipio Partners and JAFCO Ventures.

"Voltage is the result of a technology spin-off from Stanford," Sathvik Krishnamurthy, the CEO of Voltage, said in a BloggingStocks.com interview. "At first, we focused on providing secure email to mid-size and enterprise customers. But by delivering our technology on-demand, we can now serve any customer."

And Voltage has been growing briskly. For example, revenues have spiked 80% over the past year and the company is cash-flow positive. There are more than 400 enterprise customers and 1.2 million licensed users. As seen with other big-time security operators – such as EMC (NYSE: EMC) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) – there is certainly much more room for growth.

"With the venture round," said Krishnamurthy, "We plan to invest more into R&D. We have three new products to launch."

Visit DealProfiles.com if you want to check out other recent VC fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

When KKR and Goldman Sachs walked away from the $8 billion buyout of Harman (NYSE: HAR), it looked like there would be a massive legal fight.

But that's been cleverly avoided. KKR and Goldman have agreed to buy about $400 million in Harman's convertible debt. The conversion rate is $104, which means that there is hope that the stock will make a comeback (the current stock price is about $86).

More importantly, KKR and Goldman will avoid paying a $225 million break-up fee.

True, it's not perfect. But, then again, this is a compromise, right? A legal fight would a big drain, in terms of money and time. Besides, this agreement is a sign of a new trend in private equity – that is, making minority investments. With a lack of big-time financing, it looks like private equity firms may have no other choice.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

Credit crunch? Not so for the venture capital space. According to various surveys, there is still lots of strength.

For example, the MoneyTree Report (from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association) shows $7.1 billion in VC investments for the third quarter. A report from Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) VentureOne shows about $8.1 billion in fundings.

It certainly helps that there has been a pick-up in the IPO market. Oh, and the tech sector has had a nice rally. The most popular categories for VCs include software and biotech.

As for software, there has been a megatrend for on-demand offerings. As seen with the growth of companies like Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), VMware (NYSE: VMW) and Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO), the enthusiasm is certainly understandable.

However, I'm not so sure about biotech. The sector has been fairly weak in terms of public offerings. But, then again, it seems biotech companies always need to raise gobs of money, right?

Something else: There's been a pick-up in cleantech deals. After all, with high energy prices, there appears to be lots of opportunity.

Visit DealProfiles.com if you want to see other recent VC fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Lately, Monster Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: MNST) has scared away investors. This is despite a bull run for mega internet franchises like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Yet Barron's thinks that Monster can roar again.

No doubt, the company has some serious issues. For one thing, the economy appears to be slowing down. Also, competition in the sector is fierce, with players like Indeed.com and Dice (NYSE: DHX) fighting for every dollar.

But it looks like the bad news is baked into the stock already. Keep in mind that Monster trades about 20 times the projected profits for 2008. Additionally, Monster has been building out its global footprint, such as in Europe and Asia. And there are no shortage of buyout suitors, like Google, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

What's more, Monster owns 44.4% of ChinaHR.com, which is the #2 jobs site in China. In light of the crazy valuations of Chinese IPOs, this could be a highly valued asset.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

If you've traveled to China, you've seen the digital TV screens in airplanes and airports. For the most part, it's AirMedia Group that operates the network, which includes more than 18,000 screens.

Now, the company has filed to go public.

In fact, AirMedia controls more than 95% of the digital TV screens for the 15 largest airports in China. And there are deals with nine airlines, which include the three largest in China (China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Air China).

Basically, AirMedia blends advertising content with regular programming, such as news, weather, sports and so on. Although, the advertising portion is about 25 minutes for each hour block.

For the most part, it's tech IPOs that have been getting the most attention. But, with oil hitting record highs, might we see some action from the public offerings of energy companies?

I think so. And this week, Forum Oilfield Technologies filed to go public. The company develops flow control products and automation systems for oil and natural gas drilling.

Keep in mind that a majority of current active drilling rigs were constructed during the 1970s and 1980s. In other words, Forum is addressing a big market opportunity, as the world's aging rig fleet will need to undergo significant upgrades.

Interestingly enough, Forum is the result of a variety of acquisitions – such as for Access Oil Tools – and private equity backing from SCF Partners. With the IPO, I suspect we'll see much more dealmaking.

Last year, Forum posted revenues of $300.7 million and net income of $34.7 million. The company has roughly 500 customers.

The underwriters on the IPO include Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS) and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM). The proposed ticker is "FOT."

You can find the prospectus at the SEC website. Also, if you want to check out other recent IPOs, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

DuPont Fabros is a mega operator of wholesale data centers.

When it talked to upstart Facebook, there was actually some skepticism. Would Facebook hit critical mass? Well, DuPont took a bet on the company – and it's certainly paid off.

In fact, DuPont has other top-notch customers, like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

And, now DuPont has achieved another milestone; that is, the company went public today -- the ticker is "DFT". The company raised about $640 million.

DuPont focuses on long-term triple-net leases (which, of course, contain nice annual rental increases). A key differentiator is the focus on power capacity. Interestingly, part of the business model includes charging for power usage.

Although, there is signficant customer concentration. For example, about 86% of annualized rent comes from Microsoft and Yahoo.

So far today, shares of DuPont are up about 6.5% to $22.29.

Also visit DealProfiles.com if you want to check out other recent IPO activity.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.