Nicolas Perkin和Rodney Bienvenu Jr.，谁运行了七个月大的新奥尔良的基础Spear Point Buyout Group，是Jim Cramer的大粉丝，CNBC的疯狂金钱和联合创始人和主席TheStreet。"We agree with him that Wall Street brings in riches for the rich guys while retail investors get locked out," says Bienvenu. He and Perkin have noticed that TheStreet has itself been losing value; they think an institutional holder of preferred shares is driving down the price. So the two upstart investors are taking a page from Carl Icahn and making an unsolicited bid to buy out TheStreet.
"We think this is a great opportunity for Cramer to walk the walk," the 47-year-old Bienvenu says. He and Perkin, 42, approached the company by stealth, buying just under 2 percent in the first half of this year so that they wouldn't have to disclose their holdings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. They say they talked with CEO Elisabeth DeMarse several times and think highly of the company's entire management and fundamentals. But the numbers have been proof that something is not percolating. TheStreet's market capitalization has dropped from more than $560 million in early 2008 to $65.7 million today. Even in October 2008, with the financial crisis raging, the stock was trading at more than $4 a share; today it hovers in the $1.88 to $1.90 range.
 Nicolas Perkin and Rodney Bienvenu Jr. (Photograph by Britney Penouilh) |
In early July the two Spear Point partners increased their stake to more than 2 percent and sent a five-page letter to DeMarse and Cramer explaining their interest in the company and why they think a privatization buyout would be the best route to a turnaround. To date, DeMarse and the board of directors have not responded to their letter. TheStreet has no interest in pursuing the matter and is not for sale, according to people familiar with the company.
一位鲜为人知的私募股权公司的头部的故事，基于爵士乐和美好时光的城市，但不是为了高调的金融交易，将他们的进入创始人在国家电视的董事会的董事会中每周几天是自己的右转周转故事。新奥尔良已经经历了几年的经济文艺征缓慢。重生可以直接追溯到飓风卡里娜飓风的后果，该飓风于2005年8月袭击了该市，是美国历史上最昂贵的自然灾害，一个月后，飓风·丽塔爆炸了路易斯安那州海岸的几乎平等毁灭性。当地人将卡特里娜州视为近死的经历，但接下来的救济基金的救济资金将使新奥尔良的救济基金成为近年来，其经济在近年来大部分世纪的困扰，开始新的开始。飓风卡特里娜飓风和丽塔以及2010年5月的深水地平线漏油，使志愿者成为新奥尔良的时尚，以帮助。演员布拉德皮特组织了贫困的第九病房的新房屋的建设。许多不那么着名的旅行者访问并决定留下来。因此，新奥尔良现在拥有越来越多的初创企业家和技术 - 娴熟的千禧年人口，他们将这座城市带入了罐头的精神。
| Slideshow: 场景 from New Orleans |
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“如果你甚至五年前告诉我，我会从新奥尔良那里做到这一点，我笑了，”在西部的路易斯安那州圣马丁镇南方南方镇大容易。前格林威治，基于康涅狄格州的私募股权经理于2012年1月返回，主要由低税基绘制，并启动了路易斯安那州买断基金。该基金仍然存在，旨在购买小型技术公司，如果他们向卢比亚或其他劳动和其他开销成本与其余部分低的其他地方移动了一些业务，那么Bienvenu认为将更有利可图国家。
Perkin and Bienvenu are by their own admission a long way from purchasing TheStreet. They call Spear Point a "transaction-oriented activist fund," and by making their intentions public, they are deploying the activist side of what they do.
"Our long-term goal is to fix the problem holding down [TheStreet's] valuation," says Bienvenu. "In this case the problem is the capital structure" — specifically, a preferred stock position held by Palo Alto, California–based private equity and venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures. The liquidation preference of the preferred stock is to be paid upon a change in control. For that reason, Perkin and Bienvenu contend that the preferred stock acts as a poison pill that makes a strategic buyer less likely to acquire the company and further dampens the value.
All of this might sound like chutzpah for a company that came out of nowhere and now owns a little more than 2 percent of the outstanding shares. It might be just that; Perkin and Bienvenu say all shareholders will benefit if they make an unsolicited bid — which they haven't done yet — and that leads to a bidding battle.
然而，在新奥尔良的家庭草坪上，在12月推出的Spear Point已成为骄傲的源泉。
这是一个用于投资和增长的红色警报的城市，尤其是其小企业的生长基础。根据新的Orleans社区数据中心，一个非营利组织的研究组织，企业家精神几乎翻了一番，从2003年-105到427的每10万世德地区成年人中出售218名企业，从2008年 - '10岁，远高于国家平均333。
“NIC Perkin和Rod Bienvenu都有金融记录，”大新Orleans Inc.的首席执行官Michael Hecht说，这座城市的经济发展联盟和周边大都市区。“正如他们开始完成交易所以，Word将通过私募股权和投资世界来涟漪，这将有助于将新奥尔良建立为其他公司的品牌。”
像他的业务合作伙伴一样，佩特金是一种思想的金融专业人员，他们认为Katrina新奥尔良是一个待的地方。他在纽约城市长大，但在新奥尔良生活在伦敦商学院的MBA之前，在新奥兰大学的本科生。之后，他在投资银行业和共同创立了一家广告软件公司，Microsoft Corp.于2006年购买。他的职业生涯将他带到香港，布拉格，旧金山和洛杉矶，但在2007年，他占据了他的财产进入一个U-Haul，从南加州开车到了他的未婚夫的新奥尔良。在那里，他共同创立了一家名为应收款项交易所的公司，这是一家在线市场，允许企业通过竞争性拍卖将其应收账款销售应收账款。（亚博赞助欧冠制度投资者名为Perkin和应收账款的交换联合创始人Justin Brownhill到2011年Tech 50在金融技术中的世界领先的高管排名。）
虽然布朗希尔从纽约的办公室工作，但佩特金设置在运河街的前身沉闷的地区。220年营地街的建筑被称为企业家的行，它现在拥有矛角和卢比亚买断基金。
作为企业家，佩尔金和朗希尔在新奥尔良同行中都是独一无二的，因为他们在金融和技术方面有着经过验证的赛道记录，以及私募股权世界的联系。他们在贝恩资本企业，富达企业，棱镜渡笔和redpointsventures的比例中获得了大约6000万美元的私募股权。2011年9月，纽约证券交易所欧洲交易所通过少数股权获得应收账款交换。虽然Perkin仍处于咨询委员会，但他于2012年10月辞职的职位。这是一家更大的公司接管后的创始人的标准故事。“这是我决定离开，但让我们这样说：这个决定得到了很好的收到了，”Perkin说。
詹姆斯库尔特, co-founder of $56.7 billion Fort Worth– and San Francisco–based private equity firm TPG Capital, is one of New Orleans's most enthusiastic boosters of new capital. "New Orleans has become a place where young people want to live — that is important," he explains. "As the entrepreneurial community grows, it can create jobs, and economic growth becomes a self-perpetuating belief."
 詹姆斯库尔特 |
Coulter goes there every March to address start-up leaders at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, an event hosted by an incubation complex for small start-ups, called Idea Village. Some advice he gave this year: Disrespect fundamental roadblocks and offer a way to bypass the obstacles. Coulter also recommended using theatrical-style stunts, as he did when his firm was trying to make changes at Continental Airlines and he mailed an airline meal to the CEO with a message about how bad the food was.
在过去的三年里,TPG co-founder has capped the week with a Friday event dubbed the Coulter IDEA–pitch, an American Idol–like competition in which five entrepreneurs each make a short pitch before a panel of judges who know a lot about start-ups. The winner receives several prizes, the most valuable of which is a trip to San Francisco to meet with private equity managers. The prize this year went to Brendan Finke and Joe McMenemon, founders of software company ChapterSpot, whose tools track finances and membership for organizations.
Coulter在纽约布法罗长大，但他的妻子，便士来自新奥尔良。卡特里娜飓风后，他们帮助了救济努力，他们一年继续几次回去。虽然他的大多数贡献都来自个人资本到初创企业家，但Coulter也为促进了新奥尔良的国家形象作为一个很酷的地方。“Jim Coulter为新奥尔良提供了一个初创公司最佳地区之一的案例，国家风险资本家已经开始感兴趣，”惠格·罗伊斯伙伴在巴尔的摩队合作伙伴说。
Evans went to high school in New Orleans and in the past year has invested in four start-ups there. One is Kickboard, an educational software company and part of an industry that has been growing in New Orleans largely through people who went there after Katrina with nonprofit organization Teach for America. Kickboard founder Jennifer Medbery is a local success story, having received a total of $2.8 million in start-up capital so far. Evans was one of a group of angel funders who participated in a $2 million round of funding for Kickboard in early 2013. His investment was $200,000, and some of the angel investors put in smaller amounts; most of the capital came from New Markets Venture Partners and Two Sigma Ventures. Evans has also committed angel funding to a new gourmet retailer named Jack & Jake's.
在共和党州长鲍比金达尔，路易斯安那州已成为非常友好的友好友好友好。他建议消除个人所得税，企业所得税和特许经营税，以吸引更多私人资本的激励措施 - 这一提案在国家普遍辩论。路易斯安那州已经为那些问道的人提供了相当强烈的激励措施。以应收账款交换：在亨利艾伦的新首席执行官下，以前与Marsh＆Mclennan COS。，公司普林斯仍然有34人在新奥尔良办事处工作，谢谢税收休息和补助金。但艾伦说，留下最重要的待命原因是一种激励，普林斯和布朗希尔能够与路易斯安那立法机构谈判。为该公司撰写的法律表示，金融机构和其他购买中小型商业义务的其他人可以获得追索权 - 即，从国家汇款 - 如果债务人违约。艾伦在纽约办事处墙上保留了法律的框架副本。
天使投资者也得到了强大的税收激励。路易斯安那州的天使投资者税收抵免在投资中提供了35％的税收抵免，逐到五年分阶段，限制为500万美元。甚至不是路易斯安那州居民的投资者都可以通过销售税收抵免来利用激励。
然而，到目前为止，新奥尔良的特征是多米的交易。咖啡馆和瑜伽工作室在城市中加剧了更多传统的爵士乐俱乐部和加州餐厅，但新的臀部氛围并没有完全融入竞争优势 - 至少还没有。没有人比Gno的Hecht，一个原住民纽约人和市长Michael Bloomberg助理专员更好。Hecht在路易斯安那州拥有家族根源，并前往新奥尔良，在卡特里娜飓风后领导小企业恢复计划。
他是针对一些行业的时机已经成熟investment capital. Two of those have been a part of the city for a long time: energy and advanced manufacturing. Others are part of the post-Katrina start-up fervor, including digital technology. Environmental technology is starting to grow as an industry, with several companies from the New Orleans area now working on restoring parts of New York and New Jersey from the ravages of Hurricane Sandy. Biotechnology has received a boost from an incubation facility called the BioInnovation Center, along with a $2 billion medical center that is under construction. The entertainment industry is also on Hecht's list. In 2012, New Orleans hosted 61 film projects that received tax credits for shooting there. But Hecht says that although visiting film crews spend money locally, they don't deliver lasting returns. "Brad Pitt is a bit like the grammar book," he says. "He eats, shoots and leaves. Until we have postproduction facilities and other brick-and-mortar businesses here, we're not adding value."
Hecht also has high hopes for Spear Point bringing new jobs to the region. Partners Perkin and Bienvenu expect to acquire companies that are based in expensive locales such as New York and Silicon Valley and bring some of their operations to lower-cost areas like Louisiana. Median salaries in this city are about 8 percent below the national average, according to U.S. Census data, and the cost of living can be as much as 30 percent lower than that of New York.
如果偶通矛点成功购买TheStreet，Perkin说路易斯安那州将是一个非常竞争力的地方来重新安置其一些运营。他强调，他和毕因维像公司的管理团队，并充分意识到，作为金融媒体公司，TheStreet需要基于纽约的金融神经中心。但是，深南的这一部分并不完全不熟悉TheStreet的创始人。正如它所合作的那样，吉姆克兰人认为他的签名战斗哭泣 - “嘘你！”- 首先来自路易斯安那州的投资者，他们呼吁他的展示。