Congratulations and thanks to the teams at Sirtris, PA Semi and Gracenote, three Bessemer portfolio companies who all signed and announced their acquisitions in the last 12 hours.
Sirtris, the startup that cheats death, fetched $720 million from GlaxoSmithKline. This company, whose sirtuin activators have been touted as the fountain of youth (at least for overweight laboratory mice), was the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Christoph Westphal, a Harvard trained doctor and geneticist. Chris Gabrieli (pictured right) and Steve Kraus led the investment for Bessemer (huge hat tip to Jonathan for the intro--we owe you one!).
Meanwhile, Gracenote--that music database in the sky that tells us all what song, artist and album we're listening to on our PCs, in our iPods, in our CD players, and increasingly in our cars--has fetched a $260 million price from Sony. Special congrats to founder Ty Roberts (pictured right), CEO Craig Palmer, my partner Jeremy Levine and our co-investor Sequoia Capital.
And finally, Forbes reported just minutes ago that Apple has disclosed its acquisition of PA Semi, the innovator in power efficient microprocessors. PA Semi was the brainchild of DEC's rock star chip designer and Sibyte founder Dan Dobberpuhl (pictured right). Thanks to my partner Rob Chandra, who led the A round with help along the way from Ted Lin, Devesh Garg, Umesh Padval and Derrick Lee. Congrats as well to our co-investors Venrock, Highland and Focus.
Sirtris, the startup that cheats death, fetched $720 million from GlaxoSmithKline. This company, whose sirtuin activators have been touted as the fountain of youth (at least for overweight laboratory mice), was the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Christoph Westphal, a Harvard trained doctor and geneticist. Chris Gabrieli (pictured right) and Steve Kraus led the investment for Bessemer (huge hat tip to Jonathan for the intro--we owe you one!).
Meanwhile, Gracenote--that music database in the sky that tells us all what song, artist and album we're listening to on our PCs, in our iPods, in our CD players, and increasingly in our cars--has fetched a $260 million price from Sony. Special congrats to founder Ty Roberts (pictured right), CEO Craig Palmer, my partner Jeremy Levine and our co-investor Sequoia Capital.
And finally, Forbes reported just minutes ago that Apple has disclosed its acquisition of PA Semi, the innovator in power efficient microprocessors. PA Semi was the brainchild of DEC's rock star chip designer and Sibyte founder Dan Dobberpuhl (pictured right). Thanks to my partner Rob Chandra, who led the A round with help along the way from Ted Lin, Devesh Garg, Umesh Padval and Derrick Lee. Congrats as well to our co-investors Venrock, Highland and Focus.Blogged with the Flock Browser
How about PASemi
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/04/23/apple-buys-pasemi-tech-ebiz-cz_eb_0422apple.html
Good point! As of posting that hadn't been announced, but I guess I now have to edit my post...
ReplyDeleteNice exits. At $900m average from start to finish for a pharma product, it makes sense to let startups assort and then pay big premiums for acquiring the cream.
ReplyDelete