To: Anaxagoras who wrote (443 ) 4/24/1999 12:30:00 PM From: Questerr Read Replies (2) | Respond to
I would most certainly hope Leon Black would get favorable terms, for providing significant and much needed cash to RareMedium. You sound like you are familiar with Venture Capital/Private Equity. If you are, then you understand why Apollo made this investment - fortunately for all RRRR shareholders, they were just made Limited Partners in a new Internet Fund called RareMedium. Forget about what Apollo got its shares for, that's looking backwards. Think about all those tiny i-net firms that will be spawned, and a $5 million investment could buy you a significant chunk of them at ground floor prices (20% or more). VC investments never make their way into the public equity markets until the VC's are ready to IPO them. Remember, Ebay started out as a joke and cost virtually nothing to start, 2 years later the company is worth many billions of dollars (imagine owning 20% of that). Don't you think another Ebay will occur? Every IPO you and I catch is a VC firm and company insiders selling their shares to us. I would much rather get in when the VC's get in, than afterwards. The Apollo's, KKR's, Tommy Lee's of the world never lose. It is a considerable honor and testament if one of these firms take a position in your company in the Private Equity world. We might not have been able to get into this new Internet Venture Capital fund (RareMedium) at the same price as Apollo did, but from here on out we will all get out at the same prices! Apollo won't sell any of RareMedium's future investments before the time is right, you can be assured of that.
