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What really happened at LivingSocial?
團(tuán)購網(wǎng)站LivingSocial到底出了什么事？
Yesterday morning, news leaked that the company had raised $110 million in new financing. Seemed to be a long-awaited hallelujah moment for the daily deal company, particularly after investor Amazon.com (AMZN) significantly wrote down its LivingSocial investment in recent quarterly earning reports.
上周三上午傳出消息，LivingSocial在最新一輪融資中融得1.1億美元。對這家團(tuán)購網(wǎng)站來說，這似乎是一個(gè)期待已久、見證奇跡的時(shí)刻。尤其是考慮到此前，這家公司的投資者亞馬遜（Amazon.com）在最近的季度財(cái)報(bào)中剛剛大幅減記了它手頭所持這家股份的價(jià)值。
But the storm clouds came quickly, when a research group called PrivCo claimed that the financing actually was convertible debt that wiped out the value of founder and employee liquidity and included a whole rash of onerous terms. PrivCo also claimed that the round was "emergency" round of funding that staved off imminent bankruptcy.
但烏云很快籠罩過來，一家名為PrivCo的研究機(jī)構(gòu)稱，這輪融資其實(shí)附帶著大量的苛刻條款、消除創(chuàng)始人和員工股份價(jià)值的可轉(zhuǎn)換債務(wù)。PrivCo還稱，這是一輪“緊急”融資目的是讓LivingSocial避免立即破產(chǎn)的命運(yùn)。
Multiple investor sources took issue with the PrivCo report during background conversations earlier this morning, and now Fortune has obtained a memo that LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy just issued to employees. Here it is, in its entirety:
上周四上午早些時(shí)候，多位投資行業(yè)消息人士都在跟《財(cái)富》雜志（Fortune）進(jìn)行交流時(shí)對PrivCo的報(bào)告提出質(zhì)疑，現(xiàn)在我們獲得了LivingSocial首席執(zhí)行官蒂姆奧肖內(nèi)西發(fā)給員工的一份備忘錄，以下是備忘錄全文：
Hey folks,
伙伴們：
In light of a recent report on our financing round that contained significant inaccuracies and errors, I wanted to provide some additional details on yesterday's round.
鑒于最近一份關(guān)于我們公司融資的報(bào)告包含了顯著的誤差和錯(cuò)誤，我想在這里提供關(guān)于那輪融資的更多細(xì)節(jié)。
If you've seen some of that misinformation, here's the real story:
如果你們看已經(jīng)看到了其中一些錯(cuò)誤的信息，下面我要說的才是真實(shí)的情況：
This was not an emergency round. We received our first term sheet on December 23rd, nearly two months ago, and this has been an organized, thought-out process.
這并不是一輪緊急融資。我們在12月23日收到第一份風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資協(xié)議，也就是近兩個(gè)月前，這輪融資是有組織、經(jīng)過深思熟慮的。
This was an equity round, not a debt infusion.
這輪融資是股權(quán)投資，而不是債務(wù)輸注。
There was no re-pricing of investor shares from previous rounds.
我們沒有對之前幾輪融資確定的投資者股份進(jìn)行重新定價(jià)。
There were no warrants issued as part of this round.
這輪融資不包括發(fā)行認(rèn)股權(quán)證。
There were no "double-digit" cash dividends. (Typical of many financing rounds, including our own past rounds, there was a nominal 3% dividend for a class of shares.)
不存在“兩位數(shù)的”現(xiàn)金股利（跟典型的融資——包括我們公司過去幾輪融資——一樣，我們只針對一類股票象征性地發(fā)放3%的現(xiàn)金股利）。
There is no "4x liquidation preference." (Once again, typical of almost all venture rounds, there is a liquidation preference, but it slides up or down based on a key metric and gets nowhere near 4x.)
不存在“4倍的優(yōu)先清算權(quán)”（再次重申，跟大多數(shù)融資一樣，我們的融資涉及優(yōu)先清算權(quán)，但它根據(jù)一個(gè)關(guān)鍵指標(biāo)上下浮動，絕對達(dá)不到4倍）。
The quotes from a "senior LivingSocial communication executive" are straight up fiction.
報(bào)告中引用一位所謂“LivingSocial高級傳媒主管”的說法純屬捏造。
Two of the three investors listed on the PrivCo site as participating in the round didn't participate, and one isn't even an investor in the company.
PrivCo網(wǎng)站上列出的參與本輪融資的投資者中有三分之二并沒有參與，其中有一位甚至不是投資公司的成員。
On valuation, people always seem to be overly enamored with market value, which has puzzled me because as a private company, there is no liquid market on which to buy and sell shares, so a valuation is established without any degree of market efficiency. In short, it's an educated guess between the company and a set of investors at one particular snapshot in time.
就估值而論，人們似乎總是過分迷戀市場價(jià)值。這個(gè)問題同樣一直困擾著我，因?yàn)樽鳛橐患宜饺斯?，并不存在一個(gè)買賣股票的流動性市場，所以估值的確定沒有把任何程度上的市場效率考慮在內(nèi)。簡言之，估值是公司和一組投資者在某一特定時(shí)間點(diǎn)進(jìn)行的有根據(jù)猜測。
But nevertheless here goes. Yes, this was a down round, which I'm sure is not a shock to anyone. Our main comp in the market is down significantly from when we last fundraised. In this round, we sold 7.5% of the company for $110mm. Although there were some bells and whistles associated with those shares, as mentioned above, this should give you some idea of the current valuation of the company.
但不管怎樣，事情是這樣的。不錯(cuò)，這確實(shí)是一次估值較低的融資（down round，指投資者在一輪融資中購買同一家公司股票的價(jià)格低于對上一次融資投資者支付價(jià)格的情況——譯注），我敢肯定沒有人會覺得吃驚。跟上一輪融資時(shí)比較起來，我們公司的估值已經(jīng)大幅縮水。在本輪融資中，我們將公司7.5%的股份作價(jià)1.1億美元。不過，正如前面提到的，那部分股份還附加了一些條款，這些應(yīng)該能夠讓你們對公司目前的估值水平有所了解了。
So how does this round impact employee stock? In short, some, but not much. Basically, the preference stack is a little higher now. At any valuation over $1B, though, we clear that stack by quite a bit. For comparison, our major competitor's market cap is now $3.9B. In the event of an IPO, all preferred stock becomes common stock, and the preference stack goes away.
那么，本輪融資對員工股份有什么影響呢？簡言之，有影響，但影響并不是很大?；旧?，現(xiàn)在疊加起來的清算優(yōu)先權(quán)有點(diǎn)高。不過，我們在公司估值超過10億美元的時(shí)候清理了一大部分優(yōu)先權(quán)。作為比較，我們主要競爭對手的市值現(xiàn)在是39億美元。在進(jìn)行首次公開募股后，所有的優(yōu)先股都會變成普通股，清算優(yōu)先權(quán)也就消失了。
We are a company that does over half a billion in revenue. If we stay diligent, we hope to turn the corner to become profitable soon. Thanks to this round, we have significantly more capital to be able to be opportunistic and drive the future growth of the business.
我們公司的年?duì)I收超過5億美元，如果我們繼續(xù)努力下去，公司有望在不久的將來扭虧為盈。得益于這輪融資，我們獲得了更多的資金以抓住機(jī)遇，推動公司業(yè)務(wù)在未來的增長。
Hopefully this will help clear up any questions you may have or get on yesterday's round. Now it's back to executing on our plan.
如果你們對這輪融資存在或產(chǎn)生了任何疑問，希望這份備忘錄有助于澄清問題?，F(xiàn)在，我們該回頭執(zhí)行我們的計(jì)劃了。
This is a pretty damning indictment of PrivCo, which regularly distributes information on private company financings. I managed to reach PrivCo CEO Sam Hamadeh, but said he'd call me right back. Hasn't happened yet. Will update if and when I hear from him.
PrivCo定期發(fā)布有關(guān)私人公司融資的信息，這份備忘錄是對該公司非常嚴(yán)肅的控告。我設(shè)法聯(lián)系到PrivCo的首席執(zhí)行官山姆哈馬德，不過他說會打電話給我。電話還沒打過來，我將在聽過他的說法后對本文進(jìn)行更新。
UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Hamadeh, who is standing by his original report. He says O'Shaughnessy is misleading his own employees, and that classifying the round as "equity" is a technicality given all of the debt-like provisions PrivCo continues to believe were attached. He also says that PrivCo spoke with a LivingSocial spokesman prior to publishing, and sent him a draft of the report with a request for any needed corrections. When nothing came back four hours later, PrivCo published.
最新消息：我剛剛結(jié)束與哈馬德的通話，他仍然堅(jiān)持原先報(bào)告的觀點(diǎn)。哈馬德說，奧肖內(nèi)西是在誤導(dǎo)自己的員工，鑒于那些附加的類債務(wù)條款，他把這輪融資定性為“股權(quán)投資”是在說漂亮話。他還表示，PrivCo在發(fā)布報(bào)告之前跟LivingSocial的發(fā)言人進(jìn)行了溝通，向后者寄送了一份草稿，并詢問需要更正的地方。LivingSocial沒有做出回應(yīng)，PrivCo在四個(gè)小時(shí)之后才發(fā)布了這份報(bào)告。
"I don't think the real story here is the details of the financing," Hamadeh said. "It's what's going to happen to the little guys, all of the merchants who are really the company's unsecured creditors, if LivingSocial goes bankrupt... You'll see that we were right in six or nine months."
“我不認(rèn)為真相在于融資的細(xì)節(jié)，”哈馬德說。“而是在于弱勢群體——即所有商家，他們是LivingSocial真正的無擔(dān)保債權(quán)人——將要面對的情況，如果LivingSocial破產(chǎn)的話……只需6-9個(gè)月的時(shí)間，你就能看到我們說的沒錯(cuò)?！?/div>
Worth noting that if O'Shaughnessy really misled his investors -- in a memo that almost certainly was vetted by company attorneys -- he would be opening both himself and the company to major liabilities.
值得指出的是，如果奧肖內(nèi)西真的誤導(dǎo)了自己的投資者——幾乎可以肯定的是，其備忘錄經(jīng)過了公司律師的審核——那么他將讓自己和公司擔(dān)上重大責(zé)任。
But have no fear. There is indeed a way to settle this he-said/he-said once and for all -- find the filing that LivingSocial sent to the Delaware Division of Corporations. Check back shortly...
但不要擔(dān)心，確實(shí)有一個(gè)辦法可以厘清兩人的不同言論——找到LivingSocial提交給特拉華州企業(yè)管理部門的監(jiān)管文件。稍后還會進(jìn)行更新……
UPDATE II: I have just begun skimming through LivingSocial's charter filing with Delaware. It's long, but this round clearly was preferred stock (i.e., equity). This is in stark contract to what PrivCo reported, when it claimed that "EQUITY or stock was NOT issued today."
最新消息2：我剛開始瀏覽LivingSocial提交給特拉華州的監(jiān)管文件。內(nèi)容很長，但這輪融資顯然是優(yōu)先股交易（也即股權(quán)投資）。這跟PrivCo報(bào)告的結(jié)論截然不同，該機(jī)構(gòu)稱“今天的這輪融資不涉及股權(quán)或股票?！?/div>
Moreover, the filing says that participants "shall be entitled to receive cumulative dividends at the rate of three percent." Again, PrivCo had claimed "Double-digit annual cash dividends."
此外，這份文件還稱投資者“有權(quán)獲得3%的累計(jì)優(yōu)先股股利?！倍鳳rivCo卻稱存在“兩位數(shù)的年度現(xiàn)金股利。”
The filing does not identify investors in the new round, but Fortune has learned that they included existing backers Amazon and Revolution. Among those insiders not participating were Grotech Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price.
這份文件沒有指明新一輪融資的投資者都有哪些，但《財(cái)富》了解到，其中包括亞馬遜和風(fēng)投公司Revolution這些原有的投資者，而沒有參與這輪融資的投資者包括Grotech Ventures、光速創(chuàng)投（Lightspeed Venture Partners）以及普萊斯基金（T. Rowe Price）。
Also worth noting that I spoke with a source close to the company, who tells me that the competing term sheet was at the same valuation as what insiders offered, but that company decided to stick with its current investors. The prospective investor was said to be a "familiar name," but not a venture capital firm. That same source insists LivingSocial was not days or weeks away from a bankruptcy filing, adding that it had around $28 million in cash at its February low point and was on plan to steadily increase that number even without the new financing. Had that figure not increased, and had no new investment been forthcoming, it still could have survived for several more months.
另外值得一提的是，據(jù)我采訪的一位接近LivingSocial的消息人士稱，有外部投資者愿意在同等估值水平上參與融資，但該公司還是決定繼續(xù)接受現(xiàn)有投資者的資金。這位潛在的投資者據(jù)稱是一個(gè)“耳熟能詳?shù)娜宋铩保⒎且患绎L(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司。這位消息人士堅(jiān)稱，LivingSocial并不是再過幾天或是幾周就要破產(chǎn)，該公司在2月份最低點(diǎn)時(shí)仍手握2,800萬美元現(xiàn)金，即使沒有新一輪的融資，LivingSocial也在計(jì)劃穩(wěn)步增加現(xiàn)金儲備。即使這個(gè)數(shù)字沒有增加，新一輪融資也沒能完成，LivingSocial仍然可以存活數(shù)月之久。
| 重點(diǎn)單詞 | 查看全部解釋 | |||
| financing | [fai'nænsiŋ] |
想一想再看 n. 融資，資金供應(yīng) 動詞finance的現(xiàn)在分詞 |
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| identify | [ai'dentifai] |
想一想再看 vt. 識別，認(rèn)明，鑒定 |
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| liquid | ['likwid] |
想一想再看 adj. 液體的，液態(tài)的 |
||
| employee | [.emplɔi'i:] |
想一想再看 n. 雇員 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| previous | ['pri:vjəs] |
想一想再看 adj. 在 ... 之前，先，前，以前的 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| efficiency | [i'fiʃənsi] |
想一想再看 n. 效率，功率 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| stick | [stik] |
想一想再看 n. 枝，桿，手杖 |
||
| draft | [dræft] |
想一想再看 n. 草稿，草圖，匯票，徵兵 |
||
| convertible | [kən'və:təbl] |
想一想再看 adj. 可改變的，可交換，同意義的 n. 有活動摺篷的 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| multiple | ['mʌltipl] |
想一想再看 adj. 許多，多種多樣的 |
聯(lián)想記憶 |
