While there was some speculation as to the reasons why eBay made this deal, the capital network shows some indirect ties between StumbleUpon and eBay.  This is noted in the below relational map of eBay (as investor and company) and StumbleUpon: 

Relational Map for eBay/StumbleUpon.  Notes: There are two capital paths between eBay and StumbleUpon: (1) eBay as an investor (orange oval): eBay as investor in Feedster –> Josh Kopelman (Board Advisor to Feedster) –> StumbleUpon (Kopelman as Board Member); (2) eBay as a company (green box): Benchmark Capital (eBay investor) ties to Ram Shriram (via Friendster), Mitch Kapor (via Linden Lab), & Ron Conway (via OpenTable & oDesk) as angel investors in StumbleUpon; and Bob Kagle (Benchmark) board interlock tie to Ram Shriram (via Friendster) as angel investor in StumbleUpon. (Source: LinkSV.com) 

The apparent acquisition of Photobucket by MySpace for $250M has some precedence from a venture capital perspective.  By examining the capital map combining MySpace with Photobucket I found a former tie between the two.  Realize that each only has one main investor: Trinity Ventures (Photobucket) and HP (MySpace).  By filtering in inactive company ties, one connection emerged between HP and Trinity: Speedera Networks.  Speedera Networks (total capital raised in 4 rounds = $53.3M) was acquired by Akamai Technologies for $130M in 2005  - Trinity and HP were among 10 of the investors in Speedera.  Thus, HP and Trinity have had a previous acquisition experience together, albeit they were on the same side of the table on the deal.  This relationship is shown in the below map (pendants dropped), followed by a map including pendants = current and former board and management team members for Photobucket and MySpace (Source: LinkSV.com).

Zazzle Relational Map.  Notes: (1) Zazzle is funded by KPCB and Sherpalo (their only 2 investors); (2) John Doerr and Ram Shriram sit on the board (their only 2 outside board members); (3) Zazzle has capital relations with Google, Tellme, and Podshow (it is a full Kleiner-Sherpalo sibling); and (4) Zazzle and Google are the only two companies that have both Doerr and Shriram on their current board. 

Cisco buys NeoPath, a network storage company    (Venture Beat)

NeoPath Relational Map (Pendants dropped, Inactive companies included).  Notes: (1) Cisco was an investor in NeoPath; (2) Cisco relational investment ties to August Capital = BroadLogic & Ubicom; (3) All of the active companies are private; (4) Only 1 inactive acquired company = Caw Networks; and (5) Cisco relational investment tie to Bill Joy (Caw). 

Another qualitative VC Ratings service launches

VC Ratings @ thedeal.com reports on the company The Funded, which offers ratings for VC Firms.  A blurb on the post that drew my attention: 

While the news and opinion in this blog hopefully provide readers with a sense of which VCs are doing well (and badly) and why, there is little quantitative analysis that would provide statistical-backed insight into not just which firms are doing good work, but which individual partners adds value to those around them.

I believe that our Relational Capital Index would be a good metric along these lines.  The main idea here is the quantification of network relations based on the strategic value of VC firm connections.  More to come: (1) we plan on publishing our rankings of Silicon Valley Investment and People (Board) Relational Capital; (2) we will incorporate network metrics as an optional advanced feature on LinkSViewer.  For those who want to learn more, please contact us at linksviewer@groupscope.com.

People Map for WebEx/Cisco/Tibco (Direct ties only).  Notes: (1) Vivek Ranadive (Tibco CEO) is a board advisor to WebEx; (2) Cisco invested in Tibco; and (3) Tibco invested in WebEx.

An aesthetically pleasing map, it looks like a ladybug.  Note the multiple indirect paths for Cisco to connect to WebEx by related people (board and management team members) and companies (active).  Key connecting people: Arthur Patterson (Accel Partners); Rob Theis (Doll Capital); John Hennessy (Stanford President); James Morgan (Applied Materials Chairman); and Michael Splinter (Applied Materials CEO).  Key connecting companies: Tensilica; Applied Materials; Roamware; Savi Technology; NeoPath Networks; and iPass.

It is interesting to see how Cisco has in the month and change has suddenly become a key player in the Web 2.0 space, as noted by recent acquisitions of Tribe, Reactivity, and FiveAcross.  Their credo is “Cisco: Welcome to the Human Network,” I guess they are investing in this space as well.  Hey, you have to applaud their fervor. 

What also comes through by analyzing TellMe’s network is that another capital-thirsty Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark portfolio company, Good Technology, also found a buyer a few months ago. A pattern, perhaps? I’m not sure, but other co-investments by the pair include Infinera, which has filed for an IPO, and Friendster, which is huge in the Philippines.

I got to thinking, what other Silicon Valley deals were Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark involved in?  For this I examined their combined Company Map (Company filter = Active + Inactive companies; Investor Filter = 3 Types unchecked; orange and red links hidden):  

Benchmark/Kleiner Company Map - This cluster indicates their active and inactive company co-investments.  Note how 11/15 (including Tellme Networks) were acquired, 3 are public, and only 1 (Friendster) is private.  What is most interesting is that 14/15 of their co-investments have resulted in exits (some more successful than others). 

This map helps validates Joshua’s initial supposition, that Kleiner Perkins and Benchmark have been co-investors on their share of acquisitions.  And given the recent leverage of Friendster (round funding on 8/06, patent grants, and users in the Philippines), this is likely to be a perfect 15/15 in the Valley.  If I were a company looking for funding, this connection would in all probability guarantee some form of exit (and to be fair 20% went IPO).  There must be something about the Kleiner/Benchmark connection… 

Registered LinkSViewer users are encouraged to explore interesting maps for key connections.  Let us know if you find a cool map using the ”email this map” feature to linksviewer@groupscope.com and drop us a comment briefly describing your map/issue.  We can help you post it to your blog, you can guest post it to our blog, or we will post it and give you props (if you like).  Happy mapping!  

Tellme/Google Investment Map (Common investors only).  Both Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures invested in both companies.  Note a similar co-investment relationship with PodShow and Zazzle.  Sherpalo has only 8 Silicon Valley company investments (according to the LinkSV database), and half of them are with Kleiner Perkins.  Next, the Board Map…

Tellme/Google Board Map (Pendants dropped).  Notes: (1) John Doerr (Kleiner Perkins) was formerly on the board at Tellme and is currently on the board at Google (Direct former tie); (2) Adam Bosworth (Google CFO) is a board advisor to MySQL where Kevin Harvey (Benchmark Capital) sits on the board, Harvey is also on Tellme’s board (Indirect current tie).

Thus, there are some current and former ties between Google and Tellme.  It will be interesting to see if the deal transpires over the next few days and, if so, the acquisition amount.  Keep an eye on PodShow and Zazzle as Google/Tellme brethren linked by co-investors Kleiner & Sherpalo.

Taleo links to JobFlash via Five9.  Note the key gatekeepers connecting the network: David Samuel (Mosaic); David Welsh (Partech); Mitchell Kertzman (Hummer Windblad); Mark Bertelsen (WSGR).

Cisco connects to Tribe via Mayfield: 5 out of 8 of their SV co-invested companies have been acquired.

The main point from this map is that Reactivity was invested in by Accel Partners, who invested in iPass, who was invested in by Cisco - Reactivity and Cisco are connected by Accel and iPass.  This indicates that there was an indirect tie between Cisco and Reflectivity before the deal commenced (so it should not have come as too much of a surprise).  I found this interesting…so I Excluded Reactivity and Cisco as target nodes for the below map:

It should be first noted that the only three nodes in the above network are tied to Reactivity (JK&B, Interwoven, & Accel - see initial map).  As a result, the majority of the network is due to Cisco’s Investment connections.  Most interesting is that this map uncovers the multiple paths enabled by iPass (hence, the irony).  Without iPass, the majority of the network becomes disconnected (from a graph theoretic perspective, iPass is a cut-vertex).  Practically, this map illustrates that Cisco’s Public + Acquired company relations are highly contingent upon the iPass deal.  Examining the structure of the above map, there are three distinct loops in the network (from a graph-theoretic/EE perspective, iPass forges three cycles/circuits).  Two of these loops pass thru Intel Capital, which heightens its role in Cisco’s public/acquired investment network.  The above network illustrates how Cisco’s co-investors and their portfolio companies are connected by key relationships.  We started with the acquisition of Reflectivity by Cisco and then noted the key connections of Accel and Intel as investors + iPass as a strategic company alliance.  This allows us insight into the relational capital behind the deal. 

From the above map, Cavium has 9 investors, who have less than 25 total investments with the exception of Menlo Ventures (152), but 7 of 9 have at least 10 investments.  Thus, Cavium’s investors have relatively small portfolios, but have some experience as investors.  There are no Public companies in the map, but 4 out of 6 of the related companies are acquired (Purple = IronPort, Maranti, Theras, and Passmark Security).  Intrigued at this “Purple Rain,” I next factored in the Board Members and Management Team by clicking on Relational Map, added in Former boards and teams from the Person Filter, and Dropped Pendants.  This map is below.

The predominant company (box) color in the above map is Purple: Acquired companies represent 15/35 = 43% of the companies on the map.  Again, there are no public companies on the map.  The people on the map indicate significant past SV board experience John Jarve (Menlo Ventures, #62 on the Midas List); C. N. Reddy (Alliance Ventures); Tony Pantuso (NeoCarta Ventures); and Raman Khanna (Diamondhead Ventures).  But none of these board members have had experience on a SV company that went public.  From a relational capital perspective, it is surprising that Cavium is going public versus seeking acquisition (as a purple trend would indicate).  Maybe the trend for IPOs is real - this may be a sign of more IPO companies in the future because Cavium’s relational capital points toward M & A.  It will be interesting to see what happens at IPO.