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Enron Mail |
o Cuantra Launches Latin American Ground Transportation Site
HOUSTON -- Cuantra, creator of transporteymas.com, a business-to-business site for the ground transportation industry in Latin America, said the site has launched. Ground transportation companies in Mexico will be able to use the site to purchase truck and bus parts from suppliers. The company plans to expand into other Latin American countries by the second quarter of next year. The company is backed by undisclosed individual investors and is currently seeking venture funding. http://www.transporteymas.com/ _____________________________________________ o Austin Ventures Names 3 General Partners, 3 Partners AUSTIN, Texas. -- Austin Ventures said it has promoted three of its partners, Ross Cockrell, Chris Pacitti, and Stephen Straus, to the position of general partner, and also named John Dirvin, Venu Shamapant, and Basil Horangic as partners. Mr. Cockrell joined Austin Ventures five years ago from Lomas Financial, and Mr. Pacitti, formerly with TL Ventures, joined the firm last year and focuses on software and services. Mr. Straus, who joined Austin Ventures in 1986, leads the firm's semiconductor practice. Before joining Austin Ventures three years ago, Mr. Dirvin worked at Texas Instruments. Mr. Shamapant was with Telecom Technologies and joined Austin Ventures last year. New to the firm is Mr. Horangic, who is a former principal Oak Venture Partners. http://www.austinventures.com/ _________________________________________ o Currency Exchange Currenex Has $27.6 Million Second Round LONDON -- Currenex, which provides a global currency exchange, raised $27.6 million in its second round of funding led by Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies. Additional investors in the round included Amerindo Investment Advisors, Barclays Capital, TH Lee.Putnam Internet Partners, and WR Hambrecht and Co. The company said the investment from Shell, the first from a client, will be used to continue the operations of the independent exchange. Shell will take a seat on the company's advisory board. Currenex raised its initial funding from TH Lee.Putnam Internet Partners and Hambrecht and Co. http://www.currenex.com/ _____________________________________________ o ASP VeriCenter Closes Series B Round at $11.5 Million HOUSTON -- Application service provider VeriCenter said it secured $11.5 million in its Series B round of funding. Investors in the round included BMC Software, Broadband Venture Partners, and Intel Capital, which will add an observer to the company's board of directors. The company said it would use the funding to expand its operations, especially sales and marketing. VeriCenter is also backed by Santa Cruz Operations and individuals. http://www.vericenter.com/ _____________________________________________ NYMEX sees private placement before IPO. NEW YORK, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The New York Mercantile Exchange, which this month converted to a for-profit company, is aiming to sell shares to the public within nine months of a private placement to strategic investors, NYMEX Chairman Daniel Rappaport said Monday. But no part of the world's largest physical commodity exchange will be up for sale until after the launch of its delayed eNYMEX electronic trading platform, now targeted for early May, Rappaport told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I'd say three to nine months (after the private placement) depending on market conditions and eNYMEX traction," Rappaport said, referring to the initial public offering (IPO). NYMEX faces intense competitive challenges to overhaul itself and modernize for the 21st century. The reorganizing London Metal Exchange (LME) voted in September to demutalize and is introducing screen trading while the London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) went wholly to electronic trading on Monday, waving goodbye to the shouts and hand signals of traditional open outcry trade. NYMEX demutualized 10 days ago, changing its not-for-profit membership structure into that of a profit-seeking corporation and renaming itself New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. No IPO can occur until shareholders vote to decouple their stakes from the seats which give them rights to trade futures in crude oil, natural gas, electricity, heating oil and gasoline on the floor. Rappaport said that NYMEX's investment bankers advised a private placement first, in part because of recent stock market jitters, and to capitalize on the 128-year-old exchange's unique story and build credibility for a market offering. The NYMEX said no decisions have been made yet as to how much to sell privately. But plenty of potential investors have queued up. Among others, NYMEX has open arms toward partners in Intercontinental Exchange, an Internet-based trading competitor which NYMEX declined to join when Intercontinental was launched earlier this year, deciding then on the solo route. "The deal that was offered was then, and still today looking back on it, was unacceptable," he said. "That is not to say that some of partners in the Intercontinental Exchange would not also be attractive partners to us today. "We would very much like to have some of them join in and invest in the exchange. And I will tell you that a lot of them have expressed very strong interest." Intercontinental Exchange this summer started over-the-counter trade in gold and silver and plans to open up Web-based dealing in energy products in the fourth quarter. Backing it are some of the world's top oil companies and banks, including BP Amoco Plc. , Royal Dutch/Shell Group Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank AG . Rappaport said the unfriendly market environment for listing shares was a "double edged sword" for NYMEX. "The fact that dot-coms, and e-commerce in general, don't have the momentum that they had six months ago is not good for us in terms of doing an IPO that has e-commerce as a material part of its valuation," he said. But he said no competitor was better positioned than NYMEX. NYMEX has linked up with Platts, a division of publishers McGraw-Hill, for pricing on eNYMEX contracts and with software applications company Kiodex Inc. to provide a trade engine for the order matching system. But these have no equity stakes. Rappaport said any desire to team up with big market partners who might give eNYMEX some critical mass was balanced against NYMEX's condition that it maintain market neutrality. "We cannot be perceived as being dominated by any company or small group of companies," he said. "Having market neutrality will be critical to any platform's long-term success." Rappaport said delays in eNYMEX, which was first to start in the third quarter this year, was not now placing it at a disadvantage against up-and-running over-the-counter platforms like Intercontinental, which could yet be its main worry. "If Intercontinental launches and clears futures than we're talking about a whole different competitive landscape," he said. "The fact that Intercontinental has put together such a powerful group of industrial players really forces us to view them as a formidable competitive threat should they chose to go down that road." NYMEX will begin e-trade with energy futures, leaving to a later date gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper and aluminum in part because it has yet to iron out a dispute with members of NYMEX's COMEX metals division over the right to trade those electronically during New York hours. "We believe we can establish terms that are equitable to the individual COMEX member's interests and to the exchange's interests," he said. "But to the extent that we can't, I don't view that has having any significant impact on either the private placement or the IPO or the valuation issue." For now, Rappaport does not envision his floor veterans herding dinosaur-like behind LIFFE traders out the door. "The challenge for the U.S. exchanges, those that have a history in open outcry is to wrap the open outcry market in technology in a way that permits them to compete with electronic marketplaces. "I see it almost an electronic trading system with human intervention at some point in the liquidity chain, for certain products. We've already gone wholly electronic in electricity." _________________________________________________________- o Vector Gets $30 Million Round Two, Acquires Two Firms HOUSTON -- Vector esp, Inc., which provides managed technology services to the mid-size enterprise market, said it has secured $30 million in its second round of funding. New investor Norwest Equity Partners, and previous investors Nassau Capital, and Centennial participated in the round. Vector, which has raised $42 million in financing to date, said it will use the funds to support its growth and future acquisitions. The company also announced it has acquired Moose Logic, a provider of local and wide area network design, installation, and support services, and InfoLAN, which focuses on local area networks at the enterprise level. The financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed. http://www.vector.net/ _____________________________________________ o Pacific Broadband Communications Launches With $10 Million SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Pacific Broadband Communications, which intends to develop dense, noise immune systems for broadband service providers, announced its launch and a $10 million Series A funding. The capital was provided by Raza Foundries, which builds and operates broadband networking and communication companies. Pacific Broadband is headed by Alok Sharma, founder, president and CTO, who formerly served as a consultant at Redback Systems, and Atiq Raza, chairman of the company's board and president and CEO of Raza Foundries. The company also said it named Tony Werner, president and CEO of Aurora Networks, and Alex Best, executive vice president of engineering and CTO of Cox Communications, to its board of directors. http://www.pacificbroadband.com/ _____________________________________________ o B2B E-Commerce Firm MarketMile Raises $16 Million MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. -- MarketMile, a business-to-business e-commerce company, said it raised $16 million in additional funding from eVolution Global Partners. The company is also backed by American Express and Ventro and has raised $46 million to date. David Sanderson, managing director, U.S. of eVolution Global Partners, will join the MarketMile board of directors. MarketMile said it will use the money for corporate development. MarketMile serves companies seeking Internet procurement services for corporate needs, including office supplies, computers, and temporary labor. http://www.marketmile.com/ _____________________________________________ o B2B Marketing Services Firm Magnifi Gets $25 Million LOS GATOS, Calif. -- Magnifi, which provides business-to-business marketing extranet services, said it received $25 million in a strategic round of funding. Investors in this round include EMC, PSINet, and Madge.web, all of which will provide the company with global infrastructure, networking, storage, and support. Previous investors Rustic Canyon Group, Crystal Internet Venture Fund, IDG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Gideon Hixon, Batterson Venture Partners, and Triad Media Ventures also participated in the funding. The company will use the funds to expand its client support. http://www.magnifi.com/ _____________________________________________ o Net Securities Firm Recourse Raises $20 Million Round Three PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Recourse Technologies, an Internet and network security company, said it has raised $20 million in its third round of funding led by Canaan Partners. Other investors include Intel Capital, as well as previous investors Doll Capital Management and Menlo Ventures. The company said it will use the funds to expand its product development services, and for sales and marketing. Deepak Kamra, a general partner at Canaan Partners, will take a seat on Recourse's board of directors. http://www.recourse.com/ _____________________________________________ o Kasna, Eastern European Trade Exchange, Launches LONDON -- Kasna, provider of an international exchange portal for Central and Eastern Europe, announced itself. The company intends to facilitate transactions within the region by offering translation and language services, regional business data, and trading platforms. The company raised its Series A funding from 3Legs Capital. Philip Jeffcock of 3Legs Capital will take a seat on the company's board of directors. http://www.kasna.com/ _____________________________________________
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