LivingSocial再融资之谜

    就估值而论，人们似乎总是过分迷恋市场价值。这个问题同样一直困扰着我，因为作为一家私人公司，并不存在一个买卖股票的流动性市场，所以估值的确定没有把任何程度上的市场效率考虑在内。简言之，估值是公司和一组投资者在某一特定时间点进行的有根据猜测。

    但不管怎样，事情是这样的。不错，这确实是一次估值较低的融资（down round，指投资者在一轮融资中购买同一家公司股票的价格低于对上一次融资投资者支付价格的情况——译注），我敢肯定没有人会觉得吃惊。跟上一轮融资时比较起来，我们公司的估值已经大幅缩水。在本轮融资中，我们将公司7.5%的股份作价1.1亿美元。不过，正如前面提到的，那部分股份还附加了一些条款，这些应该能够让你们对公司目前的估值水平有所了解了。

    那么，本轮融资对员工股份有什么影响呢？简言之，有影响，但影响并不是很大。基本上，现在叠加起来的清算优先权有点高。不过，我们在公司估值超过10亿美元的时候清理了一大部分优先权。作为比较，我们主要竞争对手的市值现在是39亿美元。在进行首次公开募股后，所有的优先股都会变成普通股，清算优先权也就消失了。

    我们公司的年营收超过5亿美元，如果我们继续努力下去，公司有望在不久的将来扭亏为盈。得益于这轮融资，我们获得了更多的资金以抓住机遇，推动公司业务在未来的增长。

    如果你们对这轮融资存在或产生了任何疑问，希望这份备忘录有助于澄清问题。现在，我们该回头执行我们的计划了。

    ~ Tim

    PrivCo定期发布有关私人公司融资的信息，这份备忘录是对该公司非常严肃的控告。我设法联系到PrivCo的首席执行官山姆•哈马德，不过他说会打电话给我。电话还没打过来，我将在听过他的说法后对本文进行更新。

    最新消息：我刚刚结束与哈马德的通话，他仍然坚持原先报告的观点。哈马德说，奥肖内西是在误导自己的员工，鉴于那些附加的类债务条款，他把这轮融资定性为“股权投资”是在说漂亮话。他还表示，PrivCo在发布报告之前跟LivingSocial的发言人进行了沟通，向后者寄送了一份草稿，并询问需要更正的地方。LivingSocial没有做出回应，PrivCo在四个小时之后才发布了这份报告。

    “我不认为真相在于融资的细节，”哈马德说。“而是在于弱势群体——即所有商家，他们是LivingSocial真正的无担保债权人——将要面对的情况，如果LivingSocial破产的话……只需6-9个月的时间，你就能看到我们说的没错。”

    值得指出的是，如果奥肖内西真的误导了自己的投资者——几乎可以肯定的是，其备忘录经过了公司律师的审核——那么他将让自己和公司担上重大责任。

    但不要担心，确实有一个办法可以厘清两人的不同言论——找到LivingSocial提交给特拉华州企业管理部门的监管文件。稍后还会进行更新……

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    ——蒂姆

    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.

    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.

    "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."

    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.

    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...