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Comment on Why AcqHire will never be an exit strategy in Asia by Bernard Leong

Bernard Leong — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:40:00 +0000

Because I say things that a lot of people within the ecosystem who don’t want to admit it. Great to hear from you.

Comment on Why AcqHire will never be an exit strategy in Asia by Shamim Ahmad Salim

Shamim Ahmad Salim — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:10:00 +0000

why is it so hard to disagree with you Dr.Bernard Leong…

Comment on Why AcqHire will never be an exit strategy in Asia by Bernard Leong

Bernard Leong — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:17:00 +0000

Well, it’s more an acquisition of a foursquare clone and probably talent. Unlike the US companies, we do not know how much Koprol is acquired for. Some sources told me that they are paid peanuts which may or may not be true. In an acqhire situation for the US, they are paid really good money that can give them more than just buying coffee a year. I think pushing the “never happen” is more than trying to take a position which we do not want to acknowledge: Asian companies just want things cheap.

Comment on Why AcqHire will never be an exit strategy in Asia by Nazrul Kamaruddin

Nazrul Kamaruddin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:13:00 +0000

using “never happen” is too strong.

the real underlying problem would be: it was never practiced and never even been considered.

at least, yahoo bought koprol for the talent. hardly the service.

Comment on A Mathematical Solution to Eddington’s Controversy Problem by JP

JP — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Your solution to this problem is true if and only if C knows whether D is lieing or telling the truth (which was not stated in the problem unless “to declare” requires that one know the truth). Assuming nobody knows if D told the truth or not, the probability is just 1/3.

Comment on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson by Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson Biography PDF Download | The Geek Post

Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson Biography PDF Download | The Geek Post — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:55:27 +0000

[...] Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson | Bernard Leong [...]

Comment on Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson by Pricklepantz

Pricklepantz — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:10:00 +0000

well said.
i’m observing that chalkboard square rolling ads. may be a little advice, add scrolling capability so that i don’t need to wait for the timer.

Comment on Entrepreneurship 1: Introduction, Identifying Ideas & Business Opportunities by BUSINESS VOCABULARY - Entrepreneurship 101: Identifying ideas & business opportunities - BUSINESS VOCABULARY

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 11:33:42 +0000

[...] I will also yield some engaging box studies, for example, a Aravind Eye Centre for amicable entrepreneurship. This array is formed on a “MPS 812: Entrepreneurship” march we have been training in a School of Physical Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. This post is republished from my blog. [...]

Comment on Why Exits are Important (as a metric for Start-ups) by Bernard Leong

Bernard Leong — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:54:00 +0000

Think you need to define where you are listing. Specifically, one of the companies u mentioned listed in another stock exchange. I am referring to the ones which are in SGX, and SGX has rules for IPO.

The amount for Jobs Central acquisition is not known and my guess is that it’s below the 30M mark because they only operate in Singapore. Jobs DB might be different but they are not from Singapore to start off with. I hope that SGCarmart and PropGuru will get good exits.

I am not even bothered with the categorization. If you think that these companies should be focused, send them these data and get them to talk about it.

Comment on Why Exits are Important (as a metric for Start-ups) by Idmwatcher

Idmwatcher — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:07:00 +0000

IPO is a form of exit for shareholders and you can IPO so long as you have a good growth story and can sell it to bankers. Catcha just listed with revenue of about $20+M, iprop did it without much revenue on asx. So it is totally not true you need 100M. Just check the catalist market. You need a good experienced team , a good growth story and perhaps some revenue and profit to the tune of at least 2M profit which all the firms above have except perhaps iProp as it is still in growth phase.

These companies did most of their growing in the last 10 years and for many of them, grew in the last 5 years same as all the firms which MDA supports and which i suppose u consider web 2.0. Frankly, I do not quite understand why they are dinosaurs. In fact, I would argue the dinosaurs should be the success stories we talk about rather than all the small players MDA is supporting. Garena revenue in Fy10 is 3+M with losses of 2M, Brandtology 1.4M revenue, loss of 900K. Tencube same same and all have much smaller exits/investments.

My point is there are success stories with decent size large exits but they are not known and covered. The deals are recent… JobsDB/central acquired only this year. iProp just achieved investment from french portal at 100M valuation. Missed out sgcarmart, propguru and I think reebonz which will also have good sized exits in coming years.

We should not care whether web 1.0 or 2.0 as it is a meaningless categorization. These businesses all embrace mobile, have social elements and integrate marketing and system with facebook and some have location features. Most important they are viable, profitable and scalable businesses.

I do agree that the above list of 10 odd successes is not enough as it is accumulated over 10 years… we should be having such 10 stories each year!