January 18, 2001 Satellite Broadcast at UTD Conference
Center:
Valuation: “What’s My Company Really Worth?”
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Rapidly evolving trends in business valuation -- reflecting the risks
and rewards of investment and entrepreneurship -- will be explored by a panel of five
leading experts during the MIT Enterprise Forum Satellite Broadcast program entitled
VALUATION: “What’s My Company Really Worth?” on Thursday, January 18, 2001.
The panel will include representatives with a successful background in venture capital,
investment banking, and entrepreneurship who are in a unique position to define equity in
today’s marketplace and explain newly emerging valuation strategies.
To be broadcast from MIT’s Kresge Auditorium beginning at 7:00 PM Eastern Time,
the agenda will include an opening overview by the moderator, brief introductory comments
by each panelist, and interactive discussion with attendees and satellite downlinked
participants.
The program will reach technology entrepreneurs in the live on-campus audience as well
as in groups gathered to receive the broadcast at locations throughout the U.S. and
Canada.
According to MIT Enterprise Forum CEO Edmund M. Dunn, “Valuation is more of an
issue today than at any other time in recent history and we have seen enormously high
valuations at very early stages in addition to unusually large fluctuations in
value.” IPOs have also received record high valuations. Firms that have taken the
risk of investing at these high levels have expected to be commensurately successful.
Firms that are more conservative in their valuation and investment strategies have missed
significant opportunities. “We’re right at a critical point in terms of the
trends,” Dunn said. “With the recent correction, it is not clear whether there
will be a return to lower valuations, or if things will continue as they have been
developing in recent times”
Each of the panelists and the moderator brings an important perspective and experience
to the discussion of equity and value. Their backgrounds include extensive participation
in high technology entrepreneurship, venture capital investment, and investment banking.
Program Moderator
Joe Hadzima is a Managing Director of Main Street Partners LLC, a venture development
and technology commercialization company. He is a Director of and General Counsel to the
MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc. He is a Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of
Management and was a founding judge of the $50K Entrepreneurship Competition. Hadzima
practiced law for 17 years, first at Ropes & Gray, and then at Sullivan &
Worcester, where he was Director of their High Technology/New Ventures Group. He is a
specialist in business and securities law for start-up ventures, public and private
companies, and financial institutions. His practice was devoted to high technology clients
in venture capital, equity and debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, licensing of
technology, and distribution agreements. He has been involved in various capacities in the
founding of over 100 companies. He earned a JD cum laude at Harvard Law School in 1979, SM
in management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in 1977, and an SB at MIT in 1973.
The Panelists
Marcia J. Hooper is a Partner at Advent International and is a member of the North
American Deal Team. She has more than 14 years of venture capital experience, and focuses
on investments in the information technology sector, with an emphasis on e-commerce and
Internet investments. She is a Director of Interleaf Inc., Lionbridge Technologies Inc.,
WorldGate Communications Inc., MarketSoft Corp., Captivate Networks Inc., Entigo,
Espanol.com, and PaySys International Inc. She began her career as an engineer and
marketing representative with IBM. In 1985, she joined Paine Webber/Ampersand Ventures,
where she was a General Partner for ten years, focusing on early stage technology
investments before leaving to co-found Viking Capital. Since 1993, she has also managed a
dedicated venture fund for R.R. Donnelley & Sons. She received a BS in Chemistry, with
honors, from Brown University, an MA in Chemistry from Columbia University, and an MBA
from Harvard Business School.
John Jarve ‘78 is General Partner & Managing Director, of Menlo Ventures,
where he focuses primarily on early-stage communications and Internet investments. His
recent investments and board seats include Digital Insight, iBasis, Colo.com, Filanet
Corporation, Catena Networks, NewMarkets International, Spinnaker Networks, AccelLight
Networks, and NetContinuum, Inc. He is a past director of the world’s largest
Internet access provider, UUNET Technologies, now part of WorldCom. He received a BS and
MS in Electrical Engineering at MIT and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of
Business. He currently serves as a trustee of the MIT Corporation and the MIT visiting
committees for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Civil and
Environmental Engineering, and Mathematics.
Alex Laats ‘89 is President, CEO, and co-founder of Informio, Inc. Most recently,
he was Chairman, COO, and co-founder of NBX Corporation, a manufacturer of business
communications systems that operate over data networks, including LAN and the Internet.
NBX was sold to 3Com Corporation in 1999. Prior to NBX, he served as Technology Licensing
Officer at MIT where he was involved with multiple start-up businesses. He began his
career as a corporate attorney at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston where he
represented high technology corporations, venture capital funds, and investment banks. He
received an SB in Mathematics and in Physics from MIT in 1989 and has a JD from Harvard.
T.L. Stebbins joined Adams, Harkness & Hill in 1970 as a research analyst and
participated in the introduction of the New England Research Service. In 1981, he
formalized the firm’s investment banking function and is now a Managing Director,
Co-head of Investment Banking, and a member of the Board of Directors. He received a BA
from Harvard and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Satellite Broadcast Series
The MIT Enterprise Forum Satellite Broadcast Series includes three programs each year
for entrepreneurs and investors. The third broadcast in this year’s series will be
part of MIT Tech Reunions Week on Wednesday, June 6, 2001.
Earlier broadcasts include: virtually live with Timothy Berners-Lee, Internet Futures
with Robert Metcalfe, High Tech Enterprises with Edward Roberts, Breakthrough Technology
with Robert Langer, Entrepreneurship with Alex d’Arbeloff, What To Do with Michael
Dertouzos, The Soft Side Of New Enterprise with Ray Stata, What Private Equity Investors
Are Looking For moderated by John Dean, Structuring Venture Capital Deals moderated by Joe
Hadzima, and Building Value Through Entrepreneurship moderated by Howard Anderson.
MIT Enterprise Forum
The MIT Enterprise Forum is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and
strengthening the way new companies get their start, and to providing the information and
understanding they need to grow and prosper.
For over twenty years, the MIT Enterprise Forum has been helping entrepreneurs start
and grow successful technology-based businesses. Twenty-three Forum Chapters around the
world have implemented the case presentation methodology pioneered at MIT to create
opportunities for entrepreneurs to present new business concepts to industry experts,
venture capitalists, and technology leaders.
View the Slides: http://web.mit.edu/entforum/www/SBS/valuation.htm
