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	<title>Betabeat &#187; Clarification</title>
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		<title>Betabeat &#187; Clarification</title>
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		<title>The Mysterious Case of Zynga&#8217;s Investor Timeline</title>

		<comments>http://betabeat.com/2011/07/the-mysterious-case-of-zyngas-investor-timeline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:46:37 -0400</pubDate>
					<link>http://betabeat.com/2011/07/the-mysterious-case-of-zyngas-investor-timeline/</link>
			<dc:creator>Nitasha Tiku</dc:creator>
				
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betabeat.com/?p=11406</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><div id="attachment_11431" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 253px"><img class="size-full wp-image-11431" title="mark-pincus-1" src="http://nyobetabeat.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/mark-pincus-1.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="240" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Zynga founder Mark Pincus, no doubt making a call to clear this all up.</p></div></p>
<p>Zynga, whose IPO Friday afternoon sent tech writers <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/danprimack/status/86768653487452160">with their 4th of July bags packed</a> into a last minute scramble, may be headquarterd out in the Valley. But its impending liquidity event will end up lining the pockets of earlylocal investors like Union Square Ventures, which <a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/01/zyngas-ipo-is-a-fund-maker-for-union-square-ventures/">reportedly owns 5.5 percent</a>. In fact, Silicon Valley Bank's Shai Goldman called it a "fund maker" for USV. But now that the fireworks have died down, Fortune.com's Dan Primack has taken a closer look at Zynga's S-1, comparing it to earlier regulatory filings, and found some <a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/05/confusion-in-zyngas-s-1/">discrepancies in the sequence of investing</a>.<!--more--></p>
<p>According to the S-1, in February 2008, USV, along with Avalon Ventures and Foundry Group, did a combined Series A-1 investment of nearly $5 million. <a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/05/confusion-in-zyngas-s-1/">Notes Mr. Primack</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Except that it couldn't have happened that way.</p>
<p>Take a look at <a href="http://fortune.chtah.net/a/hBOFGnSB8aSrEB8cNw9NsoLKeSn/for44">this regulatory filing</a>, back from when Zynga was still known as Presidio Media. It is dated December 31, 2007, and signed by company founder and CEO Mark Pincus. At that time, Zynga listed Avalon Ventures, Foundry Group and Union Square Ventures as shareholders (i.e., two months before the S-1 suggests they first invested). Moreover, there is no mention of Series A-1 stock. Just Series A.</p></blockquote>
<p>Mr. Primack also points to a blog post by USV's Fred Wilson from <a href="http://www.usv.com/2008/01/zynga-game-netw.php"><em>January</em> 15, 2008</a> where Mr. Wilson announces USV's investment in Zynga and writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The financing that we provided Zynga, along with our friends Foundry  Group, Avalon, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, and several angels, has  already allowed Zynga to double the size of its engineering team and to  integrate several other social games and social game developers into  their network.</p></blockquote>
<p>In examining the classes of shares, Mr. Primack also notes other inconsistencies, including a chart in Zynga's S-1 showing repurchased shares by insiders that shows "USV and Foundry sold 'Series A' shares, while Avalon sold 'Series A-1 shares.'" Neither Zynga nor USV would offer comment and it's possible there is some kind of accounting or legal explanation for it. But let's hope this all gets cleared up pre-IPO. After all, the public market has already been <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/04/tech-ipos/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29">rocky for some tech stocks</a> <em>without</em> any mysteries embedded in their filings.</p>
]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><div id="attachment_11431" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 253px"><img class="size-full wp-image-11431" title="mark-pincus-1" src="http://nyobetabeat.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/mark-pincus-1.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="240" /><p class="wp-caption-text">Zynga founder Mark Pincus, no doubt making a call to clear this all up.</p></div></p>
<p>Zynga, whose IPO Friday afternoon sent tech writers <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/danprimack/status/86768653487452160">with their 4th of July bags packed</a> into a last minute scramble, may be headquarterd out in the Valley. But its impending liquidity event will end up lining the pockets of earlylocal investors like Union Square Ventures, which <a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/07/01/zyngas-ipo-is-a-fund-maker-for-union-square-ventures/">reportedly owns 5.5 percent</a>. In fact, Silicon Valley Bank's Shai Goldman called it a "fund maker" for USV. But now that the fireworks have died down, Fortune.com's Dan Primack has taken a closer look at Zynga's S-1, comparing it to earlier regulatory filings, and found some <a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/05/confusion-in-zyngas-s-1/">discrepancies in the sequence of investing</a>.<!--more--></p>
<p>According to the S-1, in February 2008, USV, along with Avalon Ventures and Foundry Group, did a combined Series A-1 investment of nearly $5 million. <a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/05/confusion-in-zyngas-s-1/">Notes Mr. Primack</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Except that it couldn't have happened that way.</p>
<p>Take a look at <a href="http://fortune.chtah.net/a/hBOFGnSB8aSrEB8cNw9NsoLKeSn/for44">this regulatory filing</a>, back from when Zynga was still known as Presidio Media. It is dated December 31, 2007, and signed by company founder and CEO Mark Pincus. At that time, Zynga listed Avalon Ventures, Foundry Group and Union Square Ventures as shareholders (i.e., two months before the S-1 suggests they first invested). Moreover, there is no mention of Series A-1 stock. Just Series A.</p></blockquote>
<p>Mr. Primack also points to a blog post by USV's Fred Wilson from <a href="http://www.usv.com/2008/01/zynga-game-netw.php"><em>January</em> 15, 2008</a> where Mr. Wilson announces USV's investment in Zynga and writes:</p>
<blockquote><p>The financing that we provided Zynga, along with our friends Foundry  Group, Avalon, Reid Hoffman, Peter Thiel, and several angels, has  already allowed Zynga to double the size of its engineering team and to  integrate several other social games and social game developers into  their network.</p></blockquote>
<p>In examining the classes of shares, Mr. Primack also notes other inconsistencies, including a chart in Zynga's S-1 showing repurchased shares by insiders that shows "USV and Foundry sold 'Series A' shares, while Avalon sold 'Series A-1 shares.'" Neither Zynga nor USV would offer comment and it's possible there is some kind of accounting or legal explanation for it. But let's hope this all gets cleared up pre-IPO. After all, the public market has already been <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/04/tech-ipos/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29">rocky for some tech stocks</a> <em>without</em> any mysteries embedded in their filings.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Hashable CEO Michael Yavonditte Responds to &#8216;Hashable Is Worthless&#8217;</title>

		<comments>http://betabeat.com/2011/03/hashable-ceo-michael-yavonditte-responds-to-hashable-is-worthless/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:44:16 -0400</pubDate>
					<link>http://betabeat.com/2011/03/hashable-ceo-michael-yavonditte-responds-to-hashable-is-worthless/</link>
			<dc:creator></dc:creator>
				
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.betabeat.com/?p=2519</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p><div id="attachment_2537" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a rel="attachment wp-att-2537" href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/03/18/hashable-ceo-michael-yavonditte-responds-to-hashable-is-worthless/michael-yavonditte/"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2537" title="michael-yavonditte" src="http://nyobetabeat.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/michael-yavonditte.jpg?w=300&h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Michael Yavonditte</p></div></p>
<p>Betabeat has only just launched, and already our "hash cred" is plummeting.</p>
<p>Hashable CEO Michael Yavonditte didn't appreciate Betabeat columnist Mike Taylor's "<a href="http://www.betabeat.com/topics/taylor-tees-off/">Taylor Tees Off</a>" column yesterday—entitled "<a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/03/17/hashable-is-worthless/" target="_blank">Hashable Is Worthless</a>”—and wrote to tell us so.<!--more--></p>
<p>In particular, he took issue with the following passage:</p>
<blockquote><p>"Apparently, in Hashable founder Michael Yavonditte’s fevered mind the whole world is a series of concentric VIP sections one must navigate, only to encounter Mikey Yavo himself standing guard over the last velvet rope informing anyone who makes it that far, 'Sorry bro, you’re not Hashable enough.'”</p></blockquote>
<p>Mr. Yavonditte responded on the record, via email:</p>
<blockquote><p>"I do find the quotes attributed to me to be highly offensive and frankly 'lies'. I never worked any velvet rope and I never said a word about people being 'too Hashable' or not Hashable enough. It's just filled with lies. I don't like liars."</p></blockquote>
<p>To clarify, the piece did not intend for the quotes to be read as actual, but as our columnist's projection of what might have been going on in Mr. Yavonditte's "fevered mind."</p>
<p>An editor for Betabeat wrote back to Mr. Yavonditte to explain that Taylor's article was "an opinion piece and intentionally, comedically extreme in tone."</p>
<p>Mr. Yavonditte replied, in part:</p>
<blockquote><p>"No one read it as parody - not even in the slightest. It was simply a piece of trash - a mean-spirited article that everyone thinks is real, and which many are shocked by. I am not going write a single thing in response other than to put you on notice that I will come after you if I ever see such nonsense again. I may come after you anyway."</p></blockquote>
<p>A new website, Betabeat launched with the <a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/03/16/welcome-to-betabeat/" target="_blank">stated intention</a> to provide a more skeptical look at the New York tech scene. Like many journalistic outlets, we run opinion pieces as well as reported stories.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
]]></description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><div id="attachment_2537" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 310px"><a rel="attachment wp-att-2537" href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/03/18/hashable-ceo-michael-yavonditte-responds-to-hashable-is-worthless/michael-yavonditte/"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2537" title="michael-yavonditte" src="http://nyobetabeat.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/michael-yavonditte.jpg?w=300&h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Michael Yavonditte</p></div></p>
<p>Betabeat has only just launched, and already our "hash cred" is plummeting.</p>
<p>Hashable CEO Michael Yavonditte didn't appreciate Betabeat columnist Mike Taylor's "<a href="http://www.betabeat.com/topics/taylor-tees-off/">Taylor Tees Off</a>" column yesterday—entitled "<a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/03/17/hashable-is-worthless/" target="_blank">Hashable Is Worthless</a>”—and wrote to tell us so.<!--more--></p>
<p>In particular, he took issue with the following passage:</p>
<blockquote><p>"Apparently, in Hashable founder Michael Yavonditte’s fevered mind the whole world is a series of concentric VIP sections one must navigate, only to encounter Mikey Yavo himself standing guard over the last velvet rope informing anyone who makes it that far, 'Sorry bro, you’re not Hashable enough.'”</p></blockquote>
<p>Mr. Yavonditte responded on the record, via email:</p>
<blockquote><p>"I do find the quotes attributed to me to be highly offensive and frankly 'lies'. I never worked any velvet rope and I never said a word about people being 'too Hashable' or not Hashable enough. It's just filled with lies. I don't like liars."</p></blockquote>
<p>To clarify, the piece did not intend for the quotes to be read as actual, but as our columnist's projection of what might have been going on in Mr. Yavonditte's "fevered mind."</p>
<p>An editor for Betabeat wrote back to Mr. Yavonditte to explain that Taylor's article was "an opinion piece and intentionally, comedically extreme in tone."</p>
<p>Mr. Yavonditte replied, in part:</p>
<blockquote><p>"No one read it as parody - not even in the slightest. It was simply a piece of trash - a mean-spirited article that everyone thinks is real, and which many are shocked by. I am not going write a single thing in response other than to put you on notice that I will come after you if I ever see such nonsense again. I may come after you anyway."</p></blockquote>
<p>A new website, Betabeat launched with the <a href="http://www.betabeat.com/2011/03/16/welcome-to-betabeat/" target="_blank">stated intention</a> to provide a more skeptical look at the New York tech scene. Like many journalistic outlets, we run opinion pieces as well as reported stories.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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