Millennium Technology Value Partners, a private equity firm specialising in providing liquidity solutions to holders of illiquid private company securities, had recently added investmen
Millennium Technology Value Partners, a private equity firm specialising in providing liquidity solutions to holders of illiquid private company securities, had recently added investments in nine new companies to its portfolio.
Millennium has invested in 26 technology and high-growth companies through its fund, Millennium Technology Value Partners, which held its final close three years ago.
Among the new portfolio companies are social media company Facebook, e-commerce firm Zappos, relationship site eHarmony, contact centre provider LiveOps, open source business phone systems specialist Fonality, data centre and managed services company DataPipe, and online personal assistant provider Rearden Commerce.
‘Even in the midst of the worst financial crisis in modern times, the secondary market is open for business and Millennium continues to be able to provide liquidity to investors in high quality private companies,’ says Samuel L. Schwerin, managing partner of Millennium (pictured).
‘We are seeing a substantial increase in volume and scope of activity in the secondary market. We are partnering with founders of companies, chief executives, venture capital and private equity funds, hedge funds, lenders, commercial banks, investment banks, Fortune 500 operating companies, microcap public companies, and bankruptcy constituents to provide creative, flexible liquidity solutions.’
Millennium was an investor in Wayport, which was acquired by AT&T in a cash transaction valued at approximately USD300m in December 2008. It invested in Wayport over a two-year period beginning in 2006 through employee and shareholder liquidity transactions.
Axsun Technologies, another Millennium portfolio company, was also acquired last December by Volcano. Wayport and Axsun were Millennium Technology Value Partners ninth and tenth realizations and third and fourth M&A exits, following the sale of Tellme to Microsoft and First Virtual Communications to RadVision.
With the inclusion of two IPOs-Airvana in 2007 and ArcSight in 2008-and a variety of other partial realizations, Millennium has experienced full or partial realizations in ten out of 26 of its portfolio companies.