Sayeth Tilson: “Buffett and Munger are razor sharp and at the top of their games, and Berkshire is just going gangbusters! (The insurance losses from Japan, New Zealand, etc. in Q1 that depressed quarterly earnings are essentially irrelevant to Berkshire’s long-term value.)”

T2 Partners also recently released a presentation on, among other things, why they believe Berkshire Hathaway is still a buy, things that scare them and “common mental mistakes” in investing like…

An Overview of Behavioral Finance and the Economy, What Worries Us, Our View of the Market, and Some Stock Ideas [PDF]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

99designs, the popular site where startups and other small businesses can crowdsource their graphic design needs, has raised $35 million in a first round of funding from Accel Partners.

A first round of this size may seem like another sign of a venture capital bubble, but 99designs isn’t your typical early-stage investment. It was founded in February 2008, and has been bootstrapped and profitable until now. Customers can buy customizable logo designs off-the-shelf (metaphorically speaking) for just $99, or they can host design contests for things like logos and websites, where they only pay for the design that they like best.

99designs says that it has hosted more than 75,000 designs already and that it has paid designers $19 million to-date.

Accel is most famous for being an early investor in Facebook, but it has also succeeded in bringing relatively mature, bootstrapped companies into the venture capital fold in the past, most notably with Atlassian, a project-management company that raised a $65 million first round led by Accel last year. In fact, Atlassian and 99designs also share an Australian origin — 99designs is based in Melbourne and San Francisco.

Angle investors Michael Dearing, Dave Goldberg, Stewart Butterfield, and Anthony Casalena also participated in the round.

“99designs caught my attention when I realized that nearly every one of the early stage companies and entrepreneurs I work with was turning to them to get great design work done,” Dearing said in a press release. “The team has created a marketplace that is easy for companies to get onboard with, and also a boon for designers who can go after any of the hundreds of jobs open at any one time.”

Companies: 99designs, Accel Partners

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

T2 Partners is sticking with Buffett, Lubrizol incident be damned.

T2 Partners Attributes Poor Performance To Contrarianism [MF via BI]

Earlier: David Sokol: I Did Nothing Wrong But…
David Sokol, Frontrunner To Succeed Warren Buffett, Resigns From Berkshire Hathaway

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Google (GOOG) this morning said that as part of a strategy to protect itself against frivolous patent suits, it has placed a bid for Nortel Networks’s (NRTLQ) patent portfolio in the latter’s bankruptcy proceeding.

“If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community—which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome—continue to innovate,” Google’s General Counsel, Kent Walker, wrote on the company’s blog.

Google’s bid, apparently worth $900 million, covers 6,000 patents on wireless technology, data networking, and other technologies. It is a “stalking horse bid,” meaning that it serves as a baseline and that other bidders may offer more.

Nortel’s shares traded in the pink sheets are up about a penny, or 50%, at roughly 4 cents. Google shares are down $3.75, or 0.6%, at $588.05.

Article courtesy of Tech Trader Daily

Every fall, previously in the basement of 85 Broad and more recently at 200 West, Goldman Sachs names a class of new partners. Blindfolded and naked, they pledge their devotion to the firm. To commemorate the event, and for the practical purpose of tagging them so their status at the firm can be quickly verified with one quick drop of trou, these newly-made partners have their nether regions dipped in a vat of gold, which harden while Lloyd Blankfein gives a speech about how to carry oneself differently once they reach the upper echelons of GS (literally, as those things will drag if you’re not careful). At the stroke of midnight, as a baby seal barks in the corner, they are inducted into the Brotherhood of the Sach. And while one is more than welcome to benefit, monetarily, from this new position, being a member of the Brotherhood is less about sharing in its huge ass profits than it is making sure the partnership stays long and strong. Some people, apparently, did not read that portion of the fine print.

Goldman Sachs partners have sold $108 million in shares in recent months, driving their total ownership stake in the Wall Street firm down to about 10 percent from 11.2 percent. The sales are a small yet significant dilution of the influence the partners have over the firm. Part of the power of the Goldman partnership is the stake they own collectively, and the agreement they have made to act in unison on shareholder votes. The next annual shareholder meeting has not been set, but it is typically held in May.

And while no one is keeping a list of names….a list is in fact being kept.

The top two sellers in the most recent period were Gregg Felton, a senior executive in the firm’s asset management division, who sold shares amounting to almost $8 million, and Philippe Altuzarra, a banker, who sold shares amounting to about $6 million.

No one should be worried that this going to reflect poorly on them. You are free to sell your shares as you please. And hey, everyone’s allowed (one) transgression! Keep it up though and don’t be surprised when you’re pulled from your desk one unseasonably chilly day next September and placed on a bus headed upstate, to a warehouse in Buffalo. Don’t be afraid of the the head of HR will come out of the shadows, wearing an executioner’s mask and swinging massive clippers. It’ll all be over soon enough.

Goldman Sachs Partners Sell Shares, Diluting Stake [Dealbook]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Today’s funding announcements include services for ordering food, buying gifts and getting advice from doctors:

Just-Eat raises $48M for easy restaurant orders: The London-based website for online ordering and delivery has raised a new round of funding led by Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures with participation from Index Ventures. The company, which already has a presence in ten countries on three continents, plans to expand further internationally using this investment.

GoLocal grabs $2M for personalized gifts: GoLocal, parent company of San Francisco-based gift site Giftly, has raised a first round of funding, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded by the first employee at social search engine Aardvark, the site lets users deliver gift cards for any store or stores through email or Facebook. Rather than redeeming a physical gift card at the store, recipients pay as usual, then get a refund from Giftly after using the gift.

Doximity gets $10.8M to connect doctors via mobile: The developer of a communications platform for physicians has raised a first round of funding from Emergence Capital Partners and InterWest Partners. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company, started by the founders of health software maker Epocrates, allows doctors to quickly collaborate using mobile devices for patient referrals. More than 7,000 doctors are currently using the company’s free mobile app.

Conference Hound lands $135K for global conference directory: The San Francisco-based startup has raised a round of seed funding from angel investors for its free, searchable web and mobile platform. The service, which the company says is a resource for conference attendees and organizers alike, has more than 45,000 global conference listings and is integrated with social media tools like LinkedIn and Twitter.

Companies: Aardvark, Conference Hound, Doximity, Emergence Capital Partners, Epocrates, Giftly, GoLocal, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Interwest Partners, Just-Eat, linkedin, Redpoint Ventures, Twitter

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

YouTube confirmed today that it has acquired online video production and distribution company Next New Networks.

Does that mean YouTube is actually going to start producing its own videos? It sounds like the answer is no, according to a company blog post. YouTube says:

At YouTube, we’re focused on building a great technology platform for creators, and so we leave the actual creation of great videos to the people who do it best: our partners. This new group and the addition of the Next New Networks team doesn’t change that. But being a great platform for creators also means helping our partners get the tools and guidance they need to develop higher quality videos and drive bigger audiences to their work.

So instead of asking the Next New Networks team to create videos, YouTube says it will be become a “laboratory for experimentation and innovation” working with “a wide variety of content partners and emerging talent to help them succeed on YouTube.” To achieve this goal, the company is creating a new unit called YouTube Next.

This approach seems pretty logical. YouTube has been notoriously unprofitable for Google for years now (though there are rumblings that that’s finally changing), in part because brands were leery about putting their advertising next to YouTube’s user-generated content. That’s why YouTube wants to bring in more professional, high-quality videos. Partnerships are probably a more effective way to make that happen than creating the content itself.

The acquisition price is less than $100 million, according to The New York Times, which first reported on the deal in December. Next New Networks has raised $26 million from Goldman Sachs, Velocity Interactive, Saban Media Group, Spark Capital, and others.

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen today cut his rating on shares of Nokia (NOK) from Neutral to Sell on “increasingly sharp competition” and a massive brain drain that he expects to result from deep employee dissatisfaction at the company’s casting its lot with Microsoft (MSFT).
Kuittinen describes the avalanche of devices [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair today writes that he’s incrementally more positive on Nokia (NOK) heading towards the company’s analyst day in London this Friday, based on conversations he’s had recently with various industry sources.
While Blair won’t disclose the exact details of those conversations, he said what he discussed led [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily

Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair today writes that Research in Motion’s (RIMM) forthcoming Playbook computer “will be poorly received by the market at launch,” citing rising competition, and factors that will make the corporate world think twice about the device, he believes.
It is, overall, the most negative write-up I’ve yet [...]

Article courtesy of BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily