P.R. firm slams venture capitalist over foreclosure: it says he shut out creditors in taking over, selling Tiger.David Jones David Jones is a common name, particularly in Wales, and there have been several well-known individuals with this name. Variations include Dave Jones and Davy Jones. , founder of InterVen Partners venture capital firm, says he lost $900,000 in Tiger Media. The outside investors he rounded up for Tiger lost an additional $3 million, he says. Yet, Doug Cooper, who only lost $14,992, seems the most upset by Tiger's demise last December. He's ticked that Santa Monica-based venture capitalist Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. Jones foreclosed on Los Angeles-based Tiger and sold it, leaving vendors like his firm out in the cold. His San Diego-based firm, Cooper/Iverson Marketing, did public relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most and advertising for Tiger, which was marketing a multi-media software program called Cat's Meow. It was among Tiger's many vendors which were owed a total in excess of $100,000 when Tiger was sold in January to AimTech, Inc., a New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). software marketer. Venture capitalist Jones swallowed Tiger in December when he foreclosed on the company's assets after it couldn't make payments on his $900,000 loan. Earlier in 1992 Jones lent Tiger the money in the form of a secured loan with a lien on Tiger's assets. Soon after making the loan, Jones starting looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a potential buyer for Tiger. When Tiger was foreclosed on, all Cooper got was a letter from Tiger President George Dashiell that the company's assets were sold to cover its secured creditors and other creditors were not being paid. As a small businessman Noun 1. small businessman - a businessman who runs a business employing less than 100 people businessman, man of affairs - a person engaged in commercial or industrial business (especially an owner or executive) Cooper felt he had gotten stiffed by Jones' fiscal manipulations. Venture capitalists are supposed to invest in companies, build them and nurture them back to health if they get sick, Cooper thought. Jones is well known in the venture capital realm and respected, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. investment advisers. Jones has done nothing illegal, Cooper was advised by his attorneys, but Cooper has taken his case to the press. Cooper said that Jones implemented an "innovative" strategy to get out from under a bad investment while Tiger's creditors were "left holding the bag." Cooper said, "We empathized with George (Dashiell) and Tiger Media's problems and we agreed to the (payment) terms of his proposal rather than file suit against the company. "Now even though Tiger Media is not filing Chapter 11," Cooper said, "InterVen Partners is getting an interest in a new company, the new company is getting a new product to sell, employees who were left at Tiger Media are getting compensated and we're getting stiffed." When Tiger's financial problems began, Cooper agreed to accept $500 monthly payments from Tiger. Those payments took the debt from $19,000 down to the current $14,993. But when Jones pulled the plug on the company, there was nothing left for Cooper, he said. Jones was the subject of a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Business Journal profile in June 1990 and at the time said he was looking to do "growth buyouts" in which InterVen would acquire established small companies and use the techniques developed by his venture capital business to accelerate growth. He recently moved his office from downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or to Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. and has $51 million under management. Jones scoffed at Cooper's complaints, saying, "In my 22 years of investing I have never seen a creditor act this way, by taking a complaint to the press. We lent money on a secured basis to Tiger, we filed the required documents and put the creditors on notice that there was a superior interest. "Anybody who extends credit has to ask himself if there is enough value in the assets to satisfy the secured debt plus pay off the creditors," Jones said. "The company did not perform well and the assets were not worth close to $900,000 and were getting less valuable by the day, so we foreclosed." Jones said he started trying to find a buyer for Tiger soon after he made his secured loan in January 1992. He said he sold Tiger to AimTech for 150 shares of AimTech stock, which are valued at $3 per share, plus a share of future sales of Tiger products and additional stock in AimTech. Jones added, "If we get very lucky, we may receive stock that may have value to our secured indebtedness. But our investors will still lose $3 million. I wish things turned out perfectly for Cooper but the fact is he is making a giant Everest out of a small molehill. He lost $15,000 compared to my firm's over $1 million loss. "We tried to be pioneers with Tiger with multi-media software," Jones said, "but it was the classic case of the pioneer lying in the dust with arrows in his back. We were just too early with this." Other venture capitalists and consultants, when told of Jones' foreclosure foreclosure Legal proceeding by which a borrower's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the borrower fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the loan contract. of Tiger, were skeptical of his tactics. "I've never heard of a situation like this. That is not the role of the venture capitalist in the classic sense," said Robert Amen, president of Robert Amen & Associates, a national firm that specializes in investor relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. . "Venture capitalists are supposed to build value in companies and bring in the needed expertise if they need help," said Amen. "This is a hard-nosed approach that may be clever but not the role of a venture capitalist in a practical sense." A former Tiger executive said Jones went "out on a limb For the Arrested Development episode, see . Shirley MacLaine stars as herself in this TV movie, a recreation of a love affair and spiritual adventure that took the actress to exotic locales. " for Tiger, showing patience until determining the business wasn't going to be succeed. |
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