Noon - 1:00 PM
Session B- DH12:
VC and Investment in the Entertainment & Technology Space: Games, Wireless & Broadband
The VC and Investment community has always led the way in recognizing the newest opportunities in the technology and entertainment space. There are even signs of post-bubble investment and an IPO reversal on the horizon. VC funds are always available for the right idea and in this session, we will focus on the four sectors leading the entertainment and technology space today, broadband, wireless, the DTV/SVOD content and the digital home and technology and games opportunities. Broadband has been the Holy Grail for the entertainment industry for years, but what it represents today, is the reality of locking in millions of users. Wireless represents the explosive technology of the moment, DTV/SVOD represents the next explosive area of growth in the entertainment business - bringing new content to millions of consumers and games represent the next threshold of entertainment.
David O. Higley, Managing Director & Head of Digital Media Technologies, UBS Investment Bank
Sun Jen Yung, Director, Media Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.
Santo Politi, Partner, Charles River Ventures
Paul Vais, Partner, Apax Partners
Mark Stevens, Partner, Fenwick & West
Larry Marcus, General Partner, Walden VC
Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator
Sun Jen Yung, Director, Media Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank Securitie
s, Inc. based in San Francisco. Sun has responsibilities for the firm's Investment Banking franchises in Enhanced TV and Broadband. Sun joined Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown in February 2000 from Lehman Brothers, where she was a senior Internet banker in the San Francisco office. During her seven years at Lehman Brothers, Sun initially spent a year in equity research covering software and service companies and six years in banking covering software and Internet. Prior to Lehman Brothers, Sun spent two years at TCSI in Berkeley, CA in Business Development and Finance. In addition, Sun's background includes several years of investment banking experience at J.P. Morgan (Brazil) and PaineWebber (New York and San Francisco). Sun graduated from Columbia Business School in 1988 with an MBA in Finance and a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN in 1984.David O. Higley, Managing Director & Head of Digital Media Technologi
es, UBS Investment Bank: David joined UBS from Prudential Volpe Technology Group where he was head of the Interactive Media and eBusiness Groups. During his career, Dave has raised over $6 billion for his clients and advised on over $2.5 billion in M&A and restructuring transactions. Prior to investment banking, Dave was a securities attorney at Thelen Reid & Priest, a national law firm based in San Francisco. During his time at Thelen, Dave was involved in numerous equity and debt offerings and M&A transactions for emerging growth companies. Dave has a bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California (where he was part of the Business Scholars Program) and a Law Degree from the University of Virginia.Santo Politi, partner at Charles River Ventures, focuses on investments in the data communications sector. He is currently a director of Big Band Networks, and Broadbus Technologies. Prior to joining Charles River, Santo served as President of New Media at Blockbuster Entertainment Inc., where he was responsible for establishing a new operating division focused on extending the company beyond its brick and mortar retail stores into digital broadcast and video on demand. Before his work at Blockbuster, Santo co-founded Bankers Trust Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he focused on investments in the Internet, information technology and financial services industries. Some of his successful investments at Bankers Trust include Aether Systems, Inc. (NADAQ: AETH), Novatel Wireless, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVTL) and DigitalThink (NASDAQ: DTHK). He has held various engineering and management positions with the Video Systems Division of Matsushita Electric Industrial in Osaka, Japan, Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems Company and Weston Instruments, Schlumberger Industries. Santo earned his MBA in Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds an MS in Electrical Engineering and BS degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering. In addition to his academic accolades, Santo is fluent in Japanese, conversational in Spanish and French and is a native Turkish speaker. He is also the recipient of the EMMY Excellence in Technology Award.
Paul Vais, Partner, Apax Partners: Paul Vais joined the Menlo Park offi
ce in 1997. He coordinates the firm’s activities for information technology and telecommunications investments in the US and co-chairs the US Operating Committee. His personal investment focus is on the information technology sector, comprised of software, semiconductor, and infrastructure-related investments. Previously, he was a vice president with Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, leading investments in early-stage ventures. He began his career in software and systems engineering roles later assuming sales, marketing and general management responsibilities. He was a manager of systems engineering with Apollo Computer, a pioneer in the engineering workstation market, and later with NeXT Computer, Inc., where his responsibilities included systems engineering, European operations, and worldwide marketing. He has consulted in the US and abroad for IBM, Olivetti, and numerous early-stage companies, providing expertise in strategic marketing and technology development. He serves on the Boards of Directors of portfolio companies Axeda, Bluearc, Jamdat Mobile, and Oblix. He is a board member of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, an organization that works with emerging companies to facilitate and enable the development and implementation of community benefit programs. Paul received a BA degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley.Mark Stevens, Partner, Fenwick & West: Mr. Stevens represents companies (ra
nging from newly formed startup teams to mature public companies), venture capitalists and investment banks involved in the information technology industries, with particular focus on complex transactions. As a lawyer and a business principal, Mr. Stevens has lead teams handling merger, acquisition and divestiture transactions with total announced value in excess of $20 billion. He has directed over 25 initial public offerings of technology companies and hundreds of strategic alliance transactions, ranging from technology and distribution partnerships to multinational joint venture transactions. The following are among the clients Mr. Stevens has represented: Electronic Arts Inc., Excite@Home, Inc., Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Morgan Stanley, O'Reilly Associates: Education - Northestern University School of Law, J.D. cum laude, Order of the Coif; Santa Clara University, B.S. in mathematics magna cum laude.Larry Marcus, General Partner, WaldenVC: Larry joined WaldenVC from Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, where he was Director of New Media, Broadband, and Enhanced TV research. Prior to Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown, he worked in Digital Media Equity Research at Robertson Stephens. Over his research career, Larry followed companies in interactive entertainment, consumer and business software, cable infrastructure, new media, and the Internet. As an analyst, he led numerous IPOs and follow-on offerings for companies such as CBS MarketWatch, Terayon, Woman.com, Edmark, Maxis, Wink, and Softnet. His coverage also included Intuit, Electronic Arts, Sierra On-line, Brøderbund, CNET, Activision, Learning Company, Softkey, Acclaim, RealNetworks, Excite@Home, General Instrument, Scientific Atlanta, Gemstar, and OpenTV. He was an early backer of Netflix and Virage. Before working in research, Larry served as a consultant for Digidesign and Maxis, ran a computer store, and worked as a media planner at Jordan, McGrath, Case and Taylor Advertising. Larry is a member of the Board of Directors of <http://www.mydtv.net/>MyDTV and <http://www.savagebeast.com/>Savage Beast. In addition, he is on the advisory board of <http://www.svase.org/>SVASE.
Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S., Inc.: Joey Tamer is a widely-acclaimed