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Comment on @CBCNews Update on IPOVillage for First Ever Equity-Based Crowdfunded IPO – It’s All in The Wording by Simon Erblich

Simon Erblich — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:40:03 +0000

As I mentioned in the above reply, do a search for Wit Capital on Google and you will find many results. Wit Capital essentially shut down due to the Internet bubble burst after a merge in 2000.

All the articles cited above are Google results.

Comment on @CBCNews Update on IPOVillage for First Ever Equity-Based Crowdfunded IPO – It’s All in The Wording by dianay

dianay — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 04:16:36 +0000

Thks for following up, Simon. Here’s the question I posted on IPO Village that perhaps you can find answer to. Why do you think this not referenced on Goo and why was the last activity traced back to 1999?

I’m sure our readers would want to know.

Comment on @CBCNews Update on IPOVillage for First Ever Equity-Based Crowdfunded IPO – It’s All in The Wording by Simon Erblich

Simon Erblich — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:49:38 +0000

Direct IPOs were conducted over the Internet as early as around 1995 right here in the USA with Wit Capital. They were very successful with their offerings but closed up shop in 2000 due to the Internet bubble bursting.

You can do a search on Wit Capital and you will find many results. Here is a couple:

Excerpts: First paragraph

1) Wikipedia
Merger with Wit Capital
At the peak of the dot-com bubble in early 2000, SoundView merged with Wit Capital (formerly Nasdaq:WITC) to form Wit SoundView in a $320 million all-stock transaction.[2] Wit Capital had been founded just a few years earlier, in 1996, by Andrew Klein. Wit positioned itself as an online investment banking firm focused exclusively on the Internet and technology sectors. Wit had pioneered several bubble-era innovations in investment banking including a “first-come, first-serve” approach to public offerings.[3] Wit had been backed by Goldman Sachs, which sold its stake in 2001.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoundView_Technology_Group#Merger_with_Wit_Capital

2) Wit Capital: IPOs for Everyone

By Tom Taulli | May 16, 2000
Page 1 of 1

“While IPOs are still allocated mostly to institutions and wealthy individuals, this has been changing. More and more, individual investors are also participating in the new issues market. The pioneer in this industry has been Wit Capital . The company was started several years ago by an ex-Wall Street attorney, Andrew Klein, who wanted to raise money for his microbrewery. When every venture capitalist rejected his business plan, he went direct to the people. Literally. He launched his IPO via the Internet.”
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/363041/Wit+Capital+IPOs+for+Everyone.htm

3) Wit Capital Corp. (http://www.witcapital.com)-the world’s first Web-based investment bank (see “New Issues, New Medium,” June ’97, RR)-opened for business in September, has participated in two IPOs, and is promising to soon originate some of its own deals.

For its first act, Wit allowed investors to open accounts with a minimum deposit of $1,000, download a red herring and put in orders to buy shares in IPO Radcom Ltd., an Israeli-based network test equipment manufacturer. The deal was underwritten by Unterberg Harris of New York City, with Wit as part of the syndicate. Wit’s investors got their shares on a “first-come, first-serve” basis, says Wit founder Andrew Klein, “in sharp contrast to any other retail broker.”
http://wealthmanagement.com/archive/internet-based-wit-capital-does-first-deal

4) Wit Capital Masters Net Ipos
THE MONEY PEOPLE
BY AMY FELDMAN
Monday, February 15, 1999
Wit Capital founder Andy Klein pioneered the idea of bringing companies public over the Internet.
Now there’s talk that Klein and his team of investment bankers and Internet analysts want to bring their own Manhattan-based firm public in a deal expected to capture the attention of Wall Street and individual investors alike.
“I think that may happen before you know it,” Klein said. “It’s certainly something we’ve begun to think about in our spare moments.”
http://articles.nydailynews.com/1999-02-15/news/18106297_1_spring-street-brewing-wit-capital-charles-schwab

So as you can plainly see, crowd funded Internet IPOs were around long before the Jobs Act or this new crowdfunding industry.

Comment on Domain Kiting: The Ralph Lauren Case by Karyn Climans

Karyn Climans — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 22:18:53 +0000

Fraud and cheap knock-offs are unfortunately common occurrences. In the long run, local businesses are hurt because the only people profiting are the foreign companies who are ripping off local businesses.
It is well known there is little to NO respect for property rights in Asia. The only way to combat this problem is to buy locally made products from reputable companies.

Comment on What’s up with Ralph Lauren Canada? #ralphlauren by dianay

dianay — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 04:37:55 +0000

I was referring to payment modalities not shipping. In any event, this brand imposture is called domain kiting. There are many forms, one is when the “domain name registrants use misspelled domain names from well known brand names that receive tons of traffic. The criminals who register the domain make financial gain from people misspelling the well known brand name. This is a type of Internet fraud that involves fraudulent use of brand names that are copyrighted and patented.” (source: http://www.spamlaws.com/how-domain-kiting-works.html). In this instance, the misspell is subtle: http://www.ralphlaurenscanada.com/ We should all alert the public !

Comment on @CBCNews Update on IPOVillage for First Ever Equity-Based Crowdfunded IPO – It’s All in The Wording by dianay

dianay — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:59:03 +0000

Hi Simon – sry for late reply, a few bugs on the site needed some fixing. Thank for this last comment which sums up my article.
When I last presented at Montreal New Tech, donation-based and equity-based crowdfunding were two concepts in need of clarification http://fr.slideshare.net/DianaYazidjian/invest-crowdfunding-montreal-new-tech.
Semantics is everything. Most especially when educating on a nascent approach. Our role here at Invest Crowdfund Canada is to do just that. Even more so when an article puts IPO and crowdfunding in a same sentence, this can lead to different interpretations.
In short, IPOs are not done online via a platform soliciting the crowd. The crowd may be sollicited to buy public stock but that is not crowdfunding per say. Best regards, Diana

Comment on @CBCNews Update on IPOVillage for First Ever Equity-Based Crowdfunded IPO – It’s All in The Wording by Simon Erblich

Simon Erblich — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 02:03:31 +0000

In SEC regulatory terms, I concur with Mr. Neiss’ point, that IPO Village’s offerings would be considered IPOs and not “crowd offerings”… even though they are not underwritten.

Comment on @CBCNews Update on IPOVillage for First Ever Equity-Based Crowdfunded IPO – It’s All in The Wording by Simon Erblich

Simon Erblich — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:46:39 +0000

I think what you are doing is great and necessary. We ourselves are engaged in many similar initiatives with the same objectives. It is important to note that our firm, First Line specializes in a special kind of IPO. Specifically IPOs for young emerging growth companies. In reality our message is the same and we are speaking in many cases on behalf of the same businesses. We are both looking for ways to have equity crowdfunding help small businesses raise capital for expansion in order to grow jobs and build back our economy. The only difference is in how we technically achieve equity-crowdfunding for these small companies. Many, as yourself, are going the private and Jobs Act route and many others are going about it technically different. Some for example are sticking to private but are still not going the Jobs Act route, by simply soliciting only accredited investors (ie. http://www.microventures.com who has been around and using the term equity-crowdfunding for a while). IPO Village, while clearly utilizing the current equity-crowdfunding model, is addressing the same hurdles as everyone else, but by going the public route and therefore also not needing to come on to the Jobs Act. In the end, we are all on the same equity-crowdfunding boat, with the same objective of helping small business grow in order to fix the bigger picture. I just don’t believe nuanced differences in approach justify dividing the equity crowdfunding camps, when in actuality we agree on really everything.