Entrepreneurial Drive Connects Entrepreneurs, InvestorsEL DORADO HILLS, Calif.--(Business Wire)--For entrepreneurs, this economic environment is especially difficult, but thereis one event that can turn that all around in one day - the EntrepreneurialDrive Golf Tournament. The tournament brings investors and startups` executivestogether for what could be a lot more than a great day of golf. "We hope that our investor pitch will attract some investors that have theability to add value beyond capital," said Rajiv Donde, President of Laru, afinancial services software company. "There are so many investors all in oneplace, we`re hopeful that we`ll inspire a couple of them." Investors see it the same way.
As they play the tournament, they hear quickpitches from startups at the tee. "It`s one-stop shopping," says Tim Coxen, alocal businessowner and investor, "and a great way to get caught up on the newtech companies in the region, and network with colleagues and partners." Bringing investors and entrepreneurs together attracted top sponsors and 120golfers last year, raising $10,000 for groups that support entrepreneurship. "Those unique tee-box pitches paid off for EmTRAiN last year," said JanineYancey, CEO of EmTRAiN, an online training and delivery platform service. "Itwas a busy day of real work out there on the course, believe me, but it was goodfor us." The Entrepreneurial Drive was the vision of Jack Crawford, Jr., of VelocityVenture Capital, an investor in seed and early-stage technology companies. "This region is quickly becoming a national leader in clean energy with itsquickly maturing technology sector - we`ve got all of the ingredients: a strongacademic infrastructure, a talented workforce, plenty of incubating companies, acache of great entrepreneurs and a bunch of experienced investors," Crawfordsaid. This year, Velocity is partnering with Entrepreneurs` Organization of Sacramentoand will give successful entrepreneurs, investors and budding entrepreneurs achance to interact. "I played in the tournament last year and I was really impressed with thecaliber of the participants, and the tee-box pitches were great," said JohnFinegan, past president and Board member of the Sacramento chapter of EO.
The tournament begins with a trade-show luncheon at 10:30 a.m., July 20, atSerrano in El Dorado Hills For more information, visit. VelocityJeremy Burgess, Copyright Business Wire 2009. * Vista raises offer for SumTotal to $4.50/share Stocks | Mergers & Acquisitions | Funds News | ETFs News | Private Capital * Shares rise 17 pct May 6 (Reuters) - Vista Equity Partners Fund III L.P., aprivate equity firm, raised its offer to buy SumTotal SystemsInc SUMT.O to $4.50 per share in cash, topping an offer madeby Accel-KKR last month and escalating the bidding war. The latest offer from Vista, which owns about 13 percent ofSumTotal and is its largest shareholder, values the company'soutstanding equity at about $146 million. Shares of SumTotal, an employee-management software maker,rose 17 percent to $4.53 in morning trade on Nasdaq. Last month, SumTotal had agreed to be bought out byAccel-KKR, whose offer of $3.80 a share in cash trumped Vista'searlier offer of $3.25 a share. Vista said its latest offer of $4.50 per share represents apremium of 124 percent to SumTotal stock's closing price onApril 3, the day before Vista announced its initial offer.
Accel-KKR is a private equity firm that makes investmentsin mid-market technology companies (Reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore; Editing by DeepakKannan) Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions Funds News ETFs News Private Capital. NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--Reportlinker announces that a new market research report is available in itscatalogue. NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. & BOSTON--(Business Wire)--United Capital Financial Advisers, Inc. ("UCFA") has launched anindustry-leading set of outsourced services to expand the support for their fastgrowing national network of advisers and regional offices. FundQuest and UnitedCapital have built a customized suite of technology-based sales and productivitytools, back-office operations, portfolio accounting services, best-of-breedinvestments, and transition support teams.
FundQuest is a leader in managedaccount solutions with $40 billion in assets under management in its combined USand European operations. UCFA and its affiliates, with $9 billion in assets in advisory andadministration, has partnered with FundQuest to design a set of outsourcedservices that will tightly integrate with UCFA`s existing portfolio managementcapabilities. FundQuest will provide reporting aggregation, operational andworkflow management technology, portfolio accounting integration, and sales andfinancial planning tools. Advisers will gain the ability to work with multiplecustodians and report on held-away assets. UCFA`s core product offerings will beenhanced with FundQuest`s broad array of open architecture investment solutionsincluding hybrid active and passive strategies, and income oriented portfolios.