Middle Market Deals and how to buy, sell and raise capital from $5 to $500 million

Adam Edmunds            David B. McGinn           Josh Coates

Alan E. Hall                   David Carter                Josh James

Amy Rees Lewis           David Moon                  Kevin Santiago

Anthony Soohoo          Derek Smith                 Kimberley Jones

Ben Peterson               Doug Waddoups          Larry Rigby

Benoy Tamang             Gregory Critchfield       Leslie Norris

Bill Aho                         Dr. Michael Paul           Matthew Hawkins

Bjorn Espenes             Dr. Phillip Windley        Michael Levinthal

Blake Kirby                   Dr. Ragula Bhaskar      Michael Proper

Blake Modersitzki         Dr. Tom Ngo                 Michael Wolfgramm

Bob Barnes                  Drew Major                  Mike Hall

Brad Christensen         Ed Donakey                 Mikko Valimaki

Brad Pelo                     Edwin Catmull              Nicole Toomey Davis

Brad Walters                Eric Olafson                  Patrick Byrne

Brent Bishop                Eric Ruff                        Paul Allen

Brett Error                    Eric Smith                     Paul Brockbank

Brett Walker                Fraser Bullock               Peter D. Meldrum

Brock Blake                  Fred Lampropoulos      Glenn Prestwich

Bruce K. Law                Gary Kennedy              Prof. Glenn

Bryce Roberts              Gary L. Crocker            Ralph Yarro

Carine Clark                 Gavin Christensen       Ransom Love

Christopher C.             Glen Mella                    Rich Running

Chuck Sharp                Grant Beckmann          Robert Frankenberg

Cindi Tetro                   Greg Butterfield           Ron Heinz

Clarke Miyasaki            Gregory Peterson        Ryan Money

Coleman Barney          Harrington                   Scott C. Lemon

Craig Miller                   Jack Sunderlage           Scott McKinley

Craig Sherman             James Dreyfous           Shawn Nelson

Critchfield                     James Endicott             Steve Christensen

Curt Allen                     Jan Newman                Steve Jones

Dallan Quass               Jay Verkler                   Tom Stockham

Dallin Anderson            JD Gardner                   Ty D. Mattingly

Daren Thayne              Jeff Kearl                      W. Tim Miller

Darin Gilson                 Jim Sorenson               Will Allred

Darl McBride                 John Pestana               Will West

Darren Lee                   John Richards              

I ran into a couple of partners from vSpring, Dinesh Patel and Paul Ahlstrom, last evening.  They had big smiles on their faces.  Thursday vSpring announced that one of their portfolio companies, LanDesk, would be acquired by Alabama based Avocent Corp (Nasdaq: AVCT) for $416 million, about 11 times the valuation when vSpring bought control of LanDesk in 2002.  Big Smiles.

A press release posted on vSpring's web site notes, in part:

The agreement, which is expected to close within 60 to 75 days, provides for total consideration of $416 million, including $200 million in stock, $200 million in cash and $16 million in assumed options. The transaction value may be increased by up to $60 million if LANDesk meets certain financial targets specified in the agreement.

“This agreement will greatly increase LANDesk’s ability to execute its business strategy, preserve organizational identity, and become part of a well-capitalized enterprise with excellent prospects for accelerated growth,” said Joe Wang, president and chief executive officer of LANDesk. “Because our companies share a similar vision, our combined organization will be able to quickly deliver increased business value to customers seeking better IT management.”

Clint Carlos, the founder of Garage Mahal Design, a Junto company, provided me with this video introduction to his company.  Garage Mahal customizes residential garages, typically for folks who have lots of cool toys to put in the garage (as can be seen in this video).

Garage Mahal, like HireVue is part of the Junto program run by Greg Warnock of vSpring (see my post on HireVue here).  In the video, Clint talks about how important Junto is to his success.  He also talks about some of the challenges he's faced getting to this point.

Clint's business model is simple and traditional.  The remarkable thing about Junto is its emphasis on helping young entrepreneurs to successfully launch a first business.

Watch and see!

Tomorrow morning, too few hours from now, I am scheduled to meet with a young entrepreneur for whom I serve as a mentor.  I sometimes wonder how much, if any help, I provide to him, but we get together every month for breakfast.  I hope that I serve as an effective sounding board, if nothing else.

This opportunity came to me through a friend, Greg Warnock, who had launched a venturing organization called "Junto Partners," designed to help young entrepreneurs, typically straight out of college, to launch small businesses, especially those that won't require large amounts of capital to reach some meaningful scale.  Greg, an entrepreneur at heart, has been working for the last several years as a venture capitalist at vSpring.

Greg invited to me, along with dozens of other professionals in the community, to support the organization with some mentoring time for the young entrepreneurs.