Recently, a new movie, Master and the Commander, gloriously recounted the exploits of a particular British naval commander in the 19th century. English maritime folk law is over a thousand year old. In 1838, a new country, the United States of America, launched a scientific venture to demonstrate its growing status as a world leader. Six ships left Virginia to explore uncharted regions in the Pacific. Known as the US South Seas Exploring Expedition, its 3 year mission was to voyage around Cape Horn, considered a “trip to the moon” in those days. As recounted beautifully in Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick, its leader Lt. Charles Wilkes may have well been the model for Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab. While driven to success, Wilkes was a rather limited seaman and quite disliked by his shipmates. Yet the Expeditions’ accomplishments were indeed considerable: It established the existence of Antarctica, charted hundred of new Pacific Islands and collected so many new scientific specimens that Congress created the Smithsonian Institute to house them. When Wilkes returned (one year late and 4 ships short), the US had expanded Westward following its Manifest Destiny to Oregon and California. While truly an American hero, Wilkes returned home only to be court martialed in proceedings instigated by his own officers (as my mother says, “it is always pays to be nice”). While he later won acclaim during the Civil War, Wilkes remains an unknown explorer-hero of our rich, albeit short, American history.
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“The sea (sic) was where a boy might turn his back on all he had once known and step into an exotic dream of adventure, freedom, opportunity and risk."
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Lt. Charles Wilkes
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While in London and Liverpool recently on a business trip where I enjoyed a thrilling “Footie” with a British “mate” and Stuart Michael, our UK based partner, the talk of the town was of Malcolm Glazers’ takeover bid of the fabled franchised Manchester United, PLC. Mr. Glazer, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has purchased approximately 15% of the stock and may soon seek approval of Britain’s Takeover Panel to increase his interests. He may find that the English will object to an American owing England’s largest and one of the worlds most popular and successful soccer teams. Perhaps he can take solace in last summer’s purchase of competitor Chelsea by Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich. Besides the $200 million he paid for the club, he spent an additional $200 million on new players. Chelsea remains (as of this writing) in contention of the Barclaycard premiership in third place 2 points behind league leaders Arsenal and right behind Manchester United, a position Chelsea not been in for over 40 years!
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“Obstacles are those frightening things when you take your eyes off your goals”
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- Henry Ford
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The mood for Venture Capital and private equity investments have improved alongside the economy. Buoyed by stock market gains, a handful of successful IPO’s and a growing pipeline for future public offerings (led by Google of course), the fourth quarter of 2003 and more importantly, the first quarter of 2004 looks promissory. Life sciences and software continue to be the strongest sectors, followed by semi-conductor, wireless, medical devices and security (venture wire). As the window for IPO’s continue to open offering liquidity for the VC industry, and the M&A industry remains strong, confident VC’s will start deploying more of the $100 billion in the undeployed capital they are sitting on.
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“They do not go where the path may be; they go where there is no path may be; they go where there is no path and leave a trail.”
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- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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While in previous newsletters we have detailed WPs foray’s into England, we are proud to announce two new strategic partnerships: First, in conjunction with Stuart Michael Consulting, WPs has formed Wellfleet Partners Europe Ltd (“WP Europe”) to assist in developing and enlarging our British and European operations. Our first two potential corporate clients demonstrate the types of companies we are looking for. It includes a British energizing technology/security based company with a US based subsidiary and a real estate development firm in Cyprus; Second, while a 15 year friend of Mr. Lev, Stan Wunderlich’s PR/IR company Consulting For Strategic Growth, Inc., has been a valued strategic partner of ours for over two years. He has referred several portfolio clients and has assisted WPs in establishing its relationship with the British Consulate in New York. He has recently returned from China and has been retained by several publicly traded Chinese companies (e.g. Strategic “SGKA” and YI WAN Group, Inc. “YIWA”). WPs hopes and expects to participate in 2004 in some of these Asian based activities. We are proud that both Stan and Stuart have agreed to join our Advisory Board and their bio and picture are available on our website and also will be in our new brochure expected to be out in the first quarter of 2004.
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“With risk lies opportunity. This is not an area for shrinking violets.”
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- Rob Woodward
Chief Investment Officer
Kansas Public Retirement System
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This past quarter we were actively involved in creating the aforementioned strategic partnerships so that we could enter 2004 as a truly National and European based investment banking and management consulting firm. We however welcome to our family of portfolio companies the following: Serious USA (NYC and London), Forsite Foods (Atlanta, Ga.), Image Innovations (Vancouver, Canada), Citrus Bay (Long Island, NY), Pickup Plus (Columbus, Ohio), Games, Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio) and the previously mentioned company from WPs Europe, Hassapis Resort Homes (Cyprus). With several more on the horizon, we expect and hope to be quite busy in the 1st quarter of 2004.
As we enter our 6th year, we at Wellfleet Partners, Starobin Partners, Spider Financial and WPs Europe wish all of you a very happy and healthy new year
Sincerely,
WELLFLEET PARTNERS
Note: This report was produced by Wellfleet Partners, Inc. (“WPs”) from various public research sources, for the sole purpose of general information. WP makes no warranties to its factual content and is not a brokerage firm, registered Investment Advisor nor securities dealer; therefore, nothing contained in this report shall constitute an offer to sell, solicit or buy any securities or investment advice. Investment in these securities mentioned here involves risk and should not be considered without first reading the target Company’s most recent financial statements, 10Q and 10K, its Private Placement, Offering Memorandum or Business Plan, if applicable, and discussing the investment with your registered representative or professional financial advisor. Venture capital and investment in the market is inherently extremely risky. Mr. Lev, the author of this newsletter as well as other members of WPs and SR, are registered representatives of J.P. Turner & Company, LLC, and NASD member broker-dealer principally headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
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