What really happened at LivingSocial?淘宝网站LivingSocial究竟出有了什么事？Yesterday morning, news leaked that the company had raised $110 million in new financing. Seemed to be a long-awaited hallelujah moment for the daily deal company, particularly after investor Amazon.com (AMZN) significantly wrote down its LivingSocial investment in recent quarterly earning reports.上周三上午爆出消息，LivingSocial在近期一轮融资中融得1.1亿美元。对这家淘宝网站来说，这或许是一个期待已久、亲眼奇迹的时刻。特别是在是考虑到此前，这家公司的投资者亚马逊（Amazon.com）在最近的季度财报中刚大幅度减记了它手头所所持这家股份的价值。
But the storm clouds came quickly, when a research group called PrivCo claimed that the financing actually was convertible debt that wiped out the value of founder and employee liquidity and included a whole rash of onerous terms. PrivCo also claimed that the round was emergency round of funding that staved off imminent bankruptcy.但乌云迅速弥漫过来，一家取名为PrivCo的研究机构称之为，这轮融资只不过附带着大量的严苛条款、避免创始人和员工股份价值的可切换债务。PrivCo还称之为，这是一轮“应急”融资目的是让LivingSocial防止立刻倒闭的命运。
Multiple investor sources took issue with the PrivCo report during background conversations earlier this morning, and now Fortune has obtained a memo that LivingSocial CEO Tim OShaughnessy just issued to employees. Here it is, in its entirety:上周四上午早些时候，多位投资行业消息人士都在跟《财富》杂志（Fortune）展开交流时对PrivCo的报告明确提出批评，现在我们取得了LivingSocial首席执行官蒂姆奥肖内西发给员工的一份备忘录，以下是备忘录全文：Hey folks,伙伴们：In light of a recent report on our financing round that contained significant inaccuracies and errors, I wanted to provide some additional details on yesterdays round.鉴于最近一份关于我们公司融资的报告包括了明显的误差和错误，我想要在这里获取关于那轮融资的更好细节。If youve seen some of that misinformation, heres the real story:如果你们看早已看见了其中一些错误的信息，下面我要说的才是现实的情况：This was not an emergency round. We received our first term sheet on December 23rd, nearly two months ago, and this has been an organized, thought-out process.这并不是一轮应急融资。我们在12月23日接到第一份风险投资协议，也就是将近两个月前，这轮融资是有的组织、经过深思熟虑的。
This was an equity round, not a debt infusion.这轮融资是股权投资，而不是债务静脉注射。There was no re-pricing of investor shares from previous rounds.我们没对之前几轮融资确认的投资者股份展开新的定价。There were no warrants issued as part of this round.这轮融资不还包括发售认股权证。
There were no double-digit cash dividends. (Typical of many financing rounds, including our own past rounds, there was a nominal 3% dividend for a class of shares.)不不存在“两位数的”现金股利（跟典型的融资——还包括我们公司过去几轮融资——一样，我们只针对一类股票象征性地派发3%的现金股利）。There is no 4x liquidation preference. (Once again, typical of almost all venture rounds, there is a liquidation preference, but it slides up or down based on a key metric and gets nowhere near 4x.)不不存在“4倍的优先整肃权”（再度申明，跟大多数融资一样，我们的融资牵涉到优先整肃权，但它根据一个关键指标上下浮动，意味著约将近4倍）。The quotes from a senior LivingSocial communication executive are straight up fiction.报告中提到一位所谓“LivingSocial高级传媒主管”的众说纷纭纯属捏造。Two of the three investors listed on the PrivCo site as participating in the round didnt participate, and one isnt even an investor in the company.PrivCo网站上所列的参予本轮融资的投资者中有三分之二并没参予，其中有一位甚至不是投资公司的成员。
On valuation, people always seem to be overly enamored with market value, which has puzzled me because as a private company, there is no liquid market on which to buy and sell shares, so a valuation is established without any degree of market efficiency. In short, its an educated guess between the company and a set of investors at one particular snapshot in time.就估值而论，人们或许总是过分著迷市场价值。这个问题某种程度仍然后遗症着我，因为作为一家私人公司，并不不存在一个交易股票的流动性市场，所以估值的确认没把任何程度上的市场效率考虑到在内。简言之，估值是公司和一组投资者在某一特定时间点展开的有根据猜测。But nevertheless here goes. Yes, this was a down round, which Im sure is not a shock to anyone. Our main comp in the market is down significantly from when we last fundraised. In this round, we sold 7.5% of the company for $110mm. Although there were some bells and whistles associated with those shares, as mentioned above, this should give you some idea of the current valuation of the company.但不管怎样，事情是这样的。
不俗，这显然是一次估值较低的融资（down round，指投资者在一轮融资中出售同一家公司股票的价格高于对上一次融资投资者缴纳价格的情况——学术著作），我敢肯定没有人不会实在惊讶。跟上一轮融资时较为一起，我们公司的估值早已大幅度大跌。在本轮融资中，我们将公司7.5%的股份作价1.1亿美元。不过，正如前面提及的，那部分股份还可选了一些条款，这些应当需要让你们对公司目前的估值水平有所理解了。
So how does this round impact employee stock? In short, some, but not much. Basically, the preference stack is a little higher now. At any valuation over $1B, though, we clear that stack by quite a bit. For comparison, our major competitors market cap is now $3.9B. In the event of an IPO, all preferred stock becomes common stock, and the preference stack goes away.那么，本轮融资对员工股份有什么影响呢？简言之，有影响，但影响并不是相当大。基本上，现在变换一起的整肃优先权有点低。不过，我们在公司估值多达10亿美元的时候清扫了一大部分优先权。作为较为，我们主要竞争对手的市值现在是39亿美元。
在展开首次公开发表IPO后，所有的优先股都会变为普通股，整肃优先权也就消失了。We are a company that does over half a billion in revenue. If we stay diligent, we hope to turn the corner to become profitable soon. Thanks to this round, we have significantly more capital to be able to be opportunistic and drive the future growth of the business.我们公司的年营收多达5亿美元，如果我们之后努力下去，公司未来将会在旋即的将来扭亏为盈。归功于这轮融资，我们取得了更加多的资金以抓住机遇，推展公司业务在未来的快速增长。
Hopefully this will help clear up any questions you may have or get on yesterdays round. Now its back to executing on our plan.如果你们对这轮融资不存在或产生了任何疑惑，期望这份备忘录有助回应问题。现在，我们该走继续执行我们的计划了。This is a pretty damning indictment of PrivCo, which regularly distributes information on private company financings. I managed to reach PrivCo CEO Sam Hamadeh, but said hed call me right back. Hasnt happened yet. Will update if and when I hear from him.PrivCo定期公布有关私人公司融资的信息，这份备忘录是对该公司十分坦率的起诉。
我设法联系到PrivCo的首席执行官山姆哈马德，不过他说道不会打电话给我。电话还没有打过来，我将在听过他的众说纷纭后对本文展开改版。UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Hamadeh, who is standing by his original report. He says OShaughnessy is misleading his own employees, and that classifying the round as equity is a technicality given all of the debt-like provisions PrivCo continues to believe were attached. He also says that PrivCo spoke with a LivingSocial spokesman prior to publishing, and sent him a draft of the report with a request for any needed corrections. When nothing came back four hours later, PrivCo published.最新消息：我刚完结与哈马德的通话，他依然坚决原本报告的观点。哈马德说道，奥肖内西是在误导自己的员工，鉴于那些可选的类债务条款，他把这轮融资定性为“股权投资”是在说道漂亮话。
他还回应，PrivCo在公布报告之前跟LivingSocial的发言人展开了交流，向后者寄出了一份草稿，并告知必须修正的地方。LivingSocial没作出对此，PrivCo在四个小时之后才公布了这份报告。I dont think the real story here is the details of the financing, Hamadeh said. Its whats going to happen to the little guys, all of the merchants who are really the companys unsecured creditors, if LivingSocial goes bankrupt... Youll see that we were right in six or nine months.“我不指出真凶在于融资的细节，”哈马德说道。“而是在于弱势群体——即所有商家，他们是LivingSocial确实的无担保债权人——即将面临的情况，如果LivingSocial倒闭的话……只需6-9个月的时间，你就能看见我们说道的到底。
”Worth noting that if OShaughnessy really misled his investors -- in a memo that almost certainly was vetted by company attorneys -- he would be opening both himself and the company to major liabilities.有一点认为的是，如果奥肖内西知道误导了自己的投资者——完全可以认同的是，其备忘录经过了公司律师的审查——那么他将让自己和公司担上重大责任。But have no fear. There is indeed a way to settle this he-said/he-said once and for all -- find the filing that LivingSocial sent to the Delaware Division of Corporations. Check back shortly...但不要担忧，显然有一个办法可以厘清两人的有所不同言论——寻找LivingSocial递交给特拉华州企业管理部门的监管文件。几天后还不会展开改版……UPDATE II: I have just begun skimming through LivingSocials charter filing with Delaware. Its long, but this round clearly was preferred stock (i.e., equity). This is in stark contract to what PrivCo reported, when it claimed that EQUITY or stock was NOT issued today.最新消息2：我刚开始网页LivingSocial递交给特拉华州的监管文件。内容很长，但这轮融资似乎是优先股交易（也即股权投资）。
这跟PrivCo报告的结论截然不同，该机构称之为“今天的这轮融资不牵涉到股权或股票。”Moreover, the filing says that participants shall be entitled to receive cumulative dividends at the rate of three percent. Again, PrivCo had claimed Double-digit annual cash dividends.此外，这份文件还称之为投资者“有权取得3%的总计优先股股利。”而PrivCo却称之为不存在“两位数的年度现金股利。”The filing does not identify investors in the new round, but Fortune has learned that they included existing backers Amazon and Revolution. Among those insiders not participating were Grotech Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price.这份文件没说明新一轮融资的投资者都有哪些，但《财富》了解到，其中还包括亚马逊和风投公司Revolution这些原先的投资者，而没参予这轮融资的投资者还包括Grotech Ventures、光速创投（Lightspeed Venture Partners）以及普莱斯基金（T. Rowe Price）。
Also worth noting that I spoke with a source close to the company, who tells me that the competing term sheet was at the same valuation as what insiders offered, but that company decided to stick with its current investors. The prospective investor was said to be a familiar name, but not a venture capital firm. That same source insists LivingSocial was not days or weeks away from a bankruptcy filing, adding that it had around $28 million in cash at its February low point and was on plan to steadily increase that number even without the new financing. Had that figure not increased, and had no new investment been forthcoming, it still could have survived for several more months.另外值得一提的是，据我专访的一位相似LivingSocial的消息人士称之为，有外部投资者不愿在同等估值水平上参予融资，但该公司还是要求之后拒绝接受现有投资者的资金。这位潜在的投资者据信是一个“耳熟能详的人物”，并非一家风险投资公司。这位消息人士否认，LivingSocial并不是再行过几天或是几周就要倒闭，该公司在2月份最低点时仍握2,800万美元现金，即使没新一轮的融资，LivingSocial也在计划急剧减少现金储备。即使这个数字没减少，新一轮融资也未能已完成，LivingSocial依然可以存活数月之幸。
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