Mediaboss Marketing

By Ari Levy and Serena Saitto Print Article

(BloombergBusinessweek)Trulia Inc., an Internet startup focused on residential real estate, hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) to manage its initial public offering, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The San Francisco-based company is likely to go public in the second half of this year and will be valued at less than $1 billion, said the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private. Trulia is also working with Class V Groups Lise Buyer, who advises startups on IPOs, the people said.

Trulia, a rival to Zillow (Z) Inc., provides a search engine used by over 20 million people a month to look for homes in specific neighborhoods. It also offers reviews on local schools and crime rates. The company makes money through ads on the site and subscriptions that let real estate agents target users and get their listings featured prominently.

Trulia is capitalizing on the best stretch of Internet IPOs in more than a decade, with LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD), Groupon Inc. and Zynga Inc. all going public in the past year. Trulia is following the lead of fellow real estate website Zillow, which went public in July and has since jumped 77 percent to a valuation of almost $1 billion. While Zillow has more revenue, Trulia is growing faster, the people said.

Ken Shuman, a spokesman for Trulia, declined to comment, as did JPMorgan representative Jennifer Zuccarelli and Deutsche Banks Duncan King. Buyer said she doesnt disclose which companies shes working with.

Staffing Up

Trulia has been bolstering its executive ranks. In December, it hired Sean Aggarwal, former vice president of finance at EBay Inc.s PayPal unit, as chief financial officer. The company also named former Imperva Inc. executive Scott Darling as general counsel. Early last year, it hired former Yahoo! Inc. executive Paul Levine as its operating chief.

Chief Executive Officer Pete Flint co-founded the company in 2005 with Sami Inkinen, Trulias president. Trulia has raised $33 million from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Fayez Sarofim & Co.

Trulia hasnt disclosed its revenue or profit. Sales at Seattle-based Zillow, meanwhile, more than doubled last year to $66.1 million. It reported net income of $1.1 million, following a loss of $6.77 million the prior year.

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Trulia Is Said to Pick JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank to Manage Its IPO

With Chinese accounting scandals back in the news , emerging market investors are looking for security. Real estate internet and home furnishings portal SouFun Holdings ( SFUN , quote ) offers security plus a few other good reasons to invest.

SouFun Holdings offers marketing, listing and other services and products for China's real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors, and as such is a play on China's fast growing middle class.

Paying responsible dividends is one of the best indicators of an honest company , and SouFun Holdings has a dividend yield of 11.09%. That compares extremely favorably with the average 2% dividend yield for a stock on the S&P 500 Index ( SPY , quote ).

SouFun's other financials are equally attractive. It has a healthy profit margin of 29.55%, and an unusually strong return-on-investment of 77.18%. Institutional investors own almost 40% of the company's shares, an indication of confidence on their part.

SFUN has a high level of debt, but that's not necessarily bad news. It indicates the company has been vetted by local lenders, who can do more due diligence than an investor thousands of miles away. It's telling that many Chinese companies proven to be fraudulent had no debt at all.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

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Looking for security – and high dividends? Check out SouFun Holdings

NEW YORK, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- AllianceBernstein L.P. today announced the closing of its first private equity real estate fund, AllianceBernstein U.S. Real Estate Partners, L.P., (the "Fund") with capital commitments of $680 million. Commitments to the Fund were received from several large, global institutional investors, including Temasek, the Singapore-based investment company, Alberta Teachers Retirement Fund, as well as institutions from the U.S., Hong Kong and Japan. In addition, numerous AllianceBernstein private clients and employees made commitments to the Fund. With additional co-investment capital from key strategic investors, the Fund could have approximately $900 million of available equity.

The Fund represents an important milestone for AllianceBernstein, which formed the Real Estate Group in September 2009 in order to build out a preeminent private equity real estate platform by leveraging the firm's current resources and existing infrastructure. The Real Estate Group is led by co-CIO's Brahm Cramer and Jay Nydick as well as managing director, Adam Brooks. Mr. Cramer and Mr. Brooks each spent their careers prior to joining AllianceBernstein with Goldman Sachs. Mr. Cramer co-headed the firm's Real Estate Principal Investment Area and Mr. Brooks built and led the firm's real estate mezzanine investing businesses. Mr. Nydick had most recently been the President of iStar Financial, the NYSE listed real estate specialty finance company, where he built several innovative new credit-based businesses.

"As a first time fund, we are thrilled with the success of our capital raise within a very difficult fundraising environment," said Brahm Cramer, co-CIO of the AllianceBernstein Real Estate Group. "We believe this is a credit to the AllianceBernstein network, the favorable investment environment for real estate and the early investments we have made. We are excited to partner with investors who share our strategic vision of creating value through the resolution of complex restructurings and recapitalizations of distressed real estate assets across the U.S."

To date, the Fund has committed more than $200 million of equity across six separate transactions. These investments include recapitalizations of distressed loans secured by office buildings in San Jose, California and suburban Seattle, a limited service hospitality portfolio and a residential land site in New Jersey. The Fund has also made direct real estate acquisitions including multifamily portfolios in Manhattan and in the Southeast U.S.

"We are pleased with the pace of investments and the make-up of the current portfolio," said Jay Nydick, the Real Estate Group's co-CIO. "We believe the current investments confirm our ability to execute our strategy and to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns through the resolution of situational distress."

The Fund is actively seeking debt and equity investment opportunities across all property types and geographic locations throughout the United States with a current focus on the recapitalization of distressed assets. The Fund is looking to make investments of $20-100 million per transaction and expects to invest in partnership with talented local market operators, existing owners of assets and in conjunction with borrowers seeking to recapitalize assets or entities.

About AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein is a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals and private clients in major world markets.

At March 31, 2012, AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB - News) owned approximately37.9% of the issued and outstanding AllianceBernstein Units and AXA, one of the largest global financial services organizations, owned an approximate63.5% economic interest in AllianceBernstein.

Additional information about AllianceBernstein may be found on our internet site, http://www.alliancebernstein.com.

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AllianceBernstein Closes Its First Private Equity Real Estate Fund

REDWOOD SHORES, CA--(Marketwire -04/18/12)- Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL - News)

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About Oracle Communications Only Oracle's software and systems span the communications industry technology landscape -- from carrier-grade servers, storage and IT infrastructure, to mission-critical business and operational support systems and service delivery platforms; from business intelligence applications and retail point-of-sale solutions to the Java platform running on more than three billion mobile and handheld devices. Oracle helps 100 of the world's top 100 service providers innovate and exploit new business models, build strong, profitable customer relationships, and streamline operations. For more information, visit http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/communications/index.html

About OracleOracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center. For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL - News), visit http://www.oracle.com.

About Oracle in IndustriesOracle industry solutions leverage the company's best-in-class portfolio of products to address complex business processes relevant to the communications industry, helping speed time to market, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge.

TrademarkOracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Oracle Delivers Its Most Advanced Service Fulfillment Suite for Communications Industry

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Ramius LLC (Ramius), the global alternative investment management business of Cowen Group, Inc. (Cowen) (NASDAQ: COWN - News), today announced that Eric Greenhut has joined the firm as a Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Trading. Ramius quantitative trading platform was developed in-house and has been deploying proprietary capital through systematic trading programs since early 2010. Ramius is now seeking to expand and diversify the platform in order to enhance returns to proprietary capital and ultimately create systematic trading products for Ramius clients. In a newly created role, Mr. Greenhut will be responsible for the management and development of the group, including the ongoing search for premier quantitative traders, researchers, and programmers. Mr. Greenhut will report to Thomas W. Strauss, President and CEO of Ramius.

We welcome Eric to the firm and believe that his experience and skillset will be a valuable asset as we expand and advance our quantitative trading platform, said Mr. Strauss. Over the last two years, this platform has been generating superior results for Ramius own proprietary trading activities. As a result, we intend to grow the group substantially, both to enhance returns on our proprietary capital and to develop systematic trading products that will meet the ever evolving needs of our clients. We look forward to Erics contributions as we continue to build out Ramius quantitative trading group.

Mr. Greenhut brings 16 years of financial services experience with him to Ramius. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Managing Member of quantitative trading firms Hut Trading LLC & Hut Capital LLC since 2003. Previous to that, he was Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and a Director of Research at BNP Paribas/Cooper Neff. Mr. Greenhut is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Phillips Academy.

About Cowen Group, Inc.

Cowen Group, Inc. is a diversified financial services firm and, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, provides alternative investment management, investment banking, research, and sales and trading services through its two business segments: Ramius and its affiliates makes up the Company's alternative investment management segment, while Cowen and Company is its broker-dealer segment. Its alternative investment management products, solutions and services include hedge funds, replication products, managed futures funds, fund of funds, real estate, health care royalty funds and cash management services. Cowen and Company offers industry focused investment banking for growth-oriented companies, domain knowledge-driven research and a sales and trading platform for institutional investors. Founded in 1918, the firm is headquartered in New York and has offices located in major financial centers around the world.

About Ramius LLC

Ramius offers a broad range of investment solutions to institutions and private clients worldwide. Founded in 1994, Ramius and affiliates manage $10.3 billion* (as of January 1, 2012) across multiple asset classes and investing styles. Ramius is headquartered in New York City with offices located in London, Tokyo, Luxembourg and Munich.

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Eric Greenhut Joins Ramius as Head of Quantitative Trading Group