« What Are the Pros and Cons of Investment From a Strategic Entity? | Main | How Do I Do Multiple Closings for an Angel Round? »

September 5, 2008 8:17 AM

What Price Adjustments Do You See Prior To Closing In A Financing?

Q:  Can you please explain what sort of adjustments you should expect to the price that a VC promises in a term sheet between the signing of the term sheet and signing of a final stock purchase agreement (SPA)?

A: (Jason)  To answer your question, we first need to determine what the definition of "price" is.

I don't care what price per share I pay.  It's an irrelevant number.  What's relevant is the pre-money valuation.  That, along with my investment will determine what percentage of the company that I own post investment.  For more on this, see this prior post

If the question is "how often do I see the pre-money valuation change from term sheet to SPA" that answer is almost never.  Only in rare cases of something material happening to the company, I tend to think "a deal is a deal."  If something that bad happens to warrant a price change, it's probably more likely that the entire deal falls apart.

The only other situation that could potentially change the valuation / price is if something is found in diligence that wasn't known to the VC at the time of term sheet.  For instance, if founders have deferred salaries or have debt that need to be paid back and a large chunk on the financing is going to be immediately used, this too might change the economics.

If you define price as the "price per share" (not having anything to do with valuation), then I would tell you that I think EVERY deal that I've been involved with has had a price adjustment during this period.  The price per share is based on the outstanding equity of the company and rarely does this get 100% figured out until right before closing. 

Posted in: Fundraising | Posted by: Jason Mendelson
Boulder Open Coffee Club
Next Event
- The Cup
8 a.m.

VC Bloggers

Brad Feld
Jason Mendelson

Andrew Parker (USV)
Ask The VC
Baris Karadogan (Velocity)
Bijan Sabet (Spark)
Bill Burnham (Inductive)
Chris Fralic (First Round)
Christine Herron (First Round)
Dan Rua (Inflexion)
Daniel Cohen (Gemini)
David Beisel (Venrock)
David Cowan (Bessemer)
David Dufresne (JLA)
David Hornik (August)
Ed Sim (Dawntreader)
Eric Friedman (USV)
Foundry Group
Fred Destin (Atlas)
Fred Wilson (USV)
George Zachary (CRV)
Golden Horn Ventures
Guy Kawasaki (Garage)
Highway 12 Ventures
J Chen (CXO)
Jacob Ner-David (Jerusalem)
Jason Ball (Qualcomm)
Jeff Bussgang (Flybridge)
Jeff Clavier (SoftTech)
Jeff Joseph (Prescient)
Jeremy Levine (Bessemer)
John Thornton
Jonathan Seeber (Updata)
Josh Kopelman (First Round)
Justin Label (Bessemer)
Keith Benjamin (Levensohn)
Ken Gaebler (Gaebler)
Marc Averitt (Okapi)
Mark Davis (DFJ Gotham)
Mark Suster (GRP)
Matt McCall (DFJ Portage)
Matt Winn (Chrysalis)
Max Bleyleben (Kennet)
Michael Feinstein (Sempre)
Momentum Venture Management
Nic Brisbourn (DFJ Esprit)
Pascal Levensohn (Levensohn)
Paul Fisher (Advent)
Paul Jozefak (Neuhaus)
Paul Kedrosky (Ventures West)
PE Hub Blog
Philippe Botteri (Bessemer)
Rajil Kapoor (Mayfield)
Rich Moran (Venrock)
Richard Dale (Sigma)
Rick Segal (JLA)
Rob Day (@Ventures)
Rob Finn (Edison)
Rob Hayes (First Round)
Rob Schultz (IllinoisVENTURES)
Robert Goldberg (YL)
Ryan McIntyre (Foundry)
Sagi Rubin (Virgin)
Sarah Tavel (Bessemer)
Saul Klein (Index)
Seth Levine (Foundry)
Shantanu Bhagwat (Amadeus)
Sid Mohasseb (Venture Farm)
Simeon Simeonov (Polaris)
Steve Brotman (Greenhill)
Steve Jurvetson (DFJ)
Stu Phillips (Ridgelift)
Stuart Ellman and Eric Wiesen (RRE)
T.D. Klein (Legend)
TechFund Europe
Todd Dagres (Spark)
Tom Cole (Trinity)
Union Square Ventures
Vineet Buch (BlueRun)