SANTA MONICA, March 13, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) -- Tom Unterman, former chief financial officer of Times Mirror Corporation, today announced the formation of the Rustic Canyon Group, general partner and manager of TMCT Ventures. With $550 million of committed capital, TMCT Ventures is the largest venture capital fund in Southern California.
"We have a great team of seasoned partners pursuing TMCT Ventures' goal of earning superior investment returns," said Unterman, partner and chief executive officer of TMCT Ventures. "Our investments focus on well-managed Internet, technology-based, and other high-growth companies that will be leaders in the new economy. Our portfolio companies benefit from the depth and diversity of TMCT's management team -- whose experience spans building and running Internet businesses, corporate finance and investment banking -- giving us a powerful, real-world understanding of the challenges and issues facing the managements of today's start-ups."
The fund has invested more than $100 million in more than 20 privately held companies, including AllAdvantage.com, an Internet advertising services company; Sandpiper Networks (now Digital Island), which specializes in delivering content and services to keep e-business running; BizBuyer.com, which provides price quotes for businesses seeking to procure products and services; cooking.com, an online retailer of cooking-related products; Agribuys, an e-commerce marketplace for buyers and sellers of agricultural products; and People Support, an Internet-based provider of real-time customer service solutions. The fund focuses its investments on companies in various stages of development in Internet commerce and infrastructure, business services, telecommunications and other high growth industries.
The fund is managed by five Rustic Canyon Group partners:
Tom Unterman. Prior to founding TMCT Ventures, Unterman served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Times Mirror Corporation, a position he held since 1992. He joined the Times as vice president and general counsel after a distinguished career with the legal firm, Morrison & Foerster, where he specialized in corporate and securities law, and with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, a San Francisco-based law firm.
Mark Menell. Menell has more than 12 years of investment banking experience focused on companies in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. Most recently, he was co-head of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Group, based in Menlo Park, and was responsible for advising on more than 50 transactions valued in excess of $100 billion and involving clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Netscape. Earlier, Menell was responsible for Morgan Stanley's media and telecommunications mergers and acquisitions division, whose clients included Time Warner, Times Mirror, and AT&T. Prior to that, he was an investment banker at Salomon Brothers.
Renée LaBran. LaBran served in multiple senior management positions at the Los Angeles Times over the last six years, including: vice president of classified advertising for new media and print, overseeing revenues in excess of $300 million and more than 200 employees; and vice president of new business development with responsibility for new media strategy. LaBran also was a co-founder and served as interim chief executive officer for CareerPath.com. Prior to the Times, LaBran was a management consultant with Monitor Company.
Michael Song. Song previously was director of corporate investments with the Times Mirror Company, where he oversaw Times Mirror's venture capital investment program. Prior to that, he was director of business development for Times Mirror. Earlier, Song was a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group and also worked for Lehman Brothers.
John Babcock. Prior to joining TMCT, Babcock was the general manager of online real estate at the Los Angeles Times. In 1991, he founded The Delta Group, a systems consulting firm based in Los Angeles that focused on technical and strategic projects in residential broadband access, computer-based training, and product and systems design.