Term Sheet: Dec. 01, 2017

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

FOLLOW subscribe ANON TIP December 1, 2017 DONE IN THE DARK Good morning, Term Sheet readers. Let's start by addressing the big news today: Shervin Pishevar, the co-founder and managing director of Sherpa Capital and an early backer of Uber, has been accused of sexual misconduct by five women, according to a new report in Bloomberg. The story alleges that the venture capitalist used his power to make unwanted sexual advances toward colleagues. At the center of one of the allegations is Austin Geidt, Uber's head of global expansion. From the story:   . .   Over the years, these people say, Pishevar seemed to take a liking to Geidt, following her around at company events, and at times placing his hand on her leg or lower back. A person with firsthand knowledge of the holiday party incident and these other encounters confirmed the account of Pishevar's behavior to Bloomberg. Geidt, who's now head of operations for Uber's autonomous driving unit, declined to comment for this story. Five other women who met Pishevar in a professional context told Bloomberg they were sexually assaulted or harassed by him. In each case, the women accused Pishevar of exploiting a professional connection, and using the prospect of a job, mentorship or investment to make an unwanted sexual advance. It seems several news outlets were also working on a story about Pishevar, and people in the Twitter-sphere don't seem to be all that surprised by the allegations. Reminiscent of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, I wonder just how many of these "open secrets" are spanning across industries. It seems this has been the "whisper network" at work — an informal channel that women use to warn each other about men to stay away from. As 8VC's Kimmy Scotti said in my recent interview with her, "For a long time, women survived on gossip, frankly. We warned each other in a hushed tone — 'don't work with that guy' or 'work with this guy because he's safe.'" The era of word-of-mouth networks is coming to an end as more and more women take to social media or the press to share stories of disturbing misconduct by those in positions of power. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes (which happens to come from Lamar Odom's grandmother): "What's done in the dark will come out in the light." ----- Not sure what's going on this week, but there were quite a few notable departures. Here's a rundown: • Matt Salzberg is out as CEO of embattled meal-kit maker Blue Apron. Only five months after Blue Apron's disappointing IPO, the board is replacing Salzberg with CFO Brad Dickerson as chief executive of the company. Blue Apron's stock price has plummeted, trading nearly 70% below its offer price. Dickerson has been with the company since February of 2016 after 11 years at Under Armour. Read more at Fortune. • Tim Kendall, the president of Pinterest and one of its key business executives, is stepping down from the company to launch his own startup in the healthcare space, according to Recode. This is a significant loss because Kendall has been with Pinterest more than five years and oversaw the company's entire business operation. Former Google exec Jon Alferness is expected to take over Kendall's responsibilities • Jambu Palaniappan, Uber's head of UberEats for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), is leaving the company to join a London-based venture capital firm. Palaniappan was instrumental to Uber's international expansion efforts, leading the UberEats expansion in the U.K. and helping build the ride-sharing business in 60 countries. Read more at Fortune. • John Vrionis is leaving Lightspeed Ventures to launch a seed stage fund. The fund's reported target $150 million, according to Axios. Vrionis has been a partner with Lightspeed for 11 years and has invested in companies including AppDynamics, Datastax, and Docker. He will stay on as a venture partner at Lightspeed. ---- FORTUNE GLOBAL FORUM: I'll be covering Brainstorm Tech International and Fortune Global Forum in Guangzhou, China next week. (If you're attending, say hi!) This year's conference will explore trends in global business, innovative breakthroughs, and economic development. Speakers include Canada PM Justin Trudeau, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma and many more. See the full agenda here. Main stage sessions will be streamed live on Fortune.com, and summaries will appear in Term Sheet. I'll also be live-tweeting much of the conference, so follow me on Twitter here. Feel free to also follow the hashtag #FortuneGlobal. **IMPORTANT HOUSEKEEPING** While I'm gone, my talented colleague Lucinda Shen will be compiling the deals, so if you have announcements for the deals section next week, send them her way at lucinda.shen@fortune.com. . . THE LATEST FROM FORTUNE... • This Intel Alum Is Making a Very Surprise Move Over to Google Cloud (by Jonathan Vanian) • Why Barnes & Noble Wants Smaller Stores (by Phil Wahba) • PG&E and CEO Geisha Williams Want to Lead the Charge in Clean Energy (by Susie Gharib) • What's Next for ESPN After Its Latest Round of Layoffs? (By Tom Huddleston Jr.) ...AND ELSEWHERE Carlyle approaches $18.5 billion cap for flagship buyout pool. How Aaptiv reached $20 million in revenue in two years. Lyft gains from Uber's woes, sees revenue triple. Billabong gets hit by Boardriders takeover bid. Lufthansa offers to sacrifice routes in a bid to buy Air Berlin. Startup seeks to take down barriers for art investment. . VENTURE DEALS • Farmers Business Network, a San Carlos, Calif.-based farmer-to-farmer network raised $110 million in Series D funding. T. Rowe Price Associates Inc and Temasek led the round, and were joined by investors including Acre Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GV and DBL Partners. • Affinio Inc, a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based interest analytics platform using machine learning, raised $9 million in Series B funding. Investors include Round13 Capital, Whitecap Venture Partners and Build Ventures. • BlazingDB, an Austin-based data warehouse, raised $2.9 million in seed funding. Investors include NVIDIA GPU Ventures and Samsung NEXT. • Aurora Labs, an Israel-based provider of software maintenance for connected vehicles, raised $2.7 million in seed funding. Investors include Maniv Mobility, MizMaa Ventures, Expansion Venture Capital and Trucks Venture Capital. • BrightFlag, an Ireland-based AI platform for managing legal spending in large corporates raised $1.5 million in seed funding. Investors include Frontline Ventures and Tribal VC. • VisitPay, a Boise, Idaho-based platform for patient financial health, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding. The investor was Flare Capital Partners. • TetraVue, a Vista, Calif.-based 3D technology provider, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Investors include KLA Tencor, Lam Research, Tsing Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Nautilus Ventures. . HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES DEALS • ResTORbio Inc, a Boston-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company treating aging-related diseases, raised $40 million in Series B funding. OrbiMed led the round, joined by investors included Fidelity Management & Research Company, Rock Springs Capital, Quan Capital and Nest Bio. . PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS • Eurazeo acquired a majority stake in NEST Fragrances, a New York-based luxury fragrances maker, for about $70 million. • Regent acquired SUNSET, an Oakland, Calif.-based magazine. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • ArcLight Capital Partners acquired gas production and midstream assets of Energy Corporation of America, a Charleston, W.V.-based gas exploration company. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Yo! Sushi, a portfolio company of Mayfair Equity Partners, acquired Bento Sushi,  a Markham, Ontario-based sushi maker. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • EagleTree Capital acquired a minority stake in WaterFleet, a San Antonio, Texas-based provider of wastewater treatment. Stars Investment Management also invested in WaterFleet. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Webster Capital acquired Bristol Hospice, a Salt Lake City-based palliative care services provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • DPA Microphones, a portfolio company of The Riverside Company, acquired Sound Network, a U.K.-based professional audio distributor. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Aurelius acquired Abelan, a Spain-based provider of core board packaging solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Southfield Capital acquired American Refrigeration Company, an Andover, Mass.-based industrial refrigeration services company. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Togetherwork, a portfolio company of Aquiline Capital Partners, acquired Capturepoint, a Ridgewood, N.J.-based recreation management software maker. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • A group of investors led by Bernhard Capital Partners has acquired three infrastructure management companies: Moreland Altobelli Associates, PAVETEX Engineering and Engineering Testing Services to form Atlas Technical Consultants. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Mill Point Capital invested in KKSP Precision Machining, a Glendale Heights, Ill.-based manufacturers of machined metal components produced on automatic screw machines. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners with management and co-investors recapitalized  GrayMatter, a Pittsburgh, Penn.-based, software maker for the industrial space. Financial terms weren't disclosed. . OTHERS • CVS Health may announce a deal to buy Aetna for $66 billion as early as Monday, Reuters reports. Read more. • ConvergeOne, an IT service provider backed by Clearlake, agreed to merge with SPAC Forum Merger Corp to become a Nasdaq-listed public company. Clearlake will remain the largest shareholder post-transaction. . IPOs • Regalwood Global Energy, a SPAC based out of Washington D.C., said it priced its IPO at $10 a unit with 30 million units, raising $300 million. The company, which plans to acquire energy companies, was formed by Carlyle Investment Management. Citigroup and J.P. Morgan are underwriters in the deal. The company plans to list on the NYSE as "RWGE.U." • Greensphere Capital, a London-based sustainability investor, plans to raise $500 million in an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Read more. • GFL Environmental, a Canadian waste management firm, is reportedly planning an IPO raising up to C$1 billion($778 million) in Canada, Reuters reports. Macquarie backs the company. Read more. . EXITS • Dropbox agreed to acquire Verst, a New York City-based publishing platform. Verst raised $12 million in venture funding from Greylock Partners.  Financial terms weren't disclosed. Read more. • Innovid agreed to acquire Taykey, a New York City and Israel-based data intelligence company from investors including Innovation Endeavors, MSR Capital, SoftBank Capital, Sequoia Capital, Marker LLC and Tenaya Capital. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Altran agreed to buy Aricent, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based design and engineering services firm, from KKR. The deal is valued at 1.7 billion euro ($2.01 billion). Read more. • Highlander Partners agreed to acquire Biamp Systems, a Beaverton, Ore.-based audio system maker from Lomar Corporation. Lomar will continue as a minority partner. Financial terms weren't disclosed. • Nippon Life Insurance agreed to buy a 24.75% stake in TCW Group from Carlyle Group. Carlyle maintains significant interest. Financial terms weren't disclosed. . FIRMS + FUNDS • Fortino Capital Partners, a Zaventem, Belgium-based investment firm, raised 125 million euros ($149 million) for its second growth fund. The fund plans to raise 200 million euros ($238 million). • Greenspring Associates, an Owlings Mills, Md.-based venture firm, set out to raise $100 million, according to an SEC filing. . PEOPLE • Lateral Investment Management appointed Anthony Lubiano as chief financial officer as well as chief compliance officer. Previously, he was at KKR. • SmartInvest Ventures appointed Martin Hunt as a general partner. Previously, Hunt was the CEO of an unidentified cable installation assembly company. • John M. Jureller joined Accordion as a managing director. • KKR names 23 new members and 44 new managing directors. Read more. . SHARE TODAY'S TERM SHEET View this email in your browser. Polina Marinova produces Term Sheet, and Lucinda Shen compiles the IPO news. Send deal announcements to Polina here and IPO news to Lucinda here. . Email Polina Marinova subscribe share: . This message has been sent to you because you are currently subscribed to Term Sheet Unsubscribe here Please read our Privacy Policy, or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.fortune.com/privacy FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For Further Communication, Please Contact: FORTUNE Customer Service 3000 University Center Drive Tampa, FL 33612-6408 Advertising Info | Subscribe to Fortune

The hidden toll of harassment

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

FOLLOW subscribe SEND TIP December 1, 2017 Good morning, Broadsheet readers! More powerful men get dragged through the mud, a woman gets tapped to run the FDIC, and one of our MPWs is back—and taking on a big job at Google. Rabbit rabbit rabbit. EVERYONE'S TALKING Fortune's Claire Zillman (@clairezillman) has today's essay: As more claims against ex-Today Show host Matt Lauer emerged yesterday, the following detail stood out to me: A woman who accused him of sexual assault "left the network about a year later," the New York Times reports, referring to an alleged incident that took place in 2001. (Lauer hasn't commented on specific allegations but issued an apology yesterday.) The woman's exit is not the only one to occur after alleged workplace abuse. Indeed, women quitting their jobs, leaving their chosen industry, or losing their career ambition is a common thread among the recent tales of workplace sexual misconduct. Alleged sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein prompted his one-time Miramax assistant Zelda Perkins to resign. One woman who accused NPR news chief Michael Oreskes of sexual misconduct told The Washington Post: "The worst part of my whole encounter with Oreskes wasn't the weird offers of room service lunch or the tongue kiss but the fact that he utterly destroyed my ambition." The list goes on. There's a direct line to be drawn between alleged workplace sexual harassment and women quitting or questioning their jobs—and it goes beyond these anecdotes. A recent study found that women who were sexually harassed were 6.5 times more likely to change jobs than those who were not harassed, with 80% of harassed women finding new work in the subsequent two years, versus 54% of those who hadn't experienced such abuse. What's more, the study found that women who experienced sexual harassment reported "significantly greater financial stress" in the following two years. The study underscores the desperate measures that victims are forced to take to escape toxic workplaces. Said one study subject in an interview: "I quit, and I didn't have a job. That's it. I'm outta here. I'll eat rice and live in the dark if I have to." At the same time, these findings shed a different light on the recent, high-profile ousters of alleged harassers. Their firings capture the spotlight, but the kind of behavior they're accused of has career costs that reach far beyond vacant office suites and empty anchor chairs. Read Claire's full story here. .   .   ALSO IN THE HEADLINES As Claire notes above, the recent headlines have been dominated by accusations of sexual harassment and assault against powerful men. Yesterday was no different. Rape accusations (new): Russell Simmons has stepped down from all of his businesses, which include music label Def Jam Records and clothing label Phat Farm, following a bombshell editorial by screenwriter Jenny Lumet in The Hollywood Reporter. Lumet—who has credits for films like Rachel Getting Married and The Mummy— writes a harrowing and very graphic account of how Simmons, then a well-known family friend, allegedly drove her to his apartment and forced himself on her. The music producer denied that the incident was non-consensual ("While her memory of that evening is very different from mine, it is now clear to me that her feelings of fear and intimidation are real"), but nonetheless said he would be stepping away from his work and would "commit to continuing my personal growth, spiritual learning and above all to listening." Israel Horovitz, the longtime playwright-director best known for My Old Lady, has been accused of sexual misconduct by nine different women, reports The New York Times. The story's title, "Nine Women Accuse Israel Horovitz, Playwright and Mentor, of Sexual Misconduct," doesn't capture the seriousness of the allegations, which include the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl while Horovitz was 47. The playright, now 78, says that while he has "a different memory of some of these events, I apologize with all my heart to any woman who has ever felt compromised by my actions." Harassment accusations (updates): Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is under pressure from Minority House Leader Nancy Pelosi to resign. "The allegations against Congressman Conyers, as we have learned more since Sunday are serious, disappointing and very credible," Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. This is a reversal for the Congresswoman, who had previously called Conyers an "icon" for his work in the civil rights movement. Conyers is being accused of harassment by multiple White House staffers. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has being accused of a fifth woman of unwanted physical contact. Army veteran Stephanie Kemplin tells CNN that while she was deployed in Kuwait, the Minnesota Democrat cupped her breast during a photo op while Franken was on a USO tour (a story that is similar to those told by another two of the five women. The Senator is currently back in office, and his spokesperson told CNN that "he has never intentionally engaged in this kind of conduct" and "remains fully committed to cooperating with the ethics investigation." . content from Deloitte Slow Growth for Women CFOs Many women are highly qualified across finance, but the number of women in the CFO and CFO-direct report positions has fallen since 2015. Unconscious bias and women's approach to career growth may be key hurdles, according to Deloitte's CFO Insights. Read More Here . IN CASE YOU MISSED IT • Bryant's back! Diane Bryant, who was previously Intel's head of its data center business before taking a leave of absence over the past few months, will become the COO of Google's cloud unit, the search giant said Thursday. Bryant, a veteran of Fortune's Most Powerful Women list, had had a long and established career at Intel; she was its highest ranking female executive following the departure of former Intel president Renee James in 2015. Fortune • Male chefs' precarious masculinity. In the wake of the sexual harassment and assault allegations plaguing the restaurant industry, Eater asks: "Why are restaurant kitchens, especially high-end kitchens, so persistently male, and why are they so inhospitable to women who seek to join their ranks?" As in so much else, the answer relates to history, and specifically to the effort "to distance restaurant cooking from home cooking—a result of a phenomenon called "precarious masculinity." In other words, the fear is that if more women enter the industry, chefs' cooking might be equated with "women's work." Eater • Wall Street's soon-to-be overseer? President Donald Trump plans to nominate Jelena McWilliams to serve as the next head of the FDIC, which plays a key role in regulating U.S. banks. She currently serves as Fifth Third Bancorp's top attorney and had previously spent three years as an attorney for the Federal Reserve's board of governors. Fortune • No thanks for reading. Outside magazine is taking a stance against sexual harassment after readers made lewd comments and jokes about a poll on its Facebook page asking about the issue. "If you think that sexual harassment isn't a real problem or if you like making jokes about people getting harassed in the outdoors, do us a favor: Unsubscribe. Make good on your threats to stop reading," the publication wrote. Outside • Taking on harassment at 10,000 feet. Randi Zuckerberg shared a letter she wrote to Alaska Airlines detailing how the passenger next to her "started talking to me about touching himself, kept asking me if I fantasized about the female business colleague I was traveling with, rated and commented on the women's bodies boarding the aircraft as they walked by us." The flight attendants brushed off the harassment—and offered to switch the Zuckerberg Media founder's first class seat to one in the back of the plane. Only now is the airline taking action: they are conducting an investigation and have suspended the offending passenger's travel privileges. Fortune MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Chelsea Handler has partnered with EMILY's List, where she will be the co-chair of the Creative Council. Skincare brand Rodan + Fields has appointed Elisabeth Charles as CMO. Share today's Broadsheet with a friend. Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here. . ON MY RADAR James Toback accuser Dani Alvarado says new film as about him The Wrap The first woman to translate the 'Odyssey' into English New York Times Michigan candidate has an idea on how to end harassment: Vote for someone without a penis  HuffPo Google Translate's gender bias pairs "he" with "hardworking" and "she" with lazy, and other examples Quartz . . QUOTE The only way to enforce seismic, cultural change in the way men relate to women is to draw a line deep in the sand and say: This is what we will no longer tolerate. You're either with our bodies or against our bodies. Actor Amber Tamblyn . EMAIL Valentina Zarya subscribe share: . This message has been sent to you because you are currently subscribed to The Broadsheet Unsubscribe here Please read our Privacy Policy, or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.fortune.com/privacy FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For Further Communication, Please Contact: FORTUNE Customer Service 3000 University Center Drive Tampa, FL 33612-6408 Advertising Info | Subscribe to Fortune