All in all, MultiChoice has, um, how should we put it, multi choices facing it. How it responds will be interesting. This is not essentially a hostile bid, but neither is it an agreed deal; it might be described as a process of high seduction.
As everyone knows, connections matter, particularly so in the access to top management positions. The power of alumni networks, first and foremost those of Polytechnique and ENA, is well documented in the literature regarding the French elites. Rigorously selected and lavishly trained to serve the country’s public interest, these graduates often occupy the upper-management layers of large French companies.
The French state’s involvement in nearly every aspect of the economy is an obvious facilitator. It creates gateways allowing those who so wish to cash in on their experience in the higher administration, often punctuated with a stint in a ministerial cabinet, by directly vaulting into the higher echelons of a company before aiming for the CEO seat. In the United States, the term “revolving door” refers to a similar process in which powerful individuals cycle between the public and private sectors, making use of their connections and influence on both sides.
When the directors of a company are graduates of the same school as the executive, their ability to hold the executive accountable for his or her decisions becomes compromised.
Conditions that underpin the power and impact of chief executives vary widely, with remarkable results.
As a young man of 20 in his first job at a state-owned enterprise in China,
Guoli Chen found senior management fascinating, but not in a good way. His boss’s boss did very little – unless one counts reading newspapers, drinking tea and gossiping as work. “I wondered whether anyone could replace him without affecting the [organisation’s] overall performance”, recalls Chen, now a Professor of Strategy at INSEAD.
He didn’t stick around to find out. After two years, Chen moved on. His second job couldn’t be more different, in culture as well as the lessons he learned. Working in an investment bank, Chen observed how the company’s venture capital arm picked firms chiefly on the strength of the founding team, especially the chief executive. “Given the uncertainty of the [firms’] business potential…the VC literally bet the success of their investments on the indi
Mobile developer and publisher Homa Games has raised $15 million in a seed round led by private equity and VC firm Idinvest Partners, and VC fund E.ventures.
VC fund OneRagtime and business angels also participated, including former Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier, former general manager for data products at Unity John Cheng, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners MD Vladimir Lasocki, and Zenly co-founder Alexis Bonillo.
The funds will go towards expanding Homa Games portfolio, which currently includes over 30 hypercasual games, and creating new tech in UA and monetisation, the announcement said.
Homa Games also announced the appointment of Benoist Grossmann, and Jonathan Userovici to its board. They re respectively MD of Idinvest Partners, and partner at E.ventures.