Title: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Venture Partners
1Morgan Stanley Dean WitterVenture Partners
- Venture Capital Perspectives on the Ag.com
Industry
February 1999
2Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Overview
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is a preeminent global
financial services firm that maintains leading
market positions in each of its businesses
Securities, Asset Management and Credit Services. - Currently over 53,000 employees in 550 offices
operating in 25 countries - 425 Billion in Assets Under Management
- The Investment Banking Division is a worldwide
leader ranking among the top institutions in
mergers and acquisitions, underwriting of equity
and equity-related transactions, high yield
financing and corporate debt issuance. - In the Internet and Technology Space, Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter is the market leader - 15.4 Bn in Initial Public Offering volume(1)(2)
- 357.5 Bn in Technology Mergers and Acquisition
volume(3)(4)(5)
Source Securities Data Corporation, 1999
Institutional Investor All-America Research
Team Notes (1) Full credit to sole bookrunning
managers. Credit split equally between joint
bookrunning managers (2) Includes all U.S.
technology issues greater than 10MM from
01/01/95 to 1/20/00 (3) 01/01/95 to 1/20/00.
Includes worldwide transactions completed and
announced greater than 25MM (4) Full credit
given to target and acquirer advisor (5) Excludes
spin-offs
3Morgan Stanley Dean WitterVenture Partners
Overview
- Limited Partnership with 1.1 billion under
management - Currently investing 550 million fund MSVP IV
- The vast majority of MSDWVPs funding originates
from independent sources - MSVP I and MSVP II both top quartile performers
- Invest in Early and Expansion Stage Companies and
Growth Buyouts in the U.S. and Western Europe - Focus on Information Technology and Health Care
- Equity Investments of 5 to 25 million
- Actively involved in portfolio companies at the
board level - Part of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity
- 8.0 billion under management - Utilize Morgan Stanley Dean Witters global
resources and relationships
4Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Venture
PartnersSelected Internet Investments
5Our Active Role as Venture Investors
- Select industry-leading companies to partner with
- Marshal Morgan Stanleys resources and leverage
our brand name on behalf of our portfolio
companies - Work with portfolio companies to develop their
businesses - Contribute capital
- Help set up strategic partnerships
- Assist in business planning/strategy setting
- Help build out management team
- When the time is right, help them secure the
right investment banks for their IPO or sale - If it makes sense, continue to work with post-IPO
6MSDWVPs B2B Strategy
What We Look For in B2B Markets
- Large, Fragmented Market no concentration of
buying or selling power - Transaction Randomness buyers who change
suppliers on a regular basis - Dynamic Products scrappage and spoilage
changing values based on product quality and
shelf-life - Inefficiencies in Supply Chain opportunity to
create value through supply chain
optimization...manage complex business
information online - Opportunity to Create a Sustained Competitive
Advantage create barriers to entry benefit
from networking effects, velocity - Gross Margins and Gross Income Opportunity
- No Established Winner Yet unless, of course,
we can back them!
7Some Things Weve Learned from B2C Apply to
B2B...
- First Mover Advantage and Critical Mass whoever
signs up the buyers/suppliers/partners first will
have strong potential to keep them - Increased Productivity B2B success will be
based on increasing customers productivity by
reducing cost, improving service and/or saving
time - Deep Beats Broad focusing on solving all of the
needs of an individual market may beat solving
some of the needs of lots of markets - Markets will be dominated by one, perhaps a
couple, players
8...But Some Things Will Be Different from B2C
- Domain Expertise companies need to understand
the industry to understand the problem that needs
to be solved - Strong Back-End System Integration businesses
need to keep records so system integration is
key, this creates much higher switching costs
than B2C and is the key to customer retention - There are a lot of verticals to be dominated
so, there may be a lot more dominant players
(read great investments) than in B2C, at least
in the early days - Purchases/commissions can be big
- Session stickiness may not be key business
users want to do business quickly and save time
9Displacing Will Be Much Harder inB2B than in B2C
- Harder to Amazon the entrenched
- In B2B, buyer/seller relationships matter, golf
is golf - B2C switching costs are nominal
- B2B switching costs are high both offline and
online - Lower risk strategies
- Add value to channel without replacing
- Create channel where one does not currently exist
- Riskiest strategy replacing current channel
10Agriculture Is Attractive
- Large, Fragmented Market
- Transaction Randomness
- Dynamic Products
- Supply Chain Inefficiencies
- Opportunity for Sustained Competitive Advantage
- Gross Income
- No Established Winner
400 Bn 10s of suppliers 100s of
distributors 1000s of dealers 2.2 million
farms Few long-term contracts Spoilage/switching M
ultiple tiers, suppliersdont have relationships
with buyers Highly possible In some
segments Backing a leader,no incumbents (yet)
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11How Do We Evaluate Ag.com Companies?
- Value created by Ag.com Revenues to Ag.com
Earnings Success - Websites increasing efficiencies in value chain
are interesting
Solution
Inefficiencies in the Ag value chain
Multiple-tiered distribution adds complexity
Fragmented buyers are costly to sell to and
service Regional distributors cannot sell outside
their geography Difficult and costly to track
orders Excessive returns and unused inventory in
channel Illiquid markets and price translucency
create inefficient spot markets for commodities
Rationalize distribution system, eliminate
inefficiencies Automate transactions and customer
service, add self-service functionality Virtual
marketplace Automate and web-enable order
tracking Immediate knowledge of demand enables
faster shifting of inventory Build markets of
scale online
12Agriculture Opportunities
- Large opportunities exist on the Input side
- Even larger opportunities exist on the Output
side - Produce
- Livestock
- Grains
- Fiber
- Meat
- Crops
13Keys to a successful Ag.com
- Management team with drive, vision and ability to
execute - Focused on measurable efficiency improvements
- Emphasis on fulfillment, logistics and back
office support - Gross margin opportunity critical to financial
viability of company - Selling products that can easily be purchased
online - Focus on driving transactions, not just community
or content
14How Will the Internet Change Agriculture?
Wholesaler
Sells to Retailer
Buys
Market, Sell
Ag Input Producers
Service
Buys
Internet
Internet
Retailer
Market Info
Buys
Channel Sale
Inputs
Sell
Drive sales
Outputs
Farmer
Distributors
- All processes, from transfer of input producers
inventory to the eventual sale of product to a
retailer, are integrated with Web sites or a Web
site that creates streamlined processes and
efficient markets, tracks product information,
hosts farm management software and serves as the
information system for the agriculture industry.
15How Will the Internet Change Agriculture?
Predictions/Possibilities
- Farmers manage all aspects of business using
hosted applications on a website - Farmers buy (and return) agricultural inputs
directly via the internet including financing
and shipping - Inputs manufacturers track sales real time, down
to the county level, hold 50 of their current
inventory level - GMO-related outputs tracked from dirt to dinner
plate via smart chips embedded in livestock and
Web-based database - Farmers educate themselves on new products via
on-line tutorials, online chats with experts.
For more assistance, they contract with service
providers at an on-line marketplace - Farmers can get a single bill for all of their
inputs and services, with online financing
options available
16B2B Exchanges Evolve to Collaboration Hubs
- Its not just buying and selling over the Web
- Collaboration implies a more expansive concept to
include many business processes - Project management, replenishment, knowledge
management, forecasting, planning, analytics - Big B2B exchanges will be Integration and Hosting
Platforms instead of just trading exchanges