struggling

Enterprise, Startups, Transportation

Observing: Difficulties facing electric vehicle manufacturers, with Fisker in a particularly delicate situation.

Fisker’s finances are back in the news after the company warned back in February that it didn’t have enough cash to make it through its next year. The company said this week that it intends to halt production for six weeks to get its business back in order. Softening demand growth for EVs is making the normal challenges of scaling a company all the harder for Fisker and its peers. Not that we’re all doom and gloom here at TechCrunch — we’re actually rather bullish on the prospect for EVs in the near and far future. Let’s take a look at what’s going on under the hood here:

Ava Patel
March 19, 2024

Enterprise

Possible alternative versions: 1. MariaDB Faces Takeover as Company Struggles with Database Market 2. Private Acquisition of MariaDB Looms as Troubled Database Firm Seeks $37M Deal 3. Database Giant MariaDB May be Going Private in $37M Buyout

MariaDB is the subject of another potential takeover bid, as the company behind the eponymous open source relational database management system (RDBMS) confirmed it had received a provisional offer from California-based K1 Investment Management. In the months that followed, MariaDB received its first “unsolicited non-binding indicative proposal,” this time from existing investor Runa Capital which tentatively offered $0.56 per share in cash. Three weeks later, Runa stated that it wouldn’t be acquiring MariaDB after all, but instead an associate company called RP Ventures would be providing a $26.5 million loan. This news led MariaDB’s stock to more than double in a couple of days, which is why K1 is making its bid relative to MariaDB’s closing price before any forbearance agreement was announced. So in many ways, K1 is perhaps better suited to take over MariaDB than Runa was, even if it ultimately decides against it.

Kira Kim
February 19, 2024

Venture

Survival Strategy for Fledgling Businesses: Exploring the Possibility of Private Equity as an Exit Option

Alternative sources of liquidity are therefore top of mind — there’s a towering pile of private companies in need of an exit, or a bailout. The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. Note that TechCrunch, like many publications, focuses only on private unicorns while Cowboy Ventures is also counting those that have gone public. But the good news is that some untraveled and overgrown exit paths have a chance of opening up this year. Let’s talk private equity, startups, and their possible marriage this year.

Kira Kim
January 19, 2024

Enterprise, Startups, Transportation

Internal documents reveal EV startup Fisker’s struggle to meet sales targets

Fisker remains far from meeting CEO and founder Henrik Fisker’s publicly stated goal of delivering 300 electric SUVs per day globally, according to internal documents viewed by TechCrunch. The EV startup spent much of December aiming to meet an internal sales goal of between 100 and 200 vehicles a day in North America, where the bulk of its inventory and sales efforts are. Fisker is delivering its SUVs in a number of European countries, and contract manufacturer Magna Steyr builds them in Austria. Henrik Fisker told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the lack of a physical footprint has harmed sales here. The slow pace of deliveries has widened the gulf between the amount of Fisker Ocean SUVs being produced by Magna and the number sold.

Dylan Williams
January 4, 2024

Apps, Venture

SVB Wiring Restrictions Cause Financial Pains for Customers

Some SVB customers are struggling to wire funds out of the bank

Many Silicon Valley Bank customers are struggling to transfer funds out of their bank accounts due to the current banking crisis. The issue is compounded by the fact that bank…