Galleon Still Cashing In
Raj Rajaratnam may be facing jail time, but his investments are still paying off. Yesterday, ReachLocal, an online advertising company in which Raj’s Galleon Group owned about 7 percent, priced an initial public offering.
Galleon didn’t sell any shares in the offering, but the firm appears to have doubled its investment in a little over two years. Not bad for Raj. Galleon owns about 1.6 million shares, which it bought in a VC deal for around $9.20 a share in Sept. 2007.
ReachLocal priced its shares at $19 yesterday. It plans to begin trading on Nasdaq under the symbol RLOC. Also big winners were accounts associated with former Galleon managing partners Krish Panu and Kris Chellam, who both bought into ReachLocal at $9 a share in May 2009.
Panu has been accused by the government of tipping off Raj about merger negotiations between PeopleSupport, an outsourcing company, and Essar Group of India. Panu, at the time, served as a director on the PeopleSupport board of directors. He has not been charged criminally.