Staff Writer

NEW YORK – In another sign that the Internet is rewriting the rules for some first-time stock issuers, select Web-related companies now are loftily informing strategic investors that they will have to pay up to participate in the anticipated aftermarket pop of their public market debuts. That is a far cry from the traditional practice […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Hummer Winblad Venture Partners launched its fourth fund in early June, seeking $300 million – three times more capital than the firm’s last fund. Hummer Winblad Venture Partners III (VCJ, September 1997, page 30) is almost fully invested. The firm, whose partners include John Hummer and Mark Gorenberg, will add to its […]

NEW YORK – In a sign of growing confidence in the Asian markets, two American investment firms have formed a partnership to provide the region with financial advice. In early June, The Blackstone Group and AIA Capital Corp., the Asian investment and advisory branch of American International Group Inc.(AIG), formed a partnership that will focus […]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – As a reflection of the slow return to Asia by private equity investors, Talisman Capital has begun fund-raising efforts for the $250 million Talisman Capital Asia Opportunity Fund. The new vehicle, Talisman’s second private equity fund, was launched in January and has hard commitments of $100 million, said Geoffrey Tirman, president […]

JACKSON, Wyo./MINNEAPOLIS – Two former venture capital executives from IAI Ventures Inc. teamed in May to launch Sapient Capital, a new venture fund with an innovative strategy focused on middle- to late-stage and public micro-cap technology, communications and health-care companies. At first glance, Sapient, managed by Principals Noel Rahn and Mitch Dann, two Investment Advisor […]

ATLANTA – Three months after inking a partnership with Mellon Ventures, Buck Goldstein, founder and managing partner of Internet-focused netWorth Partners, welcomed Andrew Dietz as the firm’s second partner. Most recently a vice president of product development for BellSouth.net, the telephone company’s consumer Internet access service, Mr. Dietz will help netWorth source and manage Internet […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Analyst Brewster Wyckoff was slated to leave the San Francisco City and County Employees’ Retirement System’s private equity program in mid-June to advise a local firm that invests in international turnarounds, buyouts and distressed debt. Ms. Wyckoff, who had been with the San Francisco pension for more than four years, applied for […]

Birmingham, Ala. – Seeking to expand the breadth of its private equity offerings, Harbert Management Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., recently launched Harbinger/Aurora Venture Fund L.L.C., its first venture capital fund, with a target of $100 million. The firm formed a partnership with Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based Aurora Group to seek out early-stage technology and life […]

WELLESLEY, Mass. – To help its portfolio companies benefit from strategic limited partners, Battery Ventures in early May launched a side vehicle to invest exclusively in businesses developing ways to integrate voice, video and data traffic into one network. The Convergence Fund, a $40 million fund that will invest alongside the recently wrapped $400 million […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Not many venture funds, if any at all, focus exclusively on the financial technology market. So when three Montgomery Securities veterans in early 1998 launched maiden fund FT Ventures to back financial software and transaction-related e-commerce businesses, a number of banks leapt at the chance to invest as strategic limited partners. Twenty-one […]