Staff Writer

AUSTIN, Texas – TL Ventures in January promoted senior associate Chris Pacitti to vice president to help the technology-focused firm manage its fourth fund, which is expected to close in late winter or early spring. Mr. Pacitti, who joined the firm as an analyst in 1995, has focused on evaluating investment opportunities and occasionally served […]

MENLO PARK, Calif. – In an effort to bolster its resources as a seed- and early-stage venture investor, Lucent Venture Partners, the $100 million captive vehicle for Lucent Technologies Inc., added entrepreneur Maureen Lawrence as a partner. Ms. Lawrence, who most recently ran her own technology start-up marketing and management consulting firm, spent several years […]

NEW YORK – The bloodletting at Merrill Lynch & Co. has reached the firm’s profitable private equity group, which in January saw the firing of four top professionals. Managing Director Theresa Clark, Director David Mullane, Vice President Michael Smith – all investment bankers in the private equity group – as well as Dale Meyer, a […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Some four months after his departure as a managing director at Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc., Alan Menkes has joined Thomas Weisel Partners to co-head its private equity program. The investment bank in January began pre-marketing its first private equity fund, a $500 million-targeted vehicle focusing on buyouts and growth equity […]

NEW YORK – Several months after resigning as White House Chief of Staff, Erskine Bowles has joined Forstmann Little & Co. as a partner and has re-joined Carousel Capital, the firm he formed in 1996. Mr. Bowles said he has no plans to return to life in politics, dispelling rumors that he might run for […]

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in January transferred Gregory Becker to its Sand Hill Road office to replace Mike Weeks as head of the bank’s venture capital practice. Mr. Becker, a SVB senior vice president formerly based in Boulder, Colo., has experience working with venture capitalists, having referred deals to Colorado VCs […]

BUDAPEST, Hungary – The Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund (HAEF), an organization partially funded by the United States government at its inception about a decade ago, recently closed two new funds intended to spur the former communist nation’s venture capital market. HAEF in late January closed the $5 million Hungarian Innovative Technologies Fund, a seed- and early-stage […]

LONDON/FORT LEE, N.J. – Geocapital Partners’ first dedicated European fund exceeded its original $50 million (GBP30 million) target by $3.7 million at its first close in December. The vehicle, focused on small, established European computer software and information service companies, will hold a final close on a maximum of $70 million to $75 million in […]

HOUSTON – Packaged Ice Inc., one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of packaged ice in the United States, held an initial public offering January 29. The company offered 10.75 million shares at $8.50 apiece, below its $11 to $13 filing range. The IPO was underwritten by Merrill Lynch & Co., Jefferies & Co. Inc., […]

TOKYO – Nippon Enterprise Development Corp. (NED), a Japanese venture capital firm with offices in Tokyo, Taiwan and Palo Alto, Calif., is getting a new owner. Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. and Yasuda Mutual Life Insurance Co. will buy the practice from NED’s main shareholder, Japan’s Long Term Credit Bank, which was recently nationalized […]