Staff Writer

BRANFORD, Conn. – Scheer & Co. Inc., a financial advising firm that helps large pharmaceutical companies spin off or license medical technologies, is raising its first venture fund targeted at $50 million. The fund, likely to be called Scheer Venture Partners, will back new companies resulting from such divestitures, said David Scheer, who founded the […]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Providence Equity Partners in December capped a short fund raising by holding a first and final close that garnered $940 million for the firm’s third fund, said Jonathan Nelson, president of Providence. The Providence, R.I.-based firm kicked off fund raising in early August for Providence Equity Partners III, L.P., seeking a target […]

MENLO PARK, Calif. – Eric Chin joined Information Technology Ventures in January as a principal who will focus on the Internet, e-commerce and software. Mr. Chin will work with the firm’s three general partners, Mark Dubovoy, Sam Lee and Virginia Turezyn. The firm, which had been searching for a principal for some time, also intends […]

MENLO PARK, Calif. – In a somewhat unusual transition, Silicon Valley attorney Allen Morgan in early January joined Mayfield Fund as a venture partner focusing on the Internet, e-commerce and new media. Mr. Morgan made the move after spending the past five or six years advising young companies and building a network in the VC […]

NEW YORK – Investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in early January was finalizing the private placement memorandum for its long-awaited new fund-of-funds and expected to launch the vehicle by the end of the month. The $500 million-targeted fund for institutional clients primarily will focus on international and domestic buyout vehicles, but also will […]

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Accel Partners’ last health-care specialist is planning to leave the firm sometime in the first half of the year because Accel has all but completely turned away from the medical sector. But while Gene Hill will resign from Accel, Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corp., will be settling in as […]

MENLO PARK, Calif. – New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has hired Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist and technology businessman Arno Penzias as a part-time venture partner who will work from his home in San Francisco scouting communications companies and evaluating deals. Dr. Penzias, who worked informally for NEA throughout 1998 to become acquainted with the firm’s portfolio companies […]

HERTFORDSHIRE, U.K. – United Kingdom innovation specialist TTP Group – originally The Technology Partnership – is in the process of raising a maiden venture fund to be managed by its new subsidiary, TTP Venture Managers. TTP is targeting as much as ecu 71 million ($83.85 million) for the TTP Venture Fund, slated for investment across […]

MILAN, Italy – Italy’s private equity market should receive a welcome boost when the government passes new closed-end fund legislation in January to create more efficient structures for international institutional investors. This year might also signal the beginning of a long-awaited spring for the country’s underdeveloped early-stage high-technology investment sector. The first signs of a […]

To use a roller coaster as a metaphor for the 1998 initial public offering market would be a cliche. But sometimes the reality of the market leaves no other option. Although 1998 produced just 77 venture-backed IPOs – a 42.5% drop-off from 1997 and the lowest year-end output since the measly total of 42 in […]