Connie Loizos
Yeesh. The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) has had one rough year.
According to newly-released information, assets under management at the nation's largest public pension dropped a breathtaking 23.4% between June 30, 2008 and June 30, 2009 -- its steepest-ever year-over-year decline. Moreover, its private equity portfolio lost 31.4% of its value, with a value of $23 billion through March 31 (PE performance is a laggard).
In a statement, CalPERS' new(ish) chief investment officer Joe Dear called the results unsurprising. "It is about what we expected given the collapse of markets across the globe,” he said. “The good news is we have the opportunity to capture future returns because of our long-term investment horizon. The System has
Last fall, we reported that Vinod Khosla was in talks with CalPERS to raise up to $640 million to help finance his predilection for capital-intensive clean technologies.
Tonight, Forbes reports that Khosla is about to announce not one but two new funds backed by outside investors, including a $250 million number for early-stage investments and a $750 million fund for later-stage deals. According to the magazine, one fund has closed already and the other will be finalized soon, possibly within days.
Khosla, the Sun Microsystems co-founder, superstar venture capitalist and, in recent years, alternative energy advocate, has been investing out of his own pocket since forming Khosla Ventures in 2004. The firm has backed roughly 80 companies across a range of stages, most in clean tech.
Christopher Cox, the former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman, begins a new chapter in his life in Orange County in September. The law firm Bingham McCutchen says that Cox — who specialized in venture capital at Latham & Watkins from the late ‘70s until 1986 and who counts John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins a […]
I'm sorry but I have to post this story of true love made possible through (venture-backed!) Facebook. I especially love that the piece, just reported online by the Miami NBC affiliate, a.) refers to the groom as "male Kelly" and the bride as "female Kelly" throughout and that b.) the wedding will be held at a yacht club in Lighthouse Point, Fla. -- "though male Kelly has no reservations."
Kelly Hildebrandt is in love with Kelly Hildebrandt, and soon they'll be married.
It's been a whirlwind romance for the guy and gal who share the same name, and it all started with an innocent Facebook message.
"She started off 'Hey, I saw we have the same name,and I thought it was kind of cool, Just wanted to say hi I guess. LOL,'" the male Kelly said.
The Berkeley Hills neighbors of Twitter cofounder Biz Stone better steel themselves for a massive street crowd this coming Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. A little earlier today, Stone tweeted the listing for his two-bedroom, two-bath, William Wurster-designed family cottage. Price? $575,000. “We loved our Wurster cottage in Berkeley but it’s time to move—if you’re into architecture, check […]
Six weeks after the SEC’s inspector general began probing claims that staffers acted improperly while compiling a case against self-made billionaire Mark Cuban, the agency’s insider trading case has been thrown out. Tweeted Cuban earlier: “Its been a great day so far, and its only going to get better! Back to Dallas to see the [family].” It was […]
By now, pretty much everyone who cares about the startup Twitter knows that a French hacker managed to access both some of the company’s confidential and personal documents last month.
We know because on Tuesday night, the individual, a Frenchman who uses the handle “Hacker Croll,” sent several hundred confidential Twitter documents and screenshots to TechCrunch, after French blogger Manuel Dorne, who claims he received the documents first, decided not to post anything other than a few screenshots.
"I don't want to cause damage to Twitter or to help their rivals,” Dorne told the BBC yesterday.
If U.S. startups think it’s a crummy fund-raising climate, I can only imagine the hand-wringing of Indian entrepreneurs right now. According to the Global India Venture Capital Association, in conjunction with the Chennai-based research firm, Venture Intelligence, VC investment in Indian firms was down 71.7 percent in the first two quarters of this year compared with […]
Late last night, funny man Dave Chappelle was shocked to discover 4,000 devoted fans gathered for an impromptu appearance he decided to put on at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon. Chappelle expected the show to draw 200, he told the teeming crowd. Unsurprisingly, the credit — or perhaps blame, in this case — goes to Twitter, through which […]
Israeli high-tech companies raised $279 million from VCs around the world in the second quarter, according to the Israel Venture Capital Research Center. That's a full 40% less than the $465 million that 115 startups raised in the second quarter of last year, but it's 5% more than the country’s startups attracted in the first quarter of 2009.
The IVC also reports this morning that that despite the slight uptick in committed capital, Israeli venture firms themselves will also raise less this year than last - by a lot. In 2008, they secured $793 million in capital commitments. This year, the IVC predicts local firms will raise around $300 million.