Dan Primack

Private equity placement agent Triago today sent out the first edition of a new quarterly newsletter, which includes data on fund valuations and secondary pricing. The most notable stat is that large buyouts are leading the NAV recovery, rising 10.4% in Q4 2009. It was followed by special situations (6.7%), mid-market buyouts (5.7%), energy (1.6%) and venture capital (.06%). If you go back and look at the five quarters ending in Q4 2009 -- including negative results from Q4 08 and Q1 09 -- large buyout NAV is up 12%, while venture capital trails the pack with a positive 3% mark.

It's been a slow month for VC-backed IPOs, with just three new companies filing and three going public. In fact, only two even bothered to ammend their proposed pricing terms. The newbies were ZipCar, TripeWire and NuPathe, while the recently-listed were Accretive Health, JinkoSolar and TeleNav. That means the VC-backed IPO pipeline remains static with 43 total registrants, but also a bit lighter since the filers are seeking less money than were those that priced. Overall, VC-backed companies in registration to go public are aiming to raise nearly $4.5 billion. The full pipeline is after the jump...

People typically react in one of three ways after we publish something they’d rather keep secret: (1) No comment; (2) Confirm and spin; and (3) Deny, deny, deny. But now there is a fourth path: Deny loudly via an official statement to other news outlets (who accept it as gospel), and then admit the truth nearly one year later. The culprit here is Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. When his company agreed last July to be acquired by Amazon, peHUB reported the following: “The decision to sell hot online shoe retailer Zappos to Amazon.com was more in line with the interests of Sequoia Capital than the company’s CEO, according to two sources close to the company… [Sequoia’s] Moritz and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh came into conflict about the company’s future. Moritz, the sources say, wanted Zappos to sell while Hsieh wanted to remain independent.” Hsieh responded swiftly with a statement that read, in part:

General Motors today announced that it is launching a venture capital fund focused on the automotive and transportation sectors, with an initial commitment of $100 million. It will be led by Jon Lauckner, who previously served as GM’s vice president for global product planning. I spent a few minutes on the phone with Lauckner, and learned the following: * The fund will have a fairly broad focus within the transportation framework. This means that it could invest in everything from batteries to biofuels to Bluetooth. * On that last point, Lauckner said: "The envelope of automotive technology is ever-epanding, particularly the area of what we call infotainment. More and more technology is making its way from home and business applications into cars, and drivers want to have that functionality."

In Monday's email, I wrote the following: "Smaller VC funds are in vogue right now anyway, as seed-stage investors have become the new rock stars. Traditional VCs have become adult contemporary." The line was in reference to a larger argument about the potential consequences of changing carried interest tax treatment, but has generated a bit of independent discussion. It was used to introduce a panel at Angel Bootcamp earlier this week, was tweeted up by angels and has generated some VC teeth-nashing via email. So it seems to be worth unpacking a bit more:

Greetings from the Investor Summit in Boston (precursor to Super Return), where HBS Professor Josh Lerner is about to give a talk about why venture capital isn't actually broken. Consider it the antidote to Paul Kedrosky. Or to conventional wisdom. I'll live-blog it below, and be sure to chime in with comments or questions (which I'll try to ask during Q&A): Josh Lerner -- VC Ain't Broke

peHUB has learned that Zift Solutions, a Raleigh, N.C.-based provider of SaaS that helps corporations create controlled marketing campaigns for channel partners, has raised $500,000 in Series A funding from Southern Capitol Ventures. The round could be topped off at $1.5 million, if Southern Capitol opts to bring on a syndicate partner. The company has already been around nearly three years due to bootstrapping, and has secured customers like HP and Red Hat. "They help clients better communicate its marketing message to its partner programs," explains Jason Caplain of SCV. "For example, the technology allows a company like HP to create different email or website templates that contain some basic, unchangeable marketing materials, but which the channel partners also can customize."

Yaletown Venture Partners recently closed on more than C$100 million for its second fund, which focuses on early-stage IT and cleantech investment opportunities in the U.S. and Canada. But it no longer has all four of its original partners. Steve Hnatiuk recently left the firm, in order to pursue other opportunities in the Canadian VC market (he says to expect an announcement this fall). No official announcement of his departure, but some eagle-eyed readers noticed the following before and after photos from the Yaletown website:

Last week I discussed possible consequences of changing the tax treatment of carried interest, in terms of investor behavior. Things like new fund structures, increased exit activity before the tax hike kicks in, etc. Here's one more, particularly for venture capital firms: Smaller fund sizes with larger general partner contributions. How come? The main reason is that ROI on general partner contributions will continued to be taxed as capital gains, as GPs in this case really are acting as LPs. The higher the percentage of GP carry, the lower the percentage of returns taxed as ordinary income. The downside here is that it could be harder for younger partners to earn significant carry (because they don't have as much existing bank), but it could be partially countered by reallocating fee streams.

Tim McAdam is stepping down as a general partner with Trinity Ventures in order to join Technology Crossover Ventures, peHUB has learned. He had joined Trinity in 2000, after spending time at both GTCR and TA Associates. "Our investment strategy has been moving more and more early-stage over the past year or so, whereas Tim's more aligned with later-stage," explains Larry Orr, a general partner with Trinity. "So we agreed earlier this year that he'd begin looking for other platforms." Orr added that the departure will not affect Trinity's general partnership structure, and that the firm so far has committed approximately $300 million of its tenth fund (closed early last year).