Joanna Glasner

So, first the good news. The latest quarterly survey of venture capital firms by law firm Fenwick & West shows that up rounds for portfolio companies exceeded down rounds by 54% to 33% in the fourth quarter. That means that even in this poor economy, stong companies are seeing valuations rise and collecting larger funding […]

The net asset valuations of private equity and venture portfolios is likely to decline between 10% and 30% for the fourth quarter, according to a general partner survey conducted by NYPPEX, a secondary market maker. The firm predicts that declines will be heaviest for private equity partnerships focused on cyclical sectors, such as consumer plays, […]

Increasingly, venture capital-backed companies are reducing their burn rates by cutting salaries, along with perks, for their remaining employees. It's not a new trend, but it does appear to be intensifying. Savings measures – which include across-the-board pay cuts, more equity and less cash, and shorter work weeks – have become more widespread this year. In some cases, companies are reducing pay in lieu of layoffs. Others already shed jobs, and are cutting to further reduce burn. Forced time off is one popular tactic. Gerry Langeler, managing director at OVP Venture Partners, says one portfolio company is offering

As many predicted, the much-maligned FAS 157 fair value accounting standard is shaping up as an inconsistent metric for setting VC portfolio company valuations. At least that's the take of one accountant who's deep in the process of year-end audits. Travis Drouin, partner in the audit practice of MFA-Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico, says that as firms prepare their year-end-financial statements, they’re setting widely varying estimates of fair values even for the same companies. Differences are especially pronounced for early-stage tech companies. “You have two funds side by side with the same exact portfolio, but if they both mark to fair value and they haven’t talked to each other, you could have one valued at $10 million and another valued at $40 million,” says Drouin, whose firm works with venture funds including Charles River Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners (which aren't necessarily represented by that example). The result, he predicts, will be more confusion for limited partners looking to use statements to gauge portfolio performance.

In the last few months, valuations of basically every asset class have taken a dive on the secondary market – but damage hasn’t been evenly distributed. Lately, buyout stakeholders are seeing values decline at a faster rate than venture funds, according to secondary market maker NYPPEX. As of the end of January, the firm reported, […]

I talked to Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket, a few days ago about the company’s plans to open the site to secondary offerings and private company stakes. SecondMarket, which is based in New York City and has been around about four years, specializes in selling what it deems illiquid assets. It started out selling restricted […]

When speaking with venture capitalists about what caused the great IPO market stall of the past year, a commonly cited contributing factor is the fade -out of the boutique investment banks that used to underwrite small- and mid-sized offerings. The ones most closely associated with tech IPOs prior to the dotcom bust – Robertson Stephens, Hambrecht & Quist, Montgomery Securities and Alex Brown – used to be called the “four horsemen.” Since then, however, they’ve all been folded into larger banks. And the big