Briac

There was a time, not too long ago, when readers railed against any mention of politics or government in this space. “They have nothing to do with investing,” was the common gripe (often followed by something about how I was to the left of Castro). Such complaints have since disappeared, of course, since government has become the equal third leg of a stool that once was tilted toward buyers and sellers. Nowhere is that more true than in the burgeoning cleantech space, where issues of government funding and regulation often are central to a startup’s business strategy. With that in mind, I’m pleased to announce the first-ever peHUB event to include actual content (don’t worry, there will still be plenty of time for boozing and schmoozing): Cleantech & Washington: Making Sense of it All The event takes place on the evening of October 27, at the Boston offices of law firm Bingham McCutcheon. We’ll begin with some late afternoon cocktails, followed by a panel discussion that will include: * David Brown: Partner & General Counsel, C Change Investments * Nick d'Arbeloff: Executive Director, New England Clean Energy Council * Pat Cloney: Executive Director, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center * Rob Day: Partner, Black Coral Capital * Scott DePasquale: Principal & Executive-in-Residence, Braemar Energy Ventures * Barry Direnfeld: Partner, Bingham & McCutcheon Yours truly will do the moderating duties. Following the panel, you’ll have plenty more time to network with local cleantech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, attorneys and assorted hangers-on. Tickets are just $75 if you get yours before September 12. Please go here to register.

* The FDIC will vote at 3:30pm today on new rules governing PE investment in banks. An agency spokesman says that the revised rules themselves will be publicly released simultaneous to the vote, as will an effective date (this seems to be typical FDIC policy, but there also are numerous reports that the final language is still being hammered out). In the meantime, the AP suggests that the FDIC's expected softening on certain provisions has been promoted by pragmatism -- banks keep failing and buyers are needed. That's certainly part of it, but there's also another factor: Certain parts of the original FDIC proposal were poorly-throught out, and were not written with a comprehensive understanding of how private equity funds are structured. * How long does it take to build a technology empire? * A bigtime Democratic fundraiser has been charged with trying to defraud Citigroup. He also happens to run a little-known private equity shop. * Morning Call: U.S. futures move higher, London flattens early, European shares sag on commodities, the Nikkei hits 10-month closing high and China shares ride earnings momentum. * MG Siegler on Twitter's Golden Ratio (which no one likes to tak about). * Mohamed El-Erian: Ben Bernanke's four-point to-do list. * Sam Diaz: RSS is a Web 1.0 application whose time has come and gone.

* President Obama wants to privatize certain aspects of space travel, which could be a major boon for VC-backed companies like SpaceX. * It's still early, but TARP so far has been very successful in terms of ROI. * GI Partners is accused of lying to HBOS, when convincing HBOS to finance GI's £440 million acquisition of Park Resorts. The accuser is ex-Park Resorts CEO Martin Grant, who also is suing for wrongful termination. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point to mixed open, London falls early, European shares fall back, the Nikkei drifts lower and profit-taking on the China and Hong Kong exchanges. * Seed funding is the new Series A. * Big Ben is going to get that second term. * Wishy-washy WSJ editorial on tomorrow's FDIC vote, which will determine rules governing private equity investments in banks. The lede is about how the FDIC needs to hold its ground in order to protect the taxpayer, while most of what follows is about how PE critics have justifiable gripes. And then it concludes with protecting the taxpayer. I guess the takeaway is that the WSJ is looking for middle ground, just like the FDIC.

* Private equity has not been good lately to big state pension funds (Bloomberg hyped this story most of yesterday, keeping it atop the homepage). * Mark Cuban: What entrepreneurs should not do when making a deal pitch. * Morning Call: U.S. futures rise ahead of Bernanke speech, London rises early, European shares climb on banks and utilities, the Nikkei drops 1.4% on automakers and China shares finish a down week up. * Q&A on emerging markets private equity, with Paul Fletcher of Actis. * In Memoriam: Brett Allsop, founder of VC-backed online travel site Yapta, was killed in an auto accident at the age of 38. * Biz Stone tells VentureBeat that Twitter was in talks to acquire FriendFeed, but that the company ultimately opted for Facebook (for around the same price). Story points out interesting conflict, in that FriendFeed investor Peter Fenton (Benchmark Capital) is also on the board of Twitter. Doesn't mention that Fenton's prior firm, Accel Partners, is the lead investor in Facebook.

* Road to recovery: 1929 vs 1974 vs 2002 vs today. * The BBC is prepping a made-for-TV movie about the last days of Lehman Brothers. I hope it beats viewers over the head with an obvious and saccahrine message, in the vein of afterschool specials. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares rise on banks and energy, the Nikkei climbs 1.8% and Chinese shares rebound with a 4.5% gain. * No "tweet" trademark for Twitter. * Missionary CEOs vs. mercenary CEOs. * Alex Salkever writes that Facebook is planning to go public later this year, but that the results could be disappointingly weak. It's the first part that surprises me more than the record. If Facebook really plans to price in the next four months, wouldn't it need to file its S-1 right about now (at the latest)? For context, Google filed for its IPO on 4/29/04 and priced on 8/19/04. And that was in a much better IPO market with a much stronger company.

* David Pakman: VCs should not confuse traction with value. * Sequoia Capital reduces its website to a search bar? * Jeff Korzenik: Forget "L" or "V" shaped recoveries, and get ready for the "Q" recovery. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares dragged down by China and financials, the Nikkei skids to 3-week low (despite Sanyo surge) and Chinese shares keep sliding. * Dan Frommer can't understand why 65% of all music sold in the U.S. is via compact disc. I would assume the answer is "car stereos." Pretty sure I was still buying cassettes until 1994, for that very same reason. * Sarah Lacy: Will Rosetta Stone's stumbles bleed into the IPO euphoria? * Time Mag notices the flood of PE firms that have filed for REIT IPOs, in order to take advantage of the distressed housing market.

* The pros and cons of guaranteed bonuses. * Who's to blame for Rosetta Stone's scuttled stock sale? * Want to ask Tim Geithner a question? Well, he'll be doing a Q&A this Thursday via Digg (and via moderator Alan Murray), and you can submit your questions here. In the meantime, Ritholtz has cherry-picked some of the more ridiculous ones. * Morning Call: U.S. markets point higher, London rises early, European shares rebound, the Nikkei inches up and China and Hong Kong markets partially recover. * Citadel is trying to set up a leveraged loan trading unit, but apparently got rebuffed by the Barclays team it wanted to poach. Better act fast Citadel, before those loans hit 50 cents on the dollar. * Corporate cannibalization: For a company to grow, it is sometimes best to chew off its own arm. * Informal Survey: Only 41% of institutional investors made new private equity commitments in H1 '09. * Ron Conway reorganizes his angel empire around the concept of real-time data. * Long after the nanotech hype has subsided, the technology is being quietly incorporated into our everyday lives. Here's to you, Mr. Jurvetson...

* Bernie Madoff: Loathsome lothario? * Browser War Redux? Marc Andreessen's new fund backs RockMelt, a quasi-independent desktop client for Facebook. * Remember that story about the college grad suing her alma matter because she couldn't find work? And remember how you shook your head at what sounded like entitled litigiousness? Well, Mark Gimein has some details that might make you reconsider. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point to mixed open, London rises early on commodities, European shares climb as oil gains, the Nikkei hits 10-month closing high and China shares skid on IPO worries. * Siicon Valley Bank says startups are having an easier time paying their bills. * Benchmark invests in Facebook via the backdoor, taking "almost all equity" in its sale of FriendFeed. * Citidel plans to unload up to two-thirds of its stake in eTrade. Don't be surprised to see a certain tech-focused PE firm take a major piece.

* Elizabeth Warren keeps sounding the alarms, particularly on how the mark-to-market tweak has simply obfuscated the toxic asset problem (not eliminated it). * If you saw the 60 Minutes rerun this past Sunday, you watched paralyzed patients move a computer cursor with nothing more than their thoughts. Freaky cool. Well, it seems that the company trying to commercialize the technology has failed from a lack of financing, but it's now getting a second lease on life. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares climb, the Nikkei looks to regain its 10-month high and Hong Kong shares partially recover. * Tim Zagat reveals the world's top power lunch spots. * It was right there in the contract: Some hedge fund managers are suing a man who they gave $4.2 million to build "an integrated global community of trading partners." Apparently the hedgies thought the phrase was biz jargon, but the money actually went to build a swingers ranch. * Platinum Equity takes the axe (again) to The San Diego Union-Tribune, cutting another 112 employees. That means that about 30% of the paper's staff has been cut since Platinum took over just three months ago. The nervous finger-tapping you hear is coming from Boston Globe HQ newsroom in Dorchester...

* Paul Kedrosky: Why don't more entrepreneurs want to be entrepreneurs? * Huh?!?! A judge rules that Microsoft can no longer sell Microsoft Word. * As Atticus shuts down with flair, Dennis Berman takes a look at the five most memorable hedge fund farewell letters. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower ahead of the Fed, London falls early, European shares rise on utilities, the Nikkei slips and Chinese shares dip to four-week low. * CalPERS commits to Vinod Khosla's new seed-stage fund, and provides some details in this .pdf document (beginning on page 22). Guess this means we'll finally get some insight into Khosla's post-Kleiner performance. * Could CIT become a blown save? * Good overview: The origins of Islamic private equity in the Gulf. * 10 cities primed for a real estate recovery, and 10 cities facing the next real estate bust. * Bob Kuttner is the latest to rail against private equity ownership of banks. His main argument is against self-dealing (i.e., a PE firm using bank capital to fund its other activities), but that just calls for codifying a prohibition that has been added