Briac

* U.S. bailout panel: Toxic assets may need more Treasury support. * VC-backed company valuations continue to fall in Silicon Valley. * Print media isn't the only industry suffering from online cannibalization. It's also hurting porn. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London slips early, European shares fall on banks, the Nikkei keeps climbing and Hong Kong closes at a one-year high. * Brad Feld: How to run a great board meeting. * Jaime Dimon takes a page out of Allan Mullaly's playbook. * Lots of champagne corks popping yesterday at Benchmark Capital, which agreed to sell portfolio companies SpringSource (to VMWare) and FriendFeed (to Facebook). Most of the navel-gazing Twittersphere has focused on the latter (after all, there were photos), but investors who care about big distribution checks probably are more excited about the former.

* Louise Story's post-mortem on Cerberus' Chrysler adventure. * Wal-Mart vs. Girl Scouts * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, Europe down on banks and commodities, the Nikkei hits a 10-month closing high and Chinese shares slip. * Stupid is as stupid does: Wall Street returns to guaranteed bonuses. * Venture capitalist Fred Wilson on doubling-down: "It is also important to recognize that some investments cannot be fixed. And in those cases, painful as it is, the right thing to do is shut the company down or sell it if a buyer can be found. I prefer the latter outcome, even if getting it is more costly to the investors. Finding a 'home' for a company and a team has reputation benefits that accrue to the VC investors over a hard shutdown." * Another week, another PE-backed IPO on tap. This time it's Emdeon Inc., which is backed by General Atlantic and Hellman & Friedman.

* "Toxic bonus" bankers clean up good. * Energy Future Holdings (aka TXU) lenders resist loan amendment plan. Apparently it's not always so easy to rewrite history... * Last October, I wrote a post called Buyout Firm Behaving Badly. The subject was The Cypress Group, which was calling down all $120 million of its remaining fund capital to prop up existing portfolio companies, just before the (extended) investment period was set to expire. In other words, hold LP money hostage in the vague hope of reducing a potential $50m clawback. Today, the NY Post reports that investors may vote to liquidate the fund. * Morning Call: U.S. futures mixed ahead of jobs data, London falls early, European shares slump, the Nikkei keeps climbing and policy worries drag down China and Hong Kong shares. * Was the DOS attack on Twitter and Facebook actually targeted at just a single user? * Mike Hammill, econ policy analyst at the Atlanta Fed: Each recovery is the same, each recovery is different.

What follows are six VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. None of them has been otherwise disclosed: * Meru Networks Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of wireless infrastructure solutions, has expanded its Series E round to over $87 million. It had announced a $30 million first close earlier this year, led by Vision Capital. Return backers had included Clearstone Venture Partners, NeoCarta Ventures, BlueStream Ventures, The D. E. Shaw Group, Evercore Partners, Tenaya Capital and Monitor Ventures. The company has now raised over $160 million in total VC funding since its 2002 inception. www.merunetworks.com

* Court kills Chrysler conspiracy theories. The big takaways: "If you’re a debt holder, you need to offer solutions of your own – otherwise a company can sell its assets free and clear to a white-knight buyer. And if you’re part of a group of secured lenders, the lead agent holds sway on whether to cut deals with whomever it chooses." * The Blackstone Group will report Q2 earnings shortly, and I'll be live-blogging a 9:30am media call here. Hope you join in with questions and comments. I'd bet they plan to keep close tabs on Hyatt Hotels' IPO quest. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares rise on financials, the Nikkei climbs on autos and Hong Kong splits with Shanghai. * Mary Shapiro wants the SEC to self-fund. * The AIG bailout has been a fee bonanza for Wall Street lawyers, accountants and the rest. * Changing of the guard at MIT's Entrepreneurship Center. Morse out, Auelet in. * CalSTRS discloses its 10-year investment plan (.pdf). The private equity info is on pages 29-32.

* Om Malik's Q&A with Julius Genachowski, the new FCC chair and a former venture capitalist. * Blackstone Group shares jumped 21% yesterday, for no discernable reason. Sure the overall market rose and KKR got some mega-market pub for its IPO prep, but there was simply something fishy about this. Blackstone reports earnings on Thursday, and it seems (to me) that someone (somehow) got a peak. * Alison Damast: Why foreign MBA applicants are disappearing from U.S. business schools. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares dragged down by bankers and miners, the Nikkei hits a 10-month closing high and Hong Kong snaps 3-day rally. * Harvard University is trying to trademark such common phrases as "lessons learned." Shouldn't we first see if Harvard is able to turn around its endowment, before giving it cliche credit? * Venture capitalist Alan Patricof goes on Fox Biz to say television will survive. He also mentions that his firm, Greycroft Partners, just received an offer for one of its portfolio companies from a big media shop, but the anchor didn't

* Scott Sumner: Why supply and demand is so confusing. * John Doerr and Jeff Immelt pen a WaPo op-ed, to say that the U.S. has ceded the cleantech lead to China. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares hit new 2009 highs, the Nikkei flattens and Hong Kong gains 1.14%. * NY Magazine: How Steve Rattner lost control. * Sovereign wealth funds might be ready to dive back into Western waters. * VentureDig lists its Top 75 VC blogs (peHUB is at #2... just need to topple Fred Wilson). * France's JCDecaux SA expresses interest in buying Clear Channel's outdoor advertising unit. Would Clear Channel's PE backers consider selling? On the one hand, it could be some fast liquidity for a difficult deal. On the other, Bain and THL Partners based their

* Damn, it's still good to be a banker * Silicon Valley's unemployment rate hits 11.8%, causing many of the region's jobless to unplug from tech. * Humans prefer cockiness to expertise. Guess that explains how some VCs with lousy track records keep being able to raise new funds... (h/t Felix Salmon) * U.S. futures point higher ahead of the GDP data, London falls early, European shares dip in choppy trading, the Nikkei hits a 10-month closing high and Chinese stocks are up 15% for the month. * How pricey Whole Foods is surviving the recession (obviously that cash injection from Leonard Green helped a bit). * Fenway Park food service workers have reached a $1.5 million settlement with Aramark, a PE-backed provider of ballpark concessions that was accused of pocketing tips and service charges.

What follows are seven VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. None of them has been otherwise disclosed: * Ibiquity Digital Corp., a Columbia, Md.-based developer of digital HD radio technology, has raised around $42.48 million in new VC funding. The company reports that half is in cash and half is an exchange offer of existing shares. Backers include ABC, Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Grotech Capital Group, JPMorgan Partners, New Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Ford Motor Co., Harris, Texas Instruments and Visteon. The company had previously raised over $140 million since 1999.

* BreakingViews: GE Capital doesn't need special treatment. * Bernie Madoff gives his first in-prison interview. We learn three things: (1) He was surprised by how long he was able to get away with the scam; (2) He's been working out in the yard; and (3) He cares about his wife, but "doesn't give a ---- about his two sons." I think we can all fill in the blank on the last one. * The Terralliance saga takes a new twist, as Kleiner Perkins sues former CEO Erlend Olsen. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London rises early, European shares climb on banks and chemicals, the Nikkei gains 0.3% and China shares slide on tightening worries. * The day in Zappos "was it or wasn't it": Michelle Leder says it's entirely possible, Bill Gurley says no way, Sarah Lacey seems to agree with Bill (although not all her commenters do) and eight ways VCs can push for a sale without having equity control. * Bizmore goes live today, as an online Q&A service for mid-market business executives. Nothing new there (LinkedIn, WSJ Online, etc.), except that Bizmore's backer is a Mr. Michael Milken. * KKR will be listed as an underwriter on the Dollar General IPO docs, according to WSJ. It's not completely disintermediating the banks (Goldman and Citi, among others, will also be listed), and it's not the first time that it will sell portfolio company IPO shares through its Fidelity arrangement (that will be the Avago IPO, coming in two weeks). But this will be a major reputational test for