With big banks tottering, VCs may find all their exits blocked

Jackson West — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:40:09 PDT

Bear Stearns' epic fail will make M&A financing hard to come by. IPOs seem to have gone the way of Kozmo.com. That leaves exactly zero practical exit strategies for VCs. I came away with that insight after swimming through the flood of water metaphors in Tom Abate's economic pulse-taker in the Chronicle.

A lack of M&A activity could have long-term repercussions for the venture industry. To attract investors to new funds, VCs need to have a track record of successfully flipped startups, and those deals require buyers and financing. Which might explain why everyone's being so nice to Frank "not a symbol of corruption" Quattrone, whose Qatalyst M&A advice shop is one of many springing up to take Wall Street's place. (Photo by Sproston Green)

Frank Quattrone's rebound relationships

Owen Thomas — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:40:07 PDT

Having cleared his name of obstruction-of-justice charges, former Credit Suisse tech investment banker Frank Quattrone is launching his own boutique firm, Qatalyst Partners. Several big Valley names volunteered quotes for the press release. It's not surprising that Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who's made his own moral missteps, would be forgiving of Quattrone. But Gideon Yu, Facebook's CFO, makes a more curious appearance. He gave a statement applauding Quattrone's partner Jonathan Turner, not Quattrone himself. But still, it amounts to an endorsement. Does Yu really think Quattrone did nothing wrong? Or, as a minister's son, is he just expressing the highest form of the Valley's belief in the power of redemption?

Valleywag: Qatalyst

With big banks tottering, VCs may find all their exits blocked

Frank Quattrone's rebound relationships