Oxyfish

This is as good an intro to a VC’s perspective on valuations as I’ve seen anywhere.

Due Diligence

I love Bill Gurley’s Above the Crowd writings. His latest one is no different, touting the benefits of options and the stupidity of bothering to expense them or switch to restricted stock. What I love is that he wrote one back in 1997 talking about the dangers of stock options, too. What a reversal!

A reasonably interesting interview with one of the most successful venture capitalists in history.

Interview with Vinod Khosla

Uh oh. People are starting to sue over private equity valuations. At least this judge seems to have some sense.

Private Equity Valuation, a Significant Decision

Tim Oren has a great blog, and this article is particularly relevant.

Due Diligence

I love Dan Gilmor, but sometimes his “little guy” mentality drives me nuts.

Mercury News | 03/07/2003 | Dan Gillmor: Quattrone clique disgraced Silicon Valley

Remember who lost in this spinning. First were the little investors who bought over-hyped stocks that have since crashed. Second were the companies selling stock; the huge gains their shares tended to make at the peak of the bubble meant that the investment bankers were pricing the offerings much too low. That meant less money in the coffers of small companies, some promising, that would eventually need every dime.

The “little guys” didn’t lose any more than the big guys - it’s a fallacy to assume that all the big guys got out, while the little guys were holding the bag.

The companies selling stock did get short-changed by the bankers, because if their stock ran up the first day after the IPO, they left some money on the table. On the other hand, most of these companies should never have gone public in the first place, so they were already making more money than they really deserved.