July Smile

And somehow we are into the second half of the year. An examination so far feeds back a rather dull time - there are some good highlights like California and the last two weeks with CW, Mike and Andrea or Eitan's football season and Madeleine's trumpet. Sonnet's work sabbatical of course. Our garden. On the flip side, there is not much business as private equity fund-raising down 70% in Europe and probably same or worse in the United States. I keep myself occupied with Industry Ventures and the occasional secondary transaction: when times are tough, investors want liquidity which is what a secondary firm provides. The secondary pricing volatility interesting though: last year, nobody wanted to own private equity because of the leverage. Now, the secondary buyers are back but, since so much money raised by secondary funds, they compete and drive prices to levels where it becomes difficult to make a decent return. Once a secondary a clever trade but now anybody selling a position over $15 or $20 million will use a broker who puts together a book. Not great for the buyer. Industry Ventures does well because they concentrate on venture and do smaller positions. Few have their expertise nor wish to spend time on deals less than $5, the firm's bread and butter transaction. Given the ten-year life (plus two-year extensions) there is still plenty to buy from '00, or the worst VC vintage on record.