APRIL 16, 2001
BUSINESSWEEK E.BIZ -- COVER STORY
How Some Venture Capitalists Performed
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| Here are the companies behind some of the biggest losers in the Net stock crash. Data as of the start of 1997.
HUMMER WINBLAD
THE PLAYERS: John Hummer, a VC for more than 15 years, previously played pro basketball for the Seattle SuperSonics. Ann Winblad is a software industry veteran.
NUMBER OF IPOs: 7
AMOUNT RAISED: $389.6 million
AVERAGE RETURN: -91%
TROUBLED DEALS: The firm scored a hit with software maker Wind River Systems, which went public in 1993. It has had several difficult investments since. In one of the fastest crashes ever from IPO to oblivion, Pets.com went public in February, 2000, at $11 a share and shut its doors just 10 months later.
INTERNET CAPITAL GROUP
THE PLAYERS: Walter Buckley and Ken Fox, veterans of venture firm Safeguard Scientifics, founded ICG in 1996 to focus on business-to-business Net companies. The firm took off like a rocket after going public in 1999, with its stock hitting $200 in early 2000. Now the firm's stock has dropped to less than $2.
NUMBER OF IPOs: 6
AMOUNT RAISED: $586.2 million
AVERAGE RETURN: -79%
TROUBLED DEALS: Onvia.com set out to provide an online marketplace for small businesses to get bids for services, such as accounting. In 1999, less than 1% of its sales came from that business. The company went public in February, 2000, at $21, and now trades at 70 cents.
IDEALAB!
THE PLAYERS: Longtime entrepreneur Bill Gross started idealab! in 1996 to provide capital and management expertise to startups. Now idealab! is fighting for its life. It has closed its Silicon Valley office and put its own IPO on hold.
NUMBER OF IPOs: 7
AMOUNT RAISED: $1 billion
AVERAGE RETURN: -84%
TROUBLED DEALS: eToys, hailed as a star niche e-tailer, went public in May, 1999, at $20. It shut down in March after badly missing its sales forecast. NetZero was one of the first companies to offer free Net access. Its stock has dropped from $16 a share at its September, 1999, IPO to about 63 cents.
CMGI
THE PLAYERS: David Wetherell got his early training as the head of the College Marketing Group, a marketer of college courses and faculty information. In the mid-1990s, he remade the company into the country's first major incubator for startups.
NUMBER OF IPOs: 7
AMOUNT RAISED: $647.2 million
AVERAGE RETURN: -95%
TROUBLED DEALS: CMGI scored early hits, including its investment in search engine Lycos. But its recent track record has been disappointing. Health supplies site MotherNature.com went public in December, 1999, at $13, and decided to liquidate last November.
Ranking the Venture FirmsHere's a look at how the companies backed by certain venture investors have performed since their initial public offerings. The period covered is since the beginning of 1997.
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Accel Partners
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55%
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Sequoia Capital
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54%
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Benchmark Capital
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38%
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Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
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23%
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Microsoft
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-39%
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Flatiron Partners
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-76%
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Internet Capital Group
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-79%
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idealab!
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-84%
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Hummer Winblad
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-91%
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CMGI @ Ventures
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-95%
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| SOURCE: Venture Economics |
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Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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