Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
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Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley. The firm was named after its four founding partners: Eugene Kleiner (emeritus), Tom Perkins (emeritus), Frank J. Caufield (emeritus), and Brook Byers.
The firm was formed in 1972. At that point, the founders of most venture capital firms came from financial backgrounds, however Kleiner Perkins's founders distinguished themselves through their industry experience—Kleiner as a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Perkins as one of the leaders of Hewlett-Packard's early computer hardware division.
Like other venture capital firms, the firm does not discourage transactions among companies in which it holds a stake.[citation needed] This is similar to the Japanese keiretsu style of company structure.[citation needed]
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[edit] Investments
The company has been an early investor in more than 300 information technology and biotech firms, over the past thirty five years, including: Amazon.com, America Online, Brio Technology, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Genentech, Google, Intuit, Lotus Development, LSI Logic, Macromedia, Netscape, Quantum, Segway, Sun Microsystems, and Tandem.[1] Current private investments as of November 2007 include EEstor, Vertica, and OptiMedica.
KPCB paid $4 million in 1994 for around 25% of Netscape and profited from Netscape's IPO and subsequent $4 billion acquisition by America Online. An investment of $8 million in Cerent was worth around $2 billion when the optical equipment maker was sold to Cisco Systems for $6.9 billion in August of 1999.
In 1999, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital paid $25 million for 20% of Google—as of October 2007 Google's market capitalization stood at over $222 billion. As initial investors in Amazon.com KPCB scored returns of over 55,000% at the December 1999 peak of that stock, although the value of that investment was subsequently reduced by downturns in Amazon.com's stock price.
In March, 2008, KPCB announced the iFund, a $100 million venture capital investment initiative that will fund innovators developing applications, services, and components for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch platform.
In April 2008, it was reported that KPCB was raising funds for a $400 million growth-stage clean-technology fund.[2]
[edit] Partners
Notable members of the firm include partners John Doerr and Brook Byers, as well as high-profile individuals such as Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy (who joined as partner in January 2005), former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (who joined in July 2005 in the newly-created position of "strategic limited partner"), and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who joined as partner in November 2007[3][4] as part of a collaboration between KPCB and Gore's firm Generation Investment Management to promote green technology, business and policy solutions.[5] In 2008, John Gage of Sun Microsystems joined Gore as a Partner. [6][7]
[edit] Think America
KPCB has publicized its plan to put as many as 50,000 electric cars on U.S. roads beginning late next year and could make the famed tech region south of San Francisco a center for these vehicles. The venture will be called Think North America and be based in Menlo Park, California.[8]
The plan will bring together Kleiner with RockPort Capital Management, a venture capital firm focused on clean technology, and Think Global, a Norwegian electric car maker.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ "Executive Joins Kleiner Perkins", The New York Times, March 14, 1984.
- ^ Haislip, Alexander; Dan Primack (24 April 2008). "Kleiner Perkins raising green growth fund", Private Equity Week. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
- ^ Coile, Zachary (Tuesday, November 13, 2007). "Gore joins Valley's Kleiner Perkins to push green business", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ "Greentech Initiative". Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ "Generation Investment Management and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Create International Alliance to Accelerate Global Climate Solutions". Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Generation Investment Management (2007-11-12). Retrieved on 2007-11-13.
- ^ John Gage Joins Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as Partner
- ^ Olsen, Stephanie (June 9, 2008). "Sun's John Gage joins Al Gore in clean-tech investing". Retrieved on 2008-06-12.
- ^ a b Anupreeta Das, "A plug-in car made for U.S. roads; Venture capitalists target 50,000 sales", International Herald Tribune, April 23, 2008. Finance section, p. 13. Accessed 13 July 2008.
[edit] External links
- Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- Videos of Khosla, Doerr, Komisar, speaking at Stanford
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