Briac

peHUB First Read

* Maybe you should have invested in NYC taxi medallions, whose value has jumped 179% over the past decade. * James Surowiecki: The American consumer won't stay frugal forever. * Michael Milken: Prosperity rests on human and social capital. * Andrew Ross Sorkin delves into Stanford University's attempt to raise around $1 billion via secondary market sales, but I think he overstates the case. Specifically, my understanding is that while Stanford wants (needs) short-term liquidity, it also wants to maintain existing relationships with general partners. As such, Stanford isn't doing a Harvard-like auction, in which it just wants to wash its hands of dozens of fund relationships. Instead, it's hoping to forge joint ventures that will provide liquidity while maintaining the University's ability to invest in future funds. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares climb, the Nikkei edges up on banks and Hong Kong closes up 1.9%. * Verizon forms a venture capital consortium, to invest in the 4G space. * Matt Taibbi falls for a naked short-selling hoax video. * Charles River Ventures tries to explain its lack of participation in the most recent funding round for Twitter, arguing that the deal didn't fit the firm's size or strategy. Basically the same argument (theoretically) made by Union Square Ventures. The big -- and unmentioned -- difference is that CRV also didn't participate in a $17 million Series C round and the subsequent $35 million Series D round (both of which the smaller USV was part of). In other words, CRV made a giant mistake and is now trying to justify it.

peHUB First Read

* Andrew Lo: When the wisdom of crowds becomes the madness of mobs. * The fall of Simmons Bedding Co. under the ownership of THL Partners, which actually made back its initial investment (and then some) via a dividend recap several years ago. These dividend recaps are a tricky thing: One the one hand, they made money for PE fund limited partners (who are a PE firm's primary clients). On the other, they cannibalized the actual portfolio company -- thus reducing the likelihood of high multiple ROI and increasing the likelihood of layoffs, bankruptcy, etc. As Steve Schwarzman once said, they were about taking the risk out of what was supposed to be a "high-risk" asset class. The question now is if PE pros have been chastened by the aftermath? My sense is that they have not. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London flattens, European shares rise on banks and miners, the Nikkei hits 11-week closing low and Hong Kong rises 0.3%. * Another private equity connection in the race to suceed Ted Kennedy, and this one has nothing to do with Steve Pagliuca or Bain Capital. * Boston University and MIT stand to reap huge rewards from the IPO of battery-maker A123. * John Thain does Q&A at Wharton: "It's unfortunate that the American dream has been demonized." No mention of the obvious collorary: "It's unfortunate that so many on Wall Street were demons."

peHUB First Read

* Q&A with Richard Levin, president of Yale University, on the economy and Yale's endowment. * Meredith Whitney: The credit crunch is tightening for small businesses. * Ex-Northern Rock chief Adam Applegarth has landed a senior advisor gig with Apollo Management, proving that private equity is still the last refuge for corporate scoundrels. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower ahead of jobs data, London falls, European shares hit 4-week low, the Nikkei keeps sinking and Hong Kong shares drop 2.8%. * Are we poised for a return of IPO spinning? * Common excuses from a business reporter who misses a story. If you need a real-life example, here's one from this week.

peHUB First Read

* Brad Feld has been fighting the good fight to create "founder visas" for foreign citizens looking to form new businesses in the U.S. Now he's got some policy proposals on top of his advocacy. * KKR is now publicly-traded. Have you bought your shares yet? * Tuesday's WebInno event included a panel called "An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Bootstrapping PR." All the panelists were journalists, but a lot of the crowd was PR reps. Let's just say they disagreed to disagree. * Morning Call: U.S. futures look flat, London falls early, European shares edge higher, the Nikkei hits two-month closing low and Hong Kong shares decline slightly. * Peter Kafka: Reports of the Comcast-NBC Universal marriage regress from consumation to courting to mild flirting. * How did Baidu outsmart Google in China? * Get ready for the Andrew Ross Sorkin book blitz. It begins with a Q&A and excerpt in Vanity Fair.

peHUB First Read

* When private equity limited partners fail. * Barry Ritholtz: Fixing the SEC. * Vanity Fair visits with Marc Dreier, the former litigator on his way to prison for stealing more than $300 million from hedge funds. You might remember Dreier as the guy who got busted after attempting to "impersonate a Canadian pension-fund lawyer as part of a scheme to sell bogus securities to... Fortress Investment Group." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares rise on pharma and financials, the Nikkei climbs 0.3% and Hong Kong falls in thin trade. * Goodbye to Solomon Brothers * Want to buy the Terminator franchise? (Arnold not included) * Mark Suster: The great VC ice age is thawing (for now)

peHUB First Read

* Simon Dumenco: Do we still believe in the can-do celebrity CEO (and what might the answer mean for Meg Whitman)? * Top 10 acquirers in greentech * What World of Warcraft can teach you about synergy and profits. * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London opens soft, European shares fall on oil, the Nikkei climbs 0.9% and Hong Kong shares rebound. * Hedgie/VC Peter Thiel: "The recovery is not real." * Mohamed El-Erian: Return of the old ways of thinking threatens recovery. * Chris Dixon: What if online biz model innovation is slowing down? * The maker of Jolt cola files for bankruptcy. Isn't the most surprising thing here that there is still a maker of Jolt cola?

peHUB First Read

* Iran's Revolutionary Guard: Strategic private equity investor? * How Goldman Sachs (indirectly) helped bankroll Michael Moore's anti-capitalism movie. * Jaime Whyte: "The answer to the question of bankers’ pay can be found by a close examination of lap dancers — or, at least, of the way they are paid." * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares keep sliding, the Nikkei drops on yen surge and Chinese shares stumble. * Photo of the Day: Putin, Bonderman and Bonderman's socks. * Morgan Stanley gets added to the list of investors in Twitter's latest round. Existing shareholder Union Square Ventures remains off (which is the byproduct of fund size realities, not a lack of faith in Twitter's prospects). * Matt Wurtzel correctly calls "sensationalism" on the WSJ for hyping Al Gore's relationship to Fisker Auto (it was WSJ's most-read weekend story). As an addendum, why didn't WSJ's headline read: "Colin Powell-backed car firm gets large U.S. loan"...

peHUB First Read

* David Ignatius: How hedge funds got it right on risk. * Silicon Valley startup reinvents the lowly brick. * Is Delaware's antitakover statute unconstitutional? * Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares fall on banks, the Nikkei slides 2.6% and Chinese shares drop on metals. * PAI Partners' investors reject the firm's offer to cut the size of its latest buyout fund in half, basically saying that the offer isn't good enough. * Business school applications are still on the rise, but the rate of increase has flattened. * 37signals founder Jason Friedman pokes fun at the hype over Twitter's $1 billion valuation, announcing that his company is now valued in excess of $100 billion.

peHUB First Read

* William Cohan: "In the recent sale of the Texas' troubled Guaranty Bank, the FDIC appeared to favor Spain's Banco Bilbao over Blackstone, TPG, and other American private equity investors." * eBay CEO says that the Skype deal is going to close. Not sure what else he really could say... * Daniel Indiviglio: Will net neutrality lead to usage-based Internet fees? * Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares rise on banks, the Nikkei hits one-month closing high and Hong Kong shares lose 2.5 percent. * Paul Volcker today will tell Congress to reinstate Glass Steagall. * That didn't take long... Perot Systems employee busted for insider trading on the Dell deal.

peHUB First Read

* We're starting to get a clearer understanding of how the Skype deal got so messy. BusinessWeek reports that company founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis were part of a rival bid (backed by Elevation Partners), to the eventual winning offer by Silver Lake Partners, et all. The founders and Elevation valued Skype around $650 million lower than did Silver Lake. * Lee Hower: Are VCs enablers, value adders or scourges of the earth? * Dunkin' Donuts is being accused by franchisees of a campaign to fine or purge shop owners. The PE-backed company, of course, denies such allegations. * Morning Call: U.S. futures look flat, London rises early, European shares rise on banks and miners, the Nikkei keeps slipping and Hong Kong closes lower. * Why does the SEC prosecute companies instead of people? * When your venture guy says goodbye. * An ex-Moody's analyst is headed to Congress, to testify that inflated credit ratings are not a thing of the past.