Tech Companies Pursue IPO Gold (WSJ StartupJournal.com_

Technology companies that bleed red ink are once again lining up to go public -- and once again finding plenty of takers.

"Profitability is preferred, but we don't say that you have to be profitable to go public," Mr. McLeod says.

All of this is good news for financiers such as venture capitalists, who invest in private companies with the hope of a payout later if they go public or are sold at a profit. Venture capitalists have been unable to cash out of many investments in recent years because the IPO market has been largely moribund. Of 623 tech start-ups to which VCs gave initial financing in 2001, more than 50% remain closely held and independent, according to research firm VentureOne. (VentureOne is owned by Dow Jones & Co., which publishes this newspaper.) The huge backlog has crimped venture returns and caused hand-wringing across that industry.

"People weren't willing to trade off growth for profitability in 2004, but now the public markets are looking for growth again," says Kevin Fong, a partner at venture-capital firm Mayfield Fund in Menlo Park, Calif. "So things look pretty healthy" for venture capital.

Hedge Funds Escape Regulation: Should Investors Be Worried? (Knowledge@Wharton)

"According to the Treasury Department, the number of hedge funds, for example, has more
than doubled over the past five years, to more than 9,000, and their assets under management have quadrupled since 1999. Some experts believe that hedge funds account for a third to half of the trading in the U.S. stock markets."


So much money has poured into hedge funds that they have taken to betting on ever more exotic and illiquid investments, Marston notes. The effect can be seen in the shrinking risk premium, or extra return, demanded by people who invest in risky securities like junk bonds and emerging-market debt. "Right now I believe that in both the high-yield market and the emerging-debt market we have the most optimistic pricing I have ever seen in my career," he says. "They are assuming there are never going be any more devaluations, there are never going to be any more emerging-market crises....There is very little realization of the risk out there, in my view."

If something does go wrong -- such as an emerging-market country defaulting on its bonds -- hedge funds and other holders could rush to sell but not find enough buyers, causing a vicious downward cycle, Marston says, adding that there hasn't been a serious shock of this type since the Russian default crises of 1998 -- before the hedge-fund boom. "A lot of traders in the market haven't seen anything go wrong, and a lot of risk managers haven't tested their approaches. This is a little unsettling."

What really happens at mixers? (Columbia Business School)

The study also offers a bit of reassurance to anyone who has ever attended a mixer and spent the whole time chatting with friends and acquaintances. Though many of the executives who attended the EMBA event made fewer new contacts than they’d intended, they said they valued the opportunity to strengthen their existing relationships. “Relationships have to be maintained,” Morris explains. “We can turn acquaintances into true friends by having more personal conversations than we’ve had before. Mixers turn out to be very good for that.”