Re: What Does Ravi Think?

["Charles Jannuzi" <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ravi

> i am not sure where charles is going with this post: most VCs do flock
> to projects that have been proven elsewhere using somebody else's money

It wasn't my post actually, it was the moderator's. You are referring to one
bit taken from the 'innovations' thread which I butted in on.

I wasn't so much interested in  streaming technology (so far from what I've
seen of it, I wish most of it would go away). One point was that the US
gov't still fosters start-up technology through DARPA and In-Q-Tel. People
marvel over US high tech companies, but key government contracts are often
what sustains them before there is some sort of perceived trend in which
regulated capital piles in.

Also, if you go back to the overall thrust of the 'innovations' thread, my
hunch was that venture/vulture capital was swarming all over tech groupings,
but not to pile on  a bubble. Rather, if you look closely at the investing
and deals these groups do, it's about either moving in on the distressed
companies once a bubble has burst OR by being ahead of a bubble because of
the political access they have--which gives them key information about
deregulation and liberalization regimes being forced on countries
everywhere.

The worst aspect of this is how it almost singularly favors private, closely
held, unregulated US equity groups, such as Carlyle Group, Ripplewood
Holdings, Lonestar, and, until recently, Enron's 'private, offshore' side
(there are two huge groups coming out of France, nothing much of size from
Japan since Softbank has hit the skids).

This , by the way, is how something like Carlyle Group apparently ended up
with a stake (allegedly, it hasn't been proven, analysis depends on the
people involved since Carlyle doesn't have to reveal its investments) in the
only manufacturer of an anthrax vaccine in the US. I don't think anything as
sinister as some are thinking is going on here, but it does show how Carlyle
Group will use insider knowledge to its advantage.The company got a
lucrative gov't contract to vaccinate US troops back in 1997; however, its
vaccination is apparently a botch, with an insider-rigged approval process
at the FDA that was far from kosher. Also botched is the company's ability
to manufacture large amounts of it; they've apparently only been able to
vaccinate (and possibly sicken) 4% of the military.

Charles Jannuzi