Private Equity Week: Bay X

"Bay’s 10th fund, which closed with about $365 million in 2001, returned a negative IRR of 18.3%, as of Dec. 31, according to investment data from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, an LP in the fund. But fund performance may not have been the issue with the departing GPs. One source close to the firm says that the three GPs have left in part because of an issue that plagues many Silicon Valley firms: succession. The source says that Noble, Vendetti and Knoblauch were unhappy with the “vastly different managing style� of Dempsey, who took the helm of Bay two years ago as firm founder John Freidenrich segued into retirement. "