Monday, August 27, 2007

Sequoia Cap vs.Yale Endowment: Like David Swenson cares?

"One limited partner feeling the heat is Yale University and its $18 billion endowment fund. Yale declined to invest in some funds launched in the past few years by Sequoia, including a 2005 fund focused on Chinese companies. Sequoia later decided to "oust Yale from its partner group" because the university passed on the new funds, which targeted "later stage deals, China and Israel," according to a September 2006 internal Yale review of the endowment's private-equity portfolio.

Sequoia told Yale it preferred investors that would give the Menlo Park, Calif., venture-capital firm a "blank check" to invest as it saw fit, according to the 39-page Yale memo, parts of which were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A Yale spokesman declined to comment.

Sequoia partner Doug Leone declined to comment on the Yale situation, citing privacy agreements with the firm's investors. He said Sequoia doesn't pressure its investors and has "multiple" investors who have declined to put money into the firm's many overseas funds "without repercussions of any kind.... We encourage our limited partners to invest only in the funds they believe in.""

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Swensen, not Swenson. Swenson is the Yoga guy.