Calpers Told To Show Returns On Venture Investments

from the it-all-comes-out dept

Back in September we had the story of venture capitalists who were upset that the University of Texas had decided to make public the financial results of VCs they had invested in. The VCs have long argued that people simple won't understand what the venture investment results mean, and may misinterpret them in a way that makes it more difficult for VCs to do what they do. Now, it seems that CalPers, America's largest pension fund, may be forced to release some information about how their venture investments have done. The article is a little confusing as to what does need to be revealed and what gets to remain confidential, but basically, it sounds as though CalPers needs to somehow prove that the information is officially confidential, and has never been released publicly. Otherwise, they have to cough it up. In this case, CalPers doesn't want to reveal the info, but the San Jose Merc is suing them for the info, saying that the members of CalPers deserve to know what's being done with their money. I understand the argument that the SJ Merc is making, but at the same time, I do think that publicly releasing this info is only going to make VCs focus on a shorter time frame for returns, and make them less viable for funding long term strategic businesses.

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