Fun With SEC Filings

It is hardly a revelation to state that the Internet is an astonishing resource. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Internet is the incredible amount of information it makes available at the click of a mouse. Blogging has undoubtedly escalated the amount of information being shared but, far more so, the dissemination of government mandated information via the web has created huge pockets of searchable information that otherwise required pretty significant resources to unearth. And for individuals focused on business, there is an unending amount of interesting information available in filings with the SEC.

One such snippet of information about the Venture Capital industry was recently published in a registration statement for Tumbleweed Communications. Tumbleweed purchased a Sequoia Capital backed company called Corvigo. In connection with that acquisition, Tumbleweed registered about five million shares of stock in the name of Sequoia's various limited partners (known as "LPs") -- specifically, the investors in Sequoia Capital's tenth fund (Sequoia Capital X). While the names of the investors in a venture capital firms are generally not public information, in this instance they are a matter of public record (a complete list of Sequoia's LPs -- give or take a few really small cats and dogs -- can be found on page 14 of the Tumbleweed registration statement). Sequoia has a fairly typical mix of investors: Universities (e.g., Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc.), Foundations (e.g., Carnegie Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, etc.), Fund-of-Funds (e.g., HarbourVest, Knightsbridge, etc.), and high profile individuals (e.g., Andy Bechtolsheim, Wu-Fu Chen, Ed Kozel, Ram Shriram, Jerry Yang, etc.).

Noticeably absent from Sequoia's LPs are public pension funds like CalPERS. Much has been written about the impact of recent lawsuits requiring public pension funds to disclose venture capital firm results under the Freedom of Information Act. We've pointed to Tim Oren's excellent discussion of the topic in the past. As Tim rightfully points out, the result of requiring public pension funds to reveal venture returns is that the best funds will simply not accept public pension funds as investors. The proof would appear to be in Sequoia's LP list -- just one of the many interesting facts to be discovered by scouring the SEC filings.

NB: As PE Week Wire rightly points out, while there are no public pension funds, there is still one public university (University of California). Mea culpa. Nonetheless, I still strongly believe that forced disclosure will result in funds like August and Sequoia avoiding investment from public institutions like calPERS and the University of California. I guess we'll have to wait a few years before we get a registration statement that will answer that question with respect to Sequoia's latest fund.

Comments

[jaim]

Many of the names are mispelled.

[Wayne]

Hi, David,

The other part of the story, of course, is to remember (i) the fiduciary responsibility that pension funds and other large institutional investors have towards their constituent investors and (ii) that investors, no matter how small they are, have a right to know in what they are invested. Tim Oren's point that many individual investors lack the sophistication to understand or stomach the volatility inherent in VC (or other private equity) investments is valid, but that then also raises the question as to whether such investments are appropriate for them. What does it mean if an institutional investor cannot explain an investment to his constituents? Shouldn't an institutional investor be able to do so? I agree with you and Tim that looking at the returns of funds of too recent vintage can be misleading, but the same cannot be said of funds that are at stages that should be considered of more mature vintage. If funds of maturer vintage are performing poorly, shouldn't it be valid for investors to question the appropriateness of the fund's investment strategy?

W

[jaime klein]

Questioning is always valid to a point. If you question too much and you are not sure of what I am doing ("I" in the metaphorical sense) then take your money and invest it yourself or take it to another fund. Investing in new ventures aqre risky, but the booty, oh boy, all that shining gold ...

[Wayne]

...which is the point, Jaime. (Individual) investors in a fund can't raise an issue, if they don't know that there is an issue...

please do invest it yourself or take it to another fund

...were it always that simple for some to swap their dollars out of their pension funds...

W

[secfilings]

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[sundar]

Hi David,

This is very interesting. can you find out who the Anglo American Investments are. It seems they are based in buckhead, Atlanta. I have been receiving quite a number of invitations from one Mr. Anthony oppenheim and one Mr. Al Dobbins.

[Federico]

Hello David.

I started receiving mails from Anglo American Investments, from Mr Anthony Oppenheim.

Can anyone tell me if this is a valid company or what are they?

[Jerry]

Re: Anglo American Group. Having just returned from a meeting with the Anglo American Group, Anthony Oppenheim and Al Dobbins I can attest that they are real people. They are also Venture Capitalists and their proposal is a stiff one. If anyone would like more details on what was presented to us, please let me know.

Jerry

[Judy]

Hello,

About Anglo American Investments, I'm not agreeing with you Jerry!!

Anthony and Al, their real names are Anthony D. Tobin and Eyal Itzhac Dulin and they're criminals, search in the web about this criminals as well Bertus Hermanus Wilhelmus Sieckmeijer who suppose to be the funder!

If you contact these criminals you only going to loose money and time.

Contact the Attorney of the State of Goergia and you will find the truth about this criminals.

[Ginger]

Hello all
For all of you who have dealings with Anglo American, we are trying to gather as much information about them to end their scamming. We have several authorities that will be assisting us, and we have several people who will do all they can to bring these men to justice. I would love to hear from any or all of you who have had dealings with them. Please post here or email me at [email protected]
The best of luck to all of you out there who have been victims of these guys.

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