If they get Doerr it will be amazing. <vbg>
NEW YORK - Doers and doings in business, entertainment and technology:
Martha Stewart: Pretty as a butterfly, but watch those wings.
"Chaos theory," the '90s cocktail-party favorite of demi-intellectuals, was often summed up in the analogy of the Brazilian butterly whose wing-flutter causes a Malaysian monsoon. Less lovely and possibly more deliberate is the ripple effect that seems to have ensnared John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in Martha Stewart's trading scandal. The famed Silicon Valley investor and his firm were named Wednesday as defendants in a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of those who purchased stock in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (nyse: MSO - news - people ) between January 8, 2002 and July 24, 2002. The suit claims that Doerr and Kleiner, among others, dumped millions of dollars worth of Martha Stewart Living shares--just a bit too prior to the public declaration that the home-décor high-priestess allegedly traded ImClone stock off inside information. Against the laws of physics, the ripples seem to run inward: Doerr left the board of Martha Stewart Living on March 11, according to the company; Kleiner officially sold its 2 million shares on March 14 for $14.50 per share. That Stewart was being investigated over her ImClone sale, however, wasn't public until early June. Did Doerr know earlier? Kleiner calls the allegations baseless, but apparently it's monsoon season.
forbes.com |
