>>Wall Street recap: Preferred by billionaires everywhere . . .
"Any time you see someone more successful than you are, they are doing something that you aren't."
- Malcolm X
Investors love to know what the big hitters are doing.
For example, the savvy followers of Warren Buffett already have March 11, 2000 red-lettered on their calendar, because that's the day the Nebraska billionaire posts his Berkshire Hathaway chairman's letter on the Internet (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com).
They can then discover what twists and turns Buffett has applied to the Berkshire portfolio, and possibly glean a hint of what is to come.
For some, it is the American way. Do what the Rockefellers do. Where's Carnegie investing?
Well, the Seattle area is not exactly bereft of billionaire investors itself.
Bill Gates is within a few farthings of becoming the world's first $100 billion man. One way to get a fairly accurate fix on his wealth - at least his Microsoft wealth - is to check Microsoft's stock price and multiply by a billion. So when Microsoft hits $100, Gates will be at $100 billion. Both Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Microsoft exec Steve Ballmer are double-digit billionaires. Craig McCaw, of cellular fame, is up there somewhere.
Then there's the non-Microsoft group, gentlemen such as Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos and RealNetworks' Rob Glaser, both probably not disappointed to be single-digit billionaires. And a few more McCaws. You can not count among the Seattle-area's billionaires Bezos' parents. Yes, he made sure they had a wad of stock, enough to be worth more than $1 billion with Amazon.com's success. But they live in New Jersey.
The point is, investors love to know what these guys are doing with their own money.
That's what made news the other day in a Bay Area town called Brisbane. Brisbane is close enough to Candlestick Park that one long Willie Mays throw could cover the distance.
Brisbane is also where Robert Nowinski chose to relocate after an enormously successful biotechnology career in Seattle. Formerly a medical professor at the University of Washington and head of a unit at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Nowinski might as well be nicknamed the Founder. In 1981, he started Genetic Systems, which was bought by Bristol-Myers Squibb. In 1989, he founded Icos, now a Bothell superstar. In 1991, he formed PathoGenesis, a company that quickly - for a biotech - brought its treatment for cystic fibrosis patients to market.
Nowinski, 52, now is chairman and chief executive of VaxGen, a Brisbane-based company he co-founded in November 1995.
VaxGen's business is serious. President Don Francis, who co-founded the company with Nowinski, spent 20 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Francis was the heroic character in a great HBO film about the battle against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The film was called "And the Band Played On." Matthew Modine portrayed Francis.
VaxGen is developing a vaccine against AIDS, which about 33 million people live with today. About 14 million others have died from it.
To inoculate much of the world against AIDS would have not only major medical consequences, but a financial return, too.
VaxGen shares became publicly held June 30 at $13 apiece. They hung in the mid-teens until the past several days, when word appeared that Paul Allen and his Vulcan Ventures corporate umbrella was a significant shareholder. As a result, the shares spurted to almost $30.
Vulcan had been an early investor, with about 263,000 shares. But Allen bought 600,000 more at the public offering to raise Vulcan's stake to 8.1 percent.
There was a good reason for Allen's interest. Ruth Kunath, who runs his biotechnology fund, already had agreed to be a VaxGen director. (Her husband, Mike Kunath, a Seattle investment adviser and a participant in The Seattle Times professional stock-picking contest, was not aware of this report.)
Other connections exist. Roberta Katz also agreed to serve on VaxGen's board. Among other things, the lawyer was key in the McCaw enterprises, eventually finding her way with another McCaw escapee, Jim Barksdale, to Netscape, a big Bay Area business recently gobbled by America Online.
Then there's Bill Gates. With 13 percent, Gates is the biggest shareholder at Icos, one of Nowinski's earlier successes. There's been no confirmation, but the buzz is that Gates, whose investments dot the landscape, has followed Nowinski to Brisbane, with ownership just under the 5 percent threshold required to be disclosed.
So, there's a stock, traded for only 12 days, that two reasonably intelligent men have chosen to support. Of course, they make many choices and have the disposable income that allows them to take risks others may not suffer so easily. This is a startup, with no sales or profits, dependent on a tough regulatory system for approval of its product, which isn't expected for a couple years.
It's still fun watching, though.<<
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