Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Amateur Traders Corner -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Hua who wrote (3582)	11/27/2000 10:27:28 AM
From: Kevin Podsiadlik	Respond to of 19633

Cramer pans ICGE's poison pill provision... thestreet.com The VC Cheek! By James J. Cramer 11/27/00 8:42 AM ET Hubris. That's the word that keeps pounding through my head whenever I read a story about venture capitalists these days. Take the hubris of Internet Capital Group (ICGE:Nasdaq - news - boards) putting through a poison pill. Hah! They probably wish they could get a bid for that sorry lot of companies. The poison pill was the perfect palliative, the ultimate dodge, as ICG also quietly announced that they weren't funding the vast majority of the companies that they once told us would be worth billions. They are still putting on the big act down there in Philadelphia. You would think that they would have learned humility by now. Nah. I don't think that it is any different on the West Coast, where we don't hear a word from the big-gun venture capital firms about the downturn. They are all talking about how the same number of quality deals keep surfacing. Everything is just great in that business, according to a note that Merrill put out today. Yeah, sure. Everything's just great. Terrific, even. Why doesn't anybody tell the truth, which is that these guys have had their lungs ripped out? Why doesn't anyone tell the truth, which is that these guys can barely put their pants on in the morning, they are so scared and shell-shocked and nervous about their jobs? Why doesn't someone look past these acts and recognize that the venture capitalists are dying, just dying, and their hubris is all one big act. These guys are the Oliviers of the investment business. They are putting on a big act and the press is falling for it -- hook, line and sinker. When the Academy Awards are given out in a couple of months, I think they should have a new category: Best Performance by a Venture Capitalist in the Face of Total Disaster and Meltdown. That would have to be the most contested Oscar, because these guys are fooling everybody. Except themselves. And their investors.