Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook (Hardcover)

by Josh Lerner (Author) "Martin Smith faced an enviable dilemma, but a dilemma nonetheless..." (more)
Key Phrases: private equity organizations, private equity cycle, community development venture funds, United States, Schroder Ventures, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
What Explains the Recent Tremendous Growth in Private Equity Funds? How Have These Funds Created so Much Value? Can We Expect This Kind of Growth in Other Countries and Other Types of Investments? The pool of U.S. private equity funds has grown from $5 billion in 1980 to over $175 billion in 1999. Private equity's recent growth has outstripped that of almost every class of financial product. Whether you are an entrepreneur seeking private equity finance, a private equity investor grappling with the industry's changes, or an investor interested in private equity as a potential investment, this book is required reading! It presents a collection of real world cases-supplemented by detailed industry notes-that explore the exciting and dynamic world of venture capital and buyout funds. The organization mirrors that of the venture capital/private equity process itself:
* The first part explores the raising and structuring of private equity funds, as well as the perspective of investors.
* The second part explores the selection,oversight, and adding value to firms-the 'heart' of the private equity cycle.
* The third part describes how private equity groups reap attractive returns from successful investments.
* The final section explores the emerging efforts to translate the private equity model into other settings, such as corporate venturing programs.

From the Inside Flap
The private equity industry is experiencing tremendous change. Buyout firms are raising funds of more than $20 billion; the sizes of venture funds are rising again toward the $1 billion mark. At the same time, the industry is globalizing at a rapid rate.

This new Fourth Edition of Lerner and Hardymon's classic text reflects the current and future state of the industry as it introduces you to the private equity-venture capital process. Reviewing the history of private equity leading up to today's environment, the authors give you insight into the ways in which private equity groups work; the key distinctions in the industry; how the concepts of corporate finance are applied to private equity; and valuation approaches--popular techniques as well as less frequently used ones--in practice today.

Through extensively updated real-world cases, Lerner and Hardymon examine:

• How private equity funds are raised and structured
• The features of private equity funds and the actors in the fundraising process
• Interactions between private equity investors and the entrepreneurs they finance
• The critical problems that companies in a private equity portfolio face
• Valuation approaches, from techniques widely used in practice to methods that are likely to be important in the future
• How private equity firms invest in, monitor, and add value to companies
• successful strategies fro exiting investment and returning capital to investors
• The international arena, with examples from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Argentina, and China
• Fundamental shifts in the industry and how firms are  meeting the challenge

Built upon the solid foundation of its acclaimed Previous editions but thoroughly updated to include the challenges of the 21st century, Venture Capital & Private Equity: A Casebook, Fourth edition remains an essential resource for current and aspiring private equity and venture capital professionals. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 540 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471322865
• ISBN-13: 978-0471322863
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #547,589 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the only book available on the subject matter, November 26, 2000

By	Unsatisfied (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Over the past few years the institutional private equity market has exploded. Riding on the backs phenomenal public markets and a wave of technological innovation, private equity in general and venture capital has become one of the most sought after investments.

However, given the rash of recent publicity, stellar performance, and a balooning assets, there's surprisingly little research available about the institutional private equity market. Profs. Lerner and Gompers currently account for probably half of all academic research in this market.

The institutional private equity market is quite different from angel investments. The majority of the capital at the institutional level flows from large investment institutions like public pensions, endowments and insurance companies. Moreover, the personal investing into private companies do so professionally.

More than anything, the book serves as a primer to the institutional private equity market.

The book was intitially meant for HBS and other MBA students. Thus, almost all the content is in case study form. In a lot of respects this is advantageous. In general, a book either has the option of being a primer or providing high level analysis on a very specific topic. Clearly this book is the former. In my opinion, the downfall of most primers are the oversimplification of topics and useless generalizations. Given the early stages of the institutional private equity market, generalizations are especially questionable and difficult. On the other hand, the case method presents users with numerous situations and predicaments facing the participants. As a result, readers gain an understanding of the issues facing this market from a number of perspectives.

This books provides useful information on key topics such as investing and analyzing private equity funds from an institution's perspective, fund of funds, forming a private equity fund, and the direct investments into companies by the private equity funds, along with many other topics. Whatever level the private equity professional is functioning, understanding each of these components I imagine is key.

This casebook provides an very good overview of the institutional private equity market. Likewise, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only book covering this topic.

132 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Forming a Venture Capital Fund, April 26, 2000

By	Frederic Harwood (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

As an investor in small start ups, I had to read this book twice. The first read, the book didn't seem relevant at all. The second, somewhat more methodical read, the picture became clearer--The book is written for MBA students who think they might go to work someday for a firm that forms venture capital investment groups. That's nice, if you are thinking of working for a big venture capital company. But for the investor $300k - $3M investor wanting to understand issues like how much of the company is my investment worth, what percentage of equity should I take, can I treat my investment as a loan and still expect equity, (if yes) how does the loan repayment work so it does not strip the company of working capital and much needed startup cash, what controls do I have over management, how can I be sure they are doing with the money what they are supposed to be doing and not squirreling cash away, what happens to my equity if management needs more funding, how is management paid a salary, how is management rewarded vis a vis the investors--who is in line first, middle and last--and how do I get out early and late, this book provides answers to some of these questions buried in the case studies. You read a case study teasing out the rules of thumbs by what the investors and ownwers did in a particular case situation. In the process, the reader looks for guidelines, principles, and rules of thumb -- but these are mostly buried deep in the paragraphs or found between the lines of a case study or discussion of a case study. What to do, the rules of thumb for the middling-sophisticated investor are hard to comke by, suggesting this is a textbook meant to supplement classroom lectures and discussions. Richard Gladstone's Guide to Venture Capital is a much better primer, but the book that takes Gladstone to the next level and answers the questions I posed above has not been written by Lerner.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best & Most Modern Book on Private Equity/VC Available, April 4, 2000

By	John F. Dascher (Fort Lauderdale) - See all my reviews

In my opinion this is best and most comprehensive overview of modern VC practices available. Dr. Lerner is cleary the nation's leading authority on VC research and his experiences are detailed in this book.

The case study format is organized into 4 themes (paraphrased): 1. Raising & Structuring Funds, 2. Making Investments, 3. Exiting Invesments, 4. Other forms of VC funds.

so the lessons of each individual case study support a larger and organized theme. Furthermore, the case study format makes the book more entertaining than academic texts tend to be.

If you are somewhat knowledgeable about private equity then this is a "must read". If you are a beginner make sure you become familiar with the ins & outs of private equity/venture capital before reading or else you may miss a lot of the value of this book.