Fortune has an article published which looks at the current situation for Elevantion Partners. Its investment of $460 million in Palm would net a gain of just $40 million were it to sell today and so the big money is on needing more money to make more money. Make sense?
Word is that Elevation Partners, the high-profile if poorly timed private-equity firm headlined by rock star Bono and star investor Roger McNamee, is considering raising a new fund.
As surely as dogs chase rabbits or night follows day, PE shops raise more money when the existing fund is mostly used up. (Elevation’s is about 70% invested.) Yet when all you have to show for your first effort are embarrassing misses — no rabbits caught, mostly grim darkness, metaphorically speaking — it’s got to be tough to collect fresh cash.
This is the tough position in which Elevation finds itself. Despite having raised $1.9 billion in 2004, the ballyhooed firm is far from a successful experiment. It’s got all of one exit, a gaming-company sale to Electronic Arts (ERTS), headed by an Elevation co-founder.
