Second Opinion

Why Corporations Provide Little Venture Capital: The corporate share of the venture capital pool has declined to less than 8% for every year since 2001. One problem: revolutionary change (BW) Don't Get Excited about 2010: Here's quick tour of gloomy pronouncements from some of the most bearish folks out there. (Paul Kedrosky) Laid Off? Planning Your Next Move? Whatever You Do, Don't Go To Graduate School. (Business Insider) Not Laid off? Really Busy? Here are some Online Dating Tips for Busy Executives. (Business Insider)

Brilliant PR Strategy: Clusterstock has (somewhat unfairly, in my opinion) twisted the words of a Goldman Director on banker pay, into "Bankers are like Movie Starts and Deserve to be Paid Like Them." The rest of the interview makes sense, but nothing like stoking the populist rage with an out-of-context headline. (Business Insider) Sweet Sweet M&A: Since the Kraft/Cadbury/Nestle drama now involves Warren Buffet, it kiiinda counts as private equity-related, right? Since we at peHUB haven't been following it closely up until this point (except for salivating over potential divestitures), we appreciated Reuters package of coverage from today. Here you can find analysis on all the angles of the deal. (Reuters) On that Note: Warren Buffet's giving Kraft a lesson in M&A 101. (Deal Journal) The Big Apple's Big Problem: Why NYC should be run more like Wal-Mart? (Newsweek)

Private Equity's Year in the Spotlight: "Once a quarter, we're the only ones in our underwear," Blackstone once said of its public reporting. But not for long. Other firms are on the verge of catching up. (WSJ) The neverending debate: There's a new white paper in town debating the good and evil of private equity called Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity. Tom Taulli dissects it. (Daily Finance) Taking a Stand: The Boston Globe has officially opposed supported taxing carried interest as capital gains for private equity firms. (Boston Globe) Podcasts: For your commute, here are two podcasts from law firm Duane Morris on tax law and deal-doing. (Duane Morris) Justice Served: Did you know Thomas H. Lee had a stalker? Who has been trying to extort money from him? Who he paid more than 200k for therapy for? Well, now she's on probation. (FINS)

Happy New Year, Everyone-will return on Monday. Standing Out: How to Get Noticed by Executive Recruiters, a service piece. (FINS) Ageism: A banker who was fired at age 42 has won an age discrimination case against CIBC in Canada. (Times Online) Biggest Buzzword of '09? Ponzi. In 2009 we saw almost four times as many investment scams fall apart as in 2008. (AP) Deals Deals Deals: Hopu Investment Management Co., the China-focused fund backed by Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, bought at least $400 million of stock in China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Bloomberg reported. (Bloomberg) Ugly Jumble: "Now journalism is a jumble. Just who is a reporter and who is an advocate is often blurred. Some journalism is openly partisan." (Newsweek) Get Ready for a Dealmaking Upswing in 2010: Companies looking to fix strategic flaws or simply to grow are turning again to M&A, says Bloomberg BusinessWeek columnist Frank Aquila (BW)

Cautionary Tales: The bankers who wouldn't say sorry. (FT) Wow: This profile of Raj Rajaratnam, "The Man Who Wired Silicon Valley" is a bit shocking. Literally-he paid an employee 5K to voluntarily be stunned by a Taser. (WSJ) Unusual Focus: Curious and Curiouser. London-based Calunius Capital is raising a private equity fund earmarked for investments in commercial lawsuits claiming. (IDD) The New Buyout: How the financial crisis is changing private equity, by Partners Group. (Partners Group) Lowbrow Highlights: CNBC's top videos of 2009. (CNBC) Sourcing Deal Flow: USA Today profiles a defense consulting firm made up of former officers, many of which already have connections to buyout firms. (USA Today) Predictions: Always futile, yet we always do them. Naked Capitalism has some 2010 insights from Bruce Krasting, including Geithner's replacement, AIG's future and midterm election results. (Naked Capitalism)

How Close Were You Paying Attention in 2009? Check out the New Yorker's Shouts and Murmurs quiz. (New Yorker) Overused Phrase of the Year: "New Normal." Lauren Silva Laughlin writes that LBO barons are preparing for a new normal. (Breakingviews) Private Equity To Save Us From Banana Republic? Not the retail chain, an actual banana republic, which is getting some help from buyout shops. (Guardian) Homewreckin: Mark Zuckerburg may have started Facebook as a way to get ladies, but now it's being used as a tool in divorces. One in five divorce petitions mentions the social networking site. (Techdirt)

I'm out till next Monday- Happy Holidays! Tepid I.P.O.'s Spell Trouble for Private Equity: Half of the 16 PE-backed IPOs this year have been priced below their expected offering range. (Breakingviews) Carl Icahn Drinks Trump's Milkshake: Carl and The Donald are verbally abusing one another over Trump's bankrupt casino assets in Atlantic City. (Reformed Broker) Zany Job Hunting Techniques: This guy shaved his head for a job and it worked. (CNBC) Financial Villian of the Decade: This is no surprise. How easily we forget Skilling and Lay, no? (SmartMoney)

Stock-wise, This Decade Sucked. Performance of US stocks was even better in the 1930s. Yeesh. (WSJ) What Our Bacon Intake Says About the Economy. Enough said. (Minyanville) Creativity, Meet Destruction: The Decade Rewrote the Corporate Handbook, Thanks to the Web, Globalization and the Collapse of Two Bubbles (WSJ) Ho No? I don't know about you guys, but I love to hate the New York Post's covers and ridiculous, shameless puns. Now you can relive the past decade's worth of covers (and vote on your favorite!) (NY Post) CFOs Gloomy About 2010, Survey Finds: The quarterly Duke University-CFO magazine survey finds finance chiefs glum on prospects for 2010, expecting further job cuts. (BusinessWeek) Nice Bet: David Tepper bet big on the financial sector and won big. His hedge fund is up 120% for the year. (WSJ) Listicle: Top five investing lessons from 2009. (LA Times)

Happy Hanukah Steve: Mr. Schwarzman is taking blows left and right on the blogs these days (peHUB not excluded). First, we have, via Cityfile, a brutal criticism of the "Schwarzman" branch of the New York Public Library, formerly known as the "Main Branch." (Vanishing New York) Then we have blogs like Dealbreaker mocking his family holiday party, except when you think about it, he was kindof asking for it if he really did dress up as the Grinch. (Dealbreaker) That's all on top of the Santa and elves protest from earlier this week, in which he received a lump of coal for being "a very bad boy." Speaking of Blackstone: The firm is preparing a big exciting IPO of a pretty young deal. (BusinessWeek) Private Equity is EVIL: Here's what Kansas City, and fans of the city's Worlds of Fun water park, think of Apollo Management's deal to buy their parent company, Cedar Fair: Apollo Global Management is a $51 billion private equity company that owns a lot of businesses and has a lot of offices around the world. It's the kind of company that, right this second, probably has a facility buried hundreds of miles underground, filled with scientists working on a gas to turn people into zombies. Test subjects Volunteers will be taken from the Oceans of Fun wave pool. They know what they're doing. (Pitch.com via WSJ.com) Balk balk: Clear Channel's effort to lighten its debt load hit a snag yesterday when a group of bondholders claimed a plan to raise $750 million in debt without their permission effectively put the company in default. (NY Post) Screwed by Citi Again: "The nausea we feel with respect to Citigroup (C) and our Treasury Secretary just hit a new high." (Business Insider)

Survey time! Last year peHUB readers participated in Semaphore's Confidence Survey, which tests PE sentiment in areas like income and confidence in their colleagues and managing partners. Highlights from last year's survey include one respondent's bluntly saying "PE is dead and I wish my boss were too". Yikes. To participate this year, go here. Call a Spade a Spade: Terra Firma has filed a lawsuit against Citigroup for talking the firm into the EMI deal. Felix Salmon calls it "slightly batshit." (Reuters) Eating Our Words: We already looked at some private equity false alarms, but BusinessWeek has done a similar story with a broader focus. (BW) Headline of the Day: Apparel maker North Face has sued a parody company called South Butt for trademark infringement. South Butt, which boasts the slogan "Never Stop Relaxing" was created by a college kid who wanted to poke fun at wearers of brand name outdoor apparel like North Face. (ABA Journal)