Sign of Life?

The Wall Street Journal had a nice article about Stanford University's private equity portfolio in yesterday's paper. Stanford put part of their portfolio on the auction block due to the liquidity crisis they faced as a result of the Great Recession. However, the Stanford Management Company, who is responsible for the school's endowment investing, recently withdrew their private equity partnership stakes from the auction block.

This move by Stanford is most likely due to the rebound the public equity markets have seen over the last 6 months, boosting the school's liquidity, but I look at this as vote of confidence for the private equity/venture capital markets moving forward. With M&A on the rebound with mega deals like Comcast's purchase of NBC and Exxon Mobil's acquisition of XTO, signs of life in IPO market, and an increased interest in private company markets like SharesPost, I'm hopeful that there are better days ahead in 2010 for PE & VC.

Are there still challenges ahead? No question -- but its nice to signs of life among an asset class that was left for dead by many industry experts and columnists during the recession. All we can do is wait and see what 2010 has in store -- but I remain confidently optimistic as always!