FOR SALE: Fixer-upper portfolios of venture-capital investments
A growing number of the technology world's largest corporations are trying to dump stakes in their in-house venture-capital portfolios, attempting to salvage some of the millions of dollars they invested in once-promising but now-troubled start-ups. In one of the biggest sales, Hewlett-Packard Co. has hired Credit Suisse Group's investment bank, Credit Suisse First Boston, to help it unload stakes in 46 companies, in which H-P invested $214 million, to bargain-hunting secondary buyers.