Venture Capital – entry in Palgrave Encyclopedia
My chapter on Venture Capital has now been published in the online edition of The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs:
Arundale K. (2021) Venture Capital. In: Harris P., Bitonti A., Fleisher C.S., Skorkjær Binderkrantz A. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13895-0_187-1
Here is an extract from the entry:
The private equity and venture capital associations carry out much needed lobbying on behalf of their members and the PE&VC industry. Private equity, in particular, has had a somewhat chequered history of being treated with suspicion by politicians, the public and the press ever since RJR Nabisco was purchased by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in what was at the time the largest leveraged buyout in 1988. The book and subsequent movie “Barbarians at the Gate” depicted theprivate equity players as greedy asset strippers loading up companies with debt. Private equity funds have been described as “locusts” by a former German Vice-Chancellor and “a menace to healthy companies, to workers’ rights and to the EU’s Lisbon Agenda” by a former prime minister of Denmark and President of the Party of European Socialists. In 2019 US Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren said “Private equity firms often act like vampires bleeding a company dry and walking away enriched, even as the company succumbs.” Even venture capitalists have been termed “vulture capitalists.” Needless to say with terms such as locusts, vampires, and vultures, private equity has needed to engage in some powerful PR and lobbying in the attempt to correct these misconceptions.
Following an appearance before the Treasury Select Committee in 2007 of some of the leading figures in UK private equity industry, the Walker Committee was established and “Guidelines for Disclosure & Transparency in Private Equity” were issued. The industry has now become significantly more open and transparent and even recognized as a force for good in effecting operational improvements to businesses and actually creating employment in the long term.
For details on The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs see: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030445553
