????現(xiàn)在成立風(fēng)投公司非常有可能是個糟糕的時機。經(jīng)歷了失去的十年之后，這個行業(yè)終于過上了幾年好日子。估值已經(jīng)非常高，明智的資金都在退出，而不是進入。同樣的，現(xiàn)在也很難對大型私募公司發(fā)起挑戰(zhàn)，它們所運作的龐大交易只有規(guī)模最大而且資金最充實的私募公司才能勝任。

????不過，如果你曾在大型科技企業(yè)或者已經(jīng)失敗的科技公司工作過，而且你的投資主題是尋找不起眼的中型科技公司——它們的發(fā)展腳步有些凝滯，或者在資金方面需要一針強心劑，情況又會怎樣呢？ Centerview Capital新的科技投資團隊就是這樣。這是這家私募公司的又一個分支機構(gòu)，核心成員是吉列（Gillette）前首席執(zhí)行官吉姆?吉爾茨。

????Centerview因為對德爾蒙食品公司（Del Monte，吉爾茨在該公司任董事長）和尼爾森公司（Nielsen）等消費類企業(yè)的投資名聲鵲起。它的姊妹公司Centerview Partners是一家精品投資咨詢公司，服務(wù)對象包括亨氏集團【Heinz，被3G資本（3G Capital）和伯克希爾-哈撒韋收購（Berkshire Hathaway）】、戴爾【Dell，被銀湖資本收購（Silver Lake Partners）】以及制藥公司Onyx Pharmaceuticals【被安進公司（Amgen）收購】，這幾筆交易的規(guī)模都達到了數(shù)十億美元。

????Centerview涉足科技領(lǐng)域的時機看起來非常好。微軟（Microsoft）、思科公司（Cisco）、甲骨文（Oracle）和惠普（HP）等一眾科技大哥大的市盈率都非常低，至少和整個市場以及Twitter、Facebook和商務(wù)社交網(wǎng)站LinkedIn等社交媒體新貴相比是這樣。Centerview的科技投資基金規(guī)模為5億美元，合伙人包括45歲的奈德?胡鉑和38歲的桑德雅?萬卡塔查蘭，兩人都曾在思科的業(yè)務(wù)開發(fā)和戰(zhàn)略部門擔(dān)任要職。另一名合作伙伴是美國電話電報公司（AT&T）前首席執(zhí)行官、摩托羅拉（Motorola）前董事長大衛(wèi)?多曼，現(xiàn)年59歲（我第一次見到多曼時，他的頭銜是PointCast首席執(zhí)行官，這家公司在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)泡沫破裂時倒閉。Centerview在網(wǎng)站上介紹多曼的背景時略過了這段不堪回首的往事）。

????這個團體最近剛剛完成集資，本刊編輯丹?普利麥克今年6月份曾對此進行過報道，當(dāng)時他們還沒有公開談?wù)撨^自己的計劃。現(xiàn)在他們已經(jīng)完成了第一筆投資：胡鉑說這家公司的規(guī)模符合他們的標準，即收入在2500萬美元到1億美元之間，而且很可能不是私有企業(yè)（胡鉑表示，Centerview計劃在明年1月份公布這項投資，對該公司來說屆時披露此事更為有利）。在這樣的投資中，控股需要6000-8000萬美元，參股需要2000-4000萬美元，而Centerview的目標是每年完成三到四筆投資，也就是說它手中的資金應(yīng)該能用上好幾年。

????收入接近1億美元的私營公司對于普通生意人來說已經(jīng)很大了。但私募行業(yè)把這個層次稱為“中型市場”，這是對小公司的一種委婉稱呼（另外說一句：大家可以讀一下杰西?艾辛格的論述，他在其中哀嘆，金融本來是一種有用的媒介，作用于儲蓄者和公司之間，我們卻把它完全當(dāng)作了一種產(chǎn)業(yè)）。在這個領(lǐng)域中和Centerview進行競爭的包括銀湖資本的Sumeru基金、Thoma Bravo、Technology Crossover Ventures和Vista Equity Partners公司。

????在科技領(lǐng)域，中型市場投資的意思是Centerview投資或收購的公司絕對不會像Facebook那樣迅猛增長，甚至連Skype的發(fā)展速度也達不到。萬卡塔查蘭和前思科同事托尼?貝茨曾在Skype公事（人們經(jīng)常說貝茨是微軟首席執(zhí)行官的競爭者，他現(xiàn)在仍在微軟工作，后者則收購了Skype）。反過來說，明智的投資者可以從這樣的公司得到更穩(wěn)定的回報——這種回報的波動較小，而且可能不那么容易受到科技領(lǐng)域風(fēng)險的影響。

????同時，中型市場以增長緩慢甚至不增長的經(jīng)濟為基礎(chǔ)，在資金匱乏的環(huán)境下它也能蓬勃發(fā)展——隨著時間推移，出現(xiàn)這種情況的可能性越來越大。此外，在首席信息官需要少花錢多辦事的時候，向企業(yè)提供技術(shù)的公司將成為受益者。胡鉑說：“我們的主題所圍繞的是那些能提高生產(chǎn)率和競爭力的公司。”

????Centerview的主題還牽涉到時機。目前看來，這方面的情況也很有利。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：Charlie

????Now would very likely be a horrible time to start a venture capital firm. After a lost decade, that sector finally has had some decent years, valuations are astronomical, and the smart money is getting out, not in. It would be a similarly complicated time to challenge the giants of private equity, which are slapping together the types of gargantuan deals that only the biggest and best-financed can handle.

????But what if your background were in big, beaten-down technology companies, and your investment thesis called for finding under-the-radar, mid-sized technology companies that are somewhat stalled or otherwise in need of a financial shot in the arm? Then you'd be the new tech-investing arm of Centerview Capital, an addition to the private equity firm built around former Gillette CEO Jim Kilts.

????Centerview rose to prominence for its investments in consumer companies like Del Monte (where Kilts is chairman) and Nielsen. Its sister organization, Centerview Partners, is a boutique investment-advisory firm that has represented the likes of Heinz (in its sale to 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway), Dell (in its sale to Silver Lake Partners) and Onyx Pharmaceuticals (in its sale to Amgen), billion-dollar-plus deals all.

????Its entry into technology comes at what looks like a decent time. Big- and old-tech stalwarts like Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle and HP all trade for tiny multiples to their earnings, at least compared with the overall market and particularly with social-media growth engines like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The new partners of Centerview's $500-million tech fund are Ned Hooper, 45, and Sandhya Venkatachalam, 38, both former business-development and strategy executives at Cisco, and David Dorman, 59, a former CEO of AT&T and chairman of Motorola. (I first met Dorman when he was CEO of bubble-era flameout PointCast, a tremendous cautionary tale from yesteryear that Dorman omits from his Centerview bio.)

????The group just recently completed raising its fund, which Fortune's Dan Primack wrote about in June, before the partners began to talk publicly about their plans. It already has made one investment, Hooper says: a company in its target size of companies with between $25 million and $100 million in revenue, and more likely than not privately held. (Hooper says Centerview plans to announce the investment in January, a more advantageous time for publicity for the company in which it has invested.) Investments like these typically would require equity checks in the neighborhood of $60 million to $80 million for control of the company or $20 million to $40 for a stake in it, meaning Centerview's capital should last a handful of years at its targeted pace of three to four deals a year.

????To normal businesspeople, private companies with revenues of nearly $100 million would be big. But the name-brand private equity industry calls this the "mid-market," a euphemism for small. (A total digression: Read Jesse Eisinger's screed lamenting that we think of finance as an industry at all, rather than as the useful intermediary between savers and companies that it was intended to be.) Centerview's competition in this end of the market includes firms like Silver Lake's Sumeru fund, Thoma Bravo, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Vista Equity Partners.

????The knock on mid-market technology investing is that the types of companies in which Centerview either will invest or buy outright will never have the type of rapid growth of a Facebook or even a Skype, where Venkatachalam worked with ex-Cisco colleague Tony Bates. (Bates frequently is mentioned as a contender for the CEO job at Microsoft, which bought Skype and where Bates still works.) The reverse of that argument is that the savvy investor can make steadier returns in such companies, which are less volatile and potentially less susceptible to technology risk.

????The mid-market also is predicated on a slow- or even no-growth economy, and it prospers in an environment where capital is scarce -- a scenario that is becoming more likely as time goes by. What's more, companies that sell technology to businesses stand to benefit when chief information officers need to make do with less. "Our thesis," Hooper says, "is around companies that improve productivity and competitiveness."

????Centerview's thesis also is about timing. So far, it appears to be good.