Gawker: valleywag, michael bloomberg

Peter Thiel's Richer Than You, But Not as Rich as He'd Like You to Think

Owen Thomas — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:36:41 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.It's one of many casually accepted, unchecked assumptions in Silicon Valley: Peter Thiel, the cofounder of PayPal and Facebook investor, is a billionaire, right? Leaked documents from his hedge fund, Clarium Capital, show he's not.

Thiel, according to a 2006 Bloomberg profile, has invested his entire liquid net worth in Clarium. That's not quite technically true: Thiel has actually invested his money in a separate account managed by Clarium according to the same strategy his firm uses for outside investors. (Clarium has two other such separately managed accounts, but they are small in value.)

These matters are disclosed to the investors Clarium courts. One forwarded a copy of Clarium's marketing materials to Valleywag. Figuring out Thiel's holdings is a simple matter of subtraction.

Clarium LP, the name of Clarium's main fund, had $1.7 billion in assets under management as of March. The firm's "strategy assets" — total assets, including separately managed accounts — add up to $2.1 billion. So the ceiling on Thiel's liquid net worth is $400 million. (That's not counting his 5 percent stake in Facebook, recently valued at around $100 million.) After losing roughly $5 billion in assets from bad trading and client withdrawals in the second half of 2008, Clarium has continued to perform poorly, entirely missing the recent market rally.

So who cares if he's a hundred-millionaire instead of a billionaire? Thiel does, for one. He did not make nearly as much from the $1.5 billion sale of PayPal as he believes he deserves, according to people familiar with his thinking — the source of a long-simmering feud with top Valley venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, one of PayPal's backers.

And a perception of outsized wealth is the source of his newfound social standing in Manhattan, where he recently relocated. It's the reason why he gets impromptu dinner invitations from the likes of New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. It's the reason why people pay the slightest attention to his crackpot social theories. Take away that crucial tenth digit on his net worth, and he's just another indistinguishable member of the averagely ultrarich.

New funding for New York wantrepreneurs

Owen Thomas — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of some city on the East Coast with good nightlife but lousy conditions for startups, has unveiled a $2 million fund for companies doomed to failure by their thoughtlessly poor choice of location. Why doesn't he just give the would-be founders plane tickets to San Francisco and a deposit on a SoMa loft office? That seems easier. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Silicon Alley 100 a bunch of old white guys

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:21:43 EST

Silicon Alley Insider decided to revive one of Jason Calacanis's oldest traditions and produce a Silicon Alley 100. In doing so, the blog run by disgraced tech stock analyst Henry Blodget just proves the thoroughgoing irrelevance of the exercise. The editors' No. 1 man in New York? Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Some other highlights among the old, the rich and the boring? AOL topper Randy Falco, IAC's Barry Diller and Jupitermedia's Alan Meckler. The closest SAI comes to someone we care about is VC blogger Fred Wilson — a moneyman, not an entrepreneur. As in Calacanis's time, New York is where ideas come to be financed, repackaged, and marketed — not invented.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets with New York's Mayor Bloomberg

Megan McCarthy — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 13:13:56 EST

A tipster tells us Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg right now! Is Zuckerberg still wearing closed-toe shoes? Anyone got a cameraphone? Send pics!

New York City builds a ring of superfluous surveillance

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:45:29 EDT

What's up with the CCTV lovefest? It's already been established that surveillance cameras aren't all that effective when it comes to crime-fighting. Following Chicago's lead, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg says he's looking to emulate the "ring of steel" — cameras and road barriers — that London devised to fend off IRA bombings. Bloomberg brushes off all the privacy hubbub by saying, "We are under surveillance all the time." You're naive to think otherwise. Your privacy is an illusion, much like your security. What we want to be a bit less private, though, is who's making bank off this urban paranoia.

New York City's network is set to cost $81.5 million and Chicago's cost is unknown, but certainly ungodly. IBM, long drawn to expensive contracts, is in charge of setting up Chicago's system. No vendors have been named for New York's system, but we doubt Bloomberg is picking up supplies at Home Depot. (Photo by Jon Gos)