The bulk of these charges, in fact, are reductions of the non-cash venture capital gains recognized in late 1999 and 2000. |
Those gains resulted from the acquisition of several companies, held in our portfolio of venture capital investments, by publicly traded companies. |
Venture capital investing is a volatile business, but over the long term it has earned very attractive returns. We have been in the venture capital business for more than 35 years. Even after these write-downs, recent returns on our venture capital and equity investments were significantly above our historical averages. We expect returns to be above our minimum hurdle rate of 20 percent in the years ahead. |