California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

Two very respected organizations, Dow Jones VentureSource and PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Money Tree unit have each released their reviews of venture capital activity for 2007.  While
each organization collects data differently, the outcomes for California were significant from
each source.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers identified that nationally $29.4 billion in venture capital was acquired
while Dow Jones reported $29.9 billion.  In both reports, increases were seen illustrating the
highest investments since 2000-01.

The report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers illustrated that over $13.8 billion in venture capital
was invested in California businesses making up 47 percent of the total amount invested and
comprised 1664 or 44 percent of the deals in 2007.

The deals that were struck as identified by Dow Jones VentureSource involved energy, health
care and web companies.  For example, the Palo Alto based energy company; Project Better
Place raised $200 million in first round capital.  Menlo Park Cognetus Pharmaceuticals raised
$62.5 million in later round capital and Palo Alto based social network Facebook raised $60
million in follow-on round capital.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.