WSJ NEWS ALERT: Mutual Funds Sour on Startup Investments - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

WSJ NEWS ALERT: Mutual Funds Sour on Startup Investments - btbirkett@gmail.com - Gmail

Mutual Funds Sour on Startup Investments Mutual funds that helped fuel the technology boom are cutting the value of their startup investments at an accelerating pace and are making fewer new investments. These are ominous signs for Silicon Valley, where a flood of money into young companies pushed valuations skyward, and subsidized hiring sprees and advertising binges at scores of companies. The mutual-fund pullback threatens to deepen a wider downturn that has already led to falling valuations, shrinking ambitions and layoffs as the receding tide of capital forces startup companies of all kinds to focus on the bottom line rather than growth at any cost.