Tom Perkins, the Silicon Valley pioneer, died at his house at the age of 84. He was the founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a venture capital enterprise devoted to work with technology funds.
Perkins was an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the most prestigious institutes in the country. After attending MIT, Perkins earned an MBA from Harvard University. He turned himself into a venture capitalist after a long career as a General Manager in Hewlett-Packard computing division. In that period, he created several mini companies related to technology.
It was in 1973 that he founded one of the first venture capital firms that installed itself in Sand Hill Road, what would eventually be the hottest spot in Silicon Valley for businessmen in the venture capital industry. Kleiner Perkins was the firm he created along with the engineer, Eugene Kleiner, that eventually grew up and integrated other partners.
What is venture capital?
It is a form of financing projects, ideas and early-stage firms or companies that seem to have the ability to grow and establish itself in a certain industry. It works regarding private equity, where partners of the venture capital firm provide capital to the entrepreneurs, usually investing large amounts of money. The high technology industry is a very attractive sector for venture capital firms and the firm created by Tom Perkins was one of the first ones to establish itself as a major venture capital company.
About the firm
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is a one of the largest and most established venture capital firm and has been a major capital provider for several technology companies that turned out to be giants in Silicon Valley. Incubation and early stage companies have been the focus of the firm, backing entrepreneurs and small businessmen to make small companies grow. And they have achieved it with success, since companies like Amazon, Electronic Arts (EA), Google and AOL have received capital from KPCB.
In the beginning, the company was located only in Menlo Park, but now it has a local office in Shanghai, China.
The firm is now focused on global investments in the technology industry, especially in digital science, life sciences, and clean tech.
Perkins’ death
Perkins died after a long illness, according to his assistant. In 2014, Perkins’ patrimony was worth about $8 billion. He had two children that are going to be the only heirs.
Source: NY Times