One year ago
»» Managers focused on tech stocks were poised to move past 2010’s bumpy ride thanks to a wave of new tech products and initial public offerings from high profile Internet firms. “I can’t remember a time when technology was changing so rapidly,” Steve DeLuca, director of research for the $153 million Spinner Global Technology Fund, said at the time.
Not all of the changes turned out for the best, and that fund wound up losing 12.91% for the year. Still, the AR Technology Index ended up 3.78% overall, far exceeding the Composite’s slim loss. But that gain wasn’t produced smoothly: After a strong first half, the index was whiplashed in the last six months. For instance, it followed a 3.48% monthly drop in September with a 4.46% gain in October.
Spinner’s founder is forthright about the difficulties of 2011. “Last year, we had a fair amount of exposure to Asia and China, in particular, and that was unhelpful,” founder and chief executive Art Spinner told AR this week. “The kind of saw tooth pattern of the market made fundamental analysis harder than we would have liked.”
This year he believes there are better opportunities to be had by investing in traditional technology companies versus trendier start-ups. “There’s a very bifurcated market right now. You’ve got new companies with a lot of buzz and pretty high revenue growth but at very high prices. Some very well established companies—[product development software company] Parametric Technology would be an example—just have been left by the side of the road,” he said.
And it was not all bad news for Spinner last year. The firm nearly doubled its assets, and now manages $384 million across three funds, up from $191 million in Jan. 2011. The Spinner Global Technology Fund declined in assets slightly, while the other two funds—which include a more concentrated technology portfolio and a global equity strategy, respectively—were responsible for the increase in assets.
Related technology stories: Focusing on Kodak, Loeb’s Third Point bets on Yahoo revival, Greenlight’s bet on kiosk king NCR pays off
Five years ago
»» Distressed investor Marc Lasry surveyed the economic landscape at the very beginning of the financial crisis and saw “massive amounts of opportunities.”
As the head of then-$10.4 billion Avenue Capital, he was candid when describing his motivations for a long career in finance. "If you love investing, then running a fund is a great business," he says. "If you're right, you make a huge amount of money. If you're wrong, people will say, 'He used to be very good.'"
Investors seem to think he’s been good for much of the past five years. Avenue continued to grow throughout 2011, managing assets of $18 billion as of Jan. 2011, but then quickly dropped as it began liquidating the Avenue Special Situations Fund V, a private equity vehicle launched in 2007. Lasry and Avenue now manage $12.3 billion, having returned $9 billion in principal and profits over the past year while also taking in new investments to some funds, according to a person familiar with the firm.
Avenue declined to comment.
See also: Hedge funds top list of Obama boosters, No Amazin’ deal for Cohen, Lasry