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13 Oct 2006

YouTube Sale Boosts Hedge Fund Stock

When Google made its biggest deal ever in buying YouTube for $1.65bn, it boosted hedge fund Sequoia Capital’s performance again with about $495 million in Google stock. Sequoia has also invested in Apple Computer, Cisco, eBay and Yahoo, having again proved their slogan as, “Entrepreneurs Behind the Entrepreneurs.”

Sequoia was the only hedge fund to publicly back YouTube, although hedge fund Artis Capital Management also holds an undisclosed amount invested in the firm. Launched in January 2002, Artis Capital Management currently manages $1bn of assets, investing primarily in public companies in the emerging technologies field.

Founded in a Californian garage, YouTube has become one of the most visited sites online, gathering 100 million video views every day, it could now be looking at collecting anywhere between $500m-$700m.

Most of Sequoia Capital’s investors are educational institutions or philanthropies. According to their website, Sequoia says; “We like being involved with companies when they are composed of less than a handful of people. We like being the very first investors.”