The bulk of these charges, in fact, are reductions of the non-cash venture capital gains recognized in late 1999 and 2000.

Those gains resulted from the acquisition of several companies, held in our portfolio of venture capital investments, by publicly traded companies.

The key with Merrill is they're not as dependent on some of the venture capital private equity gains some of these companies earned earlier in the year, but have now lost.

They're just burning through cash every quarter, and venture capitalists aren't seeing a return on capital.

Many of the best firms historically in venture capital have been multi-sector.

We believed the world didn't need another commoditized venture capital firm.