Hewlett-Packard: Venture Capital Investing

This case examines how the investment professionals at the Shoreline Investment Management Company, the wholly owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard (HP) that manages HP and Agilent Technologies’ corporate pension plans, evaluate venture capital funds. Specifically, this case describes the specific criteria Shoreline’s investment professionals utilize to make venture capital investment decisions. These criteria include: financial performance, people, investment strategy, team stability, partnership terms and conditions, and general market conditions. This case goes on to describe three venture capital firms raising new funds and outlines the issues the Shoreline team must take into consideration as they decide whether or not to commit money to these funds.