The end of venture capital?

The headlines have been chock full of negative stories about the private equity industry--the busted deals, illiquid loans, the lack of financing and so on. The one corner of the private equity industry that may be hurting the most, however, is not leveraged buyouts, but rather venture capital. There's been talk for a while that perhaps the VC industry needs a new model. Breakingviews reports the litany of bad news: a dearth of deals, a surfeit of cash, negative returns, and so on--and suggests it's time for top VC firms to start returning money to investors. It used to be a joke among start-up types that accepting VC money was akin to selling your soul. More souls will be sold in the next boom, but that may far in the future.  

For more:
- here's the Breakingviews article