[montag813]

Staples employs 90,000, so I guess he could take some credit for that, as he was a legitimate VC investor - long before Bain became a LBO operation. But I would imagine there were at least 90,000 layoffs as well. It is probably impossible to calculate, which shows what a boneheaded strategy this was for Mittens in the first place.

[LibsRJerks]

Staples employs 90,000, so I guess he could take some credit for that, as he was a legitimate VC investor - long before Bain became a LBO operation. But I would imagine there were at least 90,000 layoffs as well. It is probably impossible to calculate, which shows what a boneheaded strategy this was for Mittens in the first place.

****

Big deal. A bunch of tech saavy clerks and cashiers being paid minimum to hawk a bunch of stuff made in China.

I want to see true job creation, true CREATION of the manufacture of a PRODUCT — or with the intentions thereof. Not the “manufacture” of an “investment” which may or may not require Americans living in America to operate.

[kabar]

I think the best metric of Romney's success at Bain was the return it provided investors and the fact that investors flocked to the firm to invest more money showing confidence in the management of the company. From all I have heard from knowledgeable folks, it is very difficult to compute the net job gains, but given the fact that Bain had far more successes than failures, it has to be on the plus side. But that is not the reason why Bain was in business.

"Bain disputes the Journal's calculations, but one test of overall success is whether investors keep entrusting a firm with their money. Mr. Romney and his colleagues raised $37 million for their first fund in 1984. Today, Bain Capital manages roughly $66 billion. Its investors include college endowments and public pension funds that have increased their investments in private equity to get larger returns than stocks and bonds provide. The people who benefit from those returns thus include average workers.

Bain's turnaround hits include Sports Authority and tech-research outfit Gartner Inc., which was once a small division of an advertising firm and is now a public company worth more than $3 billion. Another success was Steel Dynamics, which used Bain money to build a new steel factory and now employs 6,000 people.

One Bain investment during Mr. Romney's tenure was to back an entrepreneur named Tom Stemberg, who was convinced he could provide savings for small-business owners if they were willing to shop at a store instead of taking deliveries. Today, the Staples chain of business-supply stores employs 90,000 people.

Bain also backed a start-up called Bright Horizons that now manages child-care centers for more than 700 corporate clients around the world. Many other venture bets failed, but that's capitalism, which is supposed to be a profit and loss system."

[BillM]

It was a minuscule $2M VC investment. I would love to see the terms.

I was in on the tech boom from the ground floor and have seen the best and worst of venture capitalists.