Facebook Backer Peter Thiel Escapes New York
Peter Thiel, Facebook's first outside investor, is moving his volatile hedge fund back to California. Clarium Capital moved to New York in its boom days of fall 2008; a humble return to Silicon Valley may help break the resulting jinx.
Once a highflier, Clarium Capital fell 25 percent last year as the fund was forced to sell off assets to cover investor withdrawals. But the New York Post writes that, amid the ongoing return to California, Clarium fell just 6 percent so far this year. Who knows, by the time all of Clarium's 55 staffers are back on the West Coast, maybe Thiel will actually be in the black. That would be a welcome development, since Thiel has all his liquid assets tied up in the fund, and since Clarium has almost certainly been losing money, unable to reap fees from investors since it only places a surcharge on earnings, unlike most hedge funds, which tax assets.
