CEOs, venture backers lose big as LinkedIn, Tableau shares tumble

[February 08, 2016]  By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - LinkedIn Corp Executive Chairman Reid Hoffman lost almost half his $2.8 billion fortune on paper Friday as shares of his social media company suffered their largest drop on record. He was not alone in taking heavy losses.

Other executives at LinkedIn, some at business analytics company Tableau Software Inc, and a number of the companies' venture capital backers also took losses running into tens of millions of dollars as both stocks tumbled on dismal financial outlooks.

It was a humbling moment highlighting the personal exposure many technology leaders and venture capitalists face as Wall Street reassesses their value at an uncertain time for the sector.

Silicon Valley-based LinkedIn's shares closed down 43.6 percent at $108.38 on Friday, after hitting a three-year low, following a sales forecast well short of analysts' expectations.

Shares of Seattle-based Tableau Software Inc, a business analytics tools company, fell 49.4 percent to $41.33 after cutting its full-year profit outlook.

As a result, LinkedIn's Hoffman lost $1.2 billion from his value on paper on Friday, slashing his stake to $1.6 billion, based on his holdings detailed in a filing with securities regulators from March, which the company said was the most up-to-date. LinkedIn's Chief Executive Jeff Weiner saw the value of his stake fall by $70.9 million to $91.5 million.

At Tableau, the value of Chief Executive Christian Chabot's stake was slashed nearly in half to $268 million, based on his holdings in a filing with securities regulators in March.

Besides Hoffman and Weiner, several venture capitalists who sit on LinkedIn's board and own stakes in the company suffered substantial losses.

Michael Moritz, the chairman of Sequoia Capital who owns more shares than any individual investor besides Hoffman and Weiner, lost $56 million as his stake's value shrank to $72.8 million. David Sze, a managing partner at Greylock Partners, saw the value of his stake slide to $5 million after losing $3.9 million on Friday.

Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates lost big in the rout at Tableau. Partners Scott Sandell and Forest Baskett each lost more than $80 million on Friday as the value of their holdings dropped to less than $85 million each.

Traditional asset managers also took big hits, with T Rowe Price Associates Inc losing $845 million on LinkedIn, in which it is the top institutional shareholder, and Vanguard Group Inc taking a $137 million hit on its Tableau bets, according to Thomson Reuters data current as of Sept. 30, 2015.

Tableau and LinkedIn declined to comment on the drops in their share prices. Hoffman, Moritz, Sandell, Baskett and Vanguard did not respond to emails or LinkedIn messages seeking comment. T Rowe Price declined comment.

(Editing by Stephen R. Trousdale and Bill Rigby)

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