If they put in too much money, to guard against problems like those of today, the fund becomes a sort of capital sump, locking up cash that the business might have used for the benefit of shareholders and current employees.

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To support such politicians, Mr Crane and two partners have started Govern For California, a sort of political venture-capital fund.

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Some people thought he might have a plan to introduce some sort of capital controls, as Malaysia did.

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However, the fact that no deal with an alternative distributor has been announced by now concerns us, and leads us to believe that DWA may be seriously considering a self-distribution model, which would likely require some sort of capital raise, likely in the form of debt issuance.

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Before the split some dealmakers drew up a proposal to take a cut of the profits on their deals (a "carried-interest split"), the sort of payoff now routine in venture capital.

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Along with a global recession came a drying up of both capital for large-scale project financing and investor tolerance for the sort of risk inherent in early-stage cleantech ventures.

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