Corporate Venture Capital Vignettes

Since the 1960s, corporate venture capital has had a mixed history. Companies seem to form separate venture capital programs during boom years and then withdraw their commitments during economic downturns. To enable students to both learn about corporate venture capital as well as to put them in the position of a decision maker, this case opens with a fictional situation: Ron Flores, the vice president of corporate development at AllTech, the world’s largest enterprise software company, is trying to evaluate whether or not the company should establish a separate corporate venture capital group to spearhead investments in young companies. Ron has two days to put together a recommendation for the company’s CFO. To make his decision, Ron reviews several documents, which make up the bulk of the case. They include: 1) An overview and brief history of corporate venture capital and 2) An overview of the venture investing activities at Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, and Xerox Corporation.