Venture capitalists increasingly are throwing down with private equity folks. Dixon Doll, co-founder and general partner of VC firm Doll Capital Management, the Silicon Valley investor who is the next in line to serve as chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, did not pull any punches recently when he addressed an East Coast conference, reported PEHub.com earlier this week in a column by Alastair Goldfisher. Doll blamed buyout titans for garnering too much attention from federal tax regulators, as the NVCA tries to block changes in the tax code that might affect the venture industry. He said the unwanted congressional scrutiny is ultimately the result of "the unbelievable egos of the guys running the PE firms like Blackstone [Group LP] and [Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.]," PEHub reported.

Doll also said that job creation is the antithesis to taking companies private. His hope is that lawmakers who are pushing a tax hike don't set their sights on VC firms. In a nutshell, the profits currently being made by private equity firms have drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, who want to close a tax loophole that allows these firms to book certain profits as capital gains as opposed to income, which is taxed at a higher rate.

Meanwhile, on Friday a gentleman named David Crais gave his reply to Goldfisher's column, writing, "The PE and hedge funds guys have sucked the life out of venture capital," noting that the PE guys have attracted money that otherwise might have gone to VCs. "PE's and hedgies aren't creating innovation or growing the economy," he wrote. —Cheryl Meyer

See July 3 story from PEHub.com
See July 6 story from TheDeal.com