On the one hand, Sevin Rosen's decision to cease raising its tenth fund was honorable. The venture capital firm effectively admitted that it didn't like the state of the venture market and, therefore, didn't think it was a good time to invest money. Other firms might have just pocketed their limited partners' cash, enjoyed the management fees and produced subpar returns.

On the other hand, the 25-year old firm admission that it had no idea how to make money in the ever evolving venture capital market anymore was a failure. Its biggest hits happened years ago and by admitting it didn't think it could earn as good a return as before, one could assume it didn't manage the succession process well.

Sevin Rosen's days of hitting it big with investments such as Compaq and Lotus passed a while ago. The transition was just formalized in 2006.

For more on Sevin Rosen, see:
Sevin Rosen's letter to Limited Partners (pdf)
The Deal

Tags: sevin+rosen, vc, venture capital