Just Linking Around?

I spent most of yesterday working on big new project, and this morning must do a bit of actual reporting (it seems I get paid to do so). So, in the meantime

*** Details remain sketchy on the apparent U.S. Department of Justice probe into possible collusion between private equity firms, with most journalists either rehashing the original WSJ story, or hinting that I-banks might actually be the DOJs target. The only real story movement today came from Andrew Ross Sorkin, who adds The Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice to the list of firms that have received inquiry letters. He also reports that many of the contacted firms are expected to meet individually with DOJ officials, in order to better understand exactly what they are being asked for (and probably why theyre being asked in the first place). Key line: Sources described the [DOJ] letters as indicating a lack of familiarity with how the industry works.

*** Fred Wilson chimes in on the Sevin Rosen decision. Lots of you have been writing me on this, with the letters falling into two distinct camps — both of which think Mondays column was a bit too nae, but for different reasons. More on this to come

*** Bill Burnham returns to blogging about VC issues, but hes now running a hedge fund.

*** Connie Loizos sends a wet kiss to Sequoia Capital in today’s Merc, but the firm undoubtedly deserves it. As one well-known VC sighed to me yesterday: There’s Sequoia, and then theres the rest of us.

*** I really appreciate all of you who have been using the “Top Secret” button to send me anonymous tips, and encourage you to keep doing so (if your html is off, turn it on). But please let me reiterate that the notes are “anonymous,” which means that they shouldn’t be used to ask menarrow questions to which you desire individual answers. I don’t know who you are, and therefore have no way to respond (unless its so general that it would apply to the readership at large). But, again, keep the scoop coming.

*** This is completely off-topic, but the today’s Washington Post details the decline in cursive/script/longhand writing among todays youth. I remember spending countless hours on this in elementary school there even was an outside tester who came in once per month to rate our progress but my current notebooks are filled with an illegible form of short-hand.