Tom Perkins

Tom Perkins15 posts

Tom Perkins is an American venture capitalist who was a founding partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

13 Feb, 2014

Rich should get more votes

Perkins Commonwealth ClubAt a speaking engagement at San Fransisco’s Commonwealth Club hosted by Forbes, Perkins says that people should not be able to vote unless they pay taxes.

The Tom Perkins system is: You don’t get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes. But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How’s that?

According to Forbes, the audience reacted with laughter, but Perkins offered no immediate indication that he was joking. Asked offstage if the proposal was serious, Perkins said: “I intended to be outrageous, and it was.” Perkins also described Obama as an “amateur” and reaffirmed his comments regarding attacks on “the 1%”.

The fear is wealth tax, higher taxes, higher death taxes — just more taxes until there is no more 1%. And that that will creep down to the 5% and then the 10%

Tom Perkins: The War on the 1%

30 Jan, 2014

WSJ defends “Perkinsnacht’

Writes Article

Describing Perkins’ statements as “unfortunate, albeit provocative”.  The Wall Street Journal says:

While claiming to be outraged at the Nazi reference, the critics seem more incensed that Mr. Perkins dared to question the politics of economic class warfare.  Maybe the critics are afraid that Mr. Perkins is onto something about the left’s political method. Consider the recent record of liberals in power. They’re the ones obsessed with the Koch brothers and other billionaires contributing to conservative causes, siccing journalists to trash them and federal agencies to shut them down.

Citing Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio’s comments that extreme conservatives have “no place in the state of New York”  they add:

The liberals aren’t encouraging violence, but they are promoting personal vilification and the abuse of government power to punish political opponents.

27 Jan, 2014

Defends comments

Perkins appears on Bloomberg TV to defend his comments. He apologizes for the use of the word “Kristallnacht” but maintains his message is that it is dangerous to demonize the 1% or any minority.

[iframe src=”http://www.bloomberg.com/video/embed/smQfhKIZTWWFD5hGqAwASA” width=”640″ height=”360″]

Draper: Perkins ‘Brilliant’

Tim Draper

Tim Draper, a leading venture capitalist defends Perkins:

On Tom Perkins, he is a brilliant man, and he is identifying schadenfreude, something that continues to be a thorn in humanity’s side. The bitter taste of envy brings us all down. I like to celebrate the wealth and success of great heroes like Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Larry Ellison. I think it makes us all better to strive to be better and brighter. … and I like a good bus. If our government focused on providing the kind of service to its constituents that Google provides its employees, I wouldn’t have to initiate SixCalifornias.info.

Draper has proposed that California be split into six separate states.

25 Jan, 2014

Kliener Perkins distances

In a tweet, Kliener Perkins distances itself from Perkins’ comments:

24 Jan, 2014

Compares attacks on the rich to ‘Kristallnacht”

In a letter to the Wall Street Journal Perkins calls attention to what he sees are “the parallels of Nazi Germany to its war on its ‘one percent,’ namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the ‘rich.'”

From the Occupy movement to the demonization of the rich embedded in virtually every word of our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, I perceive a rising tide of hatred of the successful one percent.

This is a very dangerous drift in our American thinking. Kristallnacht was unthinkable in 1930; is its descendant “progressive” radicalism unthinkable now?

Perkins also points out attacks accusing Danielle Stelle — the author who is his ex-wife — of being a “snob”.

30 Jan, 2007

Sex and the Single Zillionaire

Sex & the Single Zillionaire coverPerkins novel, Sex and the Single Zillionaire, is released. Perkins says a British television studio proposed in 2003 that he star in a reality TV show: he would date a string of young women, then marry one of them. He turned the offer down, but thought the idea might make a good novel. He jotted down a 12-page outline and gave it to his ex-wife — Danielle Steel said, ‘You have to write this. This would be much better from a man’s perspective”. The plot features a handsome investment banker who agrees to participate in a TV dating show.

6 Feb, 2006

Launches Maltese Falcon

Perkins launches The Maltese Falcon, an 88m (289 ft) Dynarig sailing yacht which, at this time, is the world’s largest. The yacht has three carbon fiber masts that rotate to give high-speed performance. The sails unfurl from the mast. Under power the yacht’s  two 1,800 horsepower (1,300 kW) engines give the boat a top speed of 20 knots (23 mph). The yacht has a crew of 18 who cater for up to 12 guests.

Perkins says the yacht cost more than $150 million, but less than $300 million. The Yacht has its own website.

Maltese Falcon Yacht - Aerial images by VisualWorking: www.visualworking.com

Mar 1998

Marries Danielle Steel

Marriage

Danielle SteelAccording to reports Steel consoled Perkins after the death of his wife and he consoled her after the death of her 19-year-old son. A few months after Steel’s divorce from shipping executive John Traina, Perkins and Steel get married. For the wedding Steel buys Perkins a $400,000 Bentley, and a two-day affair is held at her 1913 beaux arts mansion in San Francisco. For the reception, she wears a white Yves Saint Laurent gown with a red satin bow and displays Perkins wedding present, an extravagant diamond and emerald necklace. The wedding cake was baked in the shape of a yacht with the married couple on the bow. They live in a $6 million Marin County mansion and collect antique cars.

1996

Yacht collision causes doctor death

Perkisn is racing off the French coast when his yacht collides with a smaller boat, killing a French doctor on board.

I was arrested and tried in a foreign court in a language you don’t understand, by judges indifferent – or worse – to justice, represented by an inappropriate lawyer with the negative outcome preordained.

Perkins is convicted of involuntary manslaughter and fined $10,000.

1972

Starts venture capital firm with Eugene Klein

Founding

Perkins founds Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of the first venture capital firms with Eugene Klein. Later, Frank Caufield and Brook Byers joined the firm, eventually becoming named partners.

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