Many states agree that portfolio company data should remain confidential. States including Texas, California, Michigan, Virginia have all enacted statutes recently ensuring the confidentiality of this competitive information.

Ohio does not agree. Sadly, Ohio is poised to release very sensitve business information contained in its Private Equity Valuation Report.

The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) urged the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation (OBWC) to refrain from publicly releasing data from a November 2005 Private Equity Valuation Report which contains highly sensitive and competitive information about start-up companies. The public dissemination of such materials would be harmful to the companies, the venture capital firms, and the Ohio pensioners.

"The OBWC's impending release of its report will be extremely damaging to the venture capital and entrepreneur communities," said Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA. "It is inappropriate and irresponsible to publicly release confidential information associated with portfolio companies. These companies depend upon the privacy of their data to remain competitive in the market. The release of the information will likely compel many venture capital firms to think twice before accepting OBWC money going forward, limiting the organization's options for alternative, high performing investments. At the end of the day, it will be the pension holders who will be hurt the most."

For everyone's sake, we hope the NVCA wins this battle.