Ram Shriram and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers — better known as early investors

RELATED ARTICLES Corporate cash hoard screams buy for investors Private investors near deal on Greek debt SC to Sahara; furnish list of assets to safeguard investors Investors need to lower return on capital expectations: RBI Institutional investors hike stake in Infosys in December

in Google — have sold their entire 4.08 per cent stake in Info Edge (the owners of popular job site Naukri.com) for about Rs 86 crore via a open market transaction on Friday.

In April 2006, Shriram along with Kleiner Perkins had invested in Info Edge ahead of its initial public offering. Shriram through its venture capital arm Sherpalo Venture and Kleiner through Murgan Capital had picked up 2.04 per cent stake each for about Rs 25 crore.

As per bulk deal data on the NSE, Sherpalo sold 5,57,913 shares for Rs 876.33 a share, while Murgan Capital had sold 4,22,410 for Rs 876.30 a share, thereby pocketing about Rs 86 crore.

After the sale, Murgan Capital’s stake comes down to less than 1 per cent. Going by the deal, Shriram and Kleiner have made a profit of Rs 61 crore on their investment.

Reliance Tax Saver Fund and Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund had bought about 9.6 lakh shares for Rs 84.40 crore.

Other investments by Shriram and Kleiner in India include Cleartrip.com, PayMate and CE Infosystems.

Naukri is Shriram and Kleiner combo’s second exit transaction in India.

In January, Delhi-based e-learning solutions prov-ider Educomp Solutions agreed to acquire StudyPlaces.com, which is own-ed by Zaptive Internet Services. Under the deal, Educomp will buy the domain name and other existing contracts of Zaptive and will allot equity shares on a preferential basis of up to $1.5 million in exchange.

In January 2008, StudyPlaces.com raised $3 million from venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins, Caufield and Byers (KPCB), Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures and the internet company Info Edge India (the Naukri.com group), with each entity investing $1 million in the company.

“Shriram entered Info Edge just before its initial public offering and he is a typical early stage investor. Having exited Studyplaces at a loss, he should have thought it’s time to make some profitable exits in India,” an industry observer said on condition of anonymity.