Exclusive: Kleiner Perkins tried to ‘acquire’ Social+Capital Partnership
Context & Ripple Effects
In early 2015, Fortune reported that Kleiner Perkins had pursued an outright acquisition of Social+Capital Partnership — an unusual move between two established venture firms. Per TechCrunch's follow-up, the deal fell apart within weeks because Social+Capital insisted on reorganizing and running KPCB itself, terms the older firm wouldn't accept.
The story didn't end there: Social Capital soon closed a $600M third fund and confirmed Kleiner's interest on the record, and two years later co-founder Mamoon Hamid decamped to Kleiner as a general partner. Read together, the episode is less a failed merger than a slow-motion absorption of one firm's key asset into the other.
First-order effects
- Kleiner Perkins stays independent but walks away empty-handed on paper — while Social Capital keeps its brand, team, and deploys its own $600M fund as a standalone franchise.
Second-order effects
- Hamid's 2017 move to Kleiner transfers the partnership talent the acquisition was meant to buy, delivering much of the deal's value without a merger; Social Capital, meanwhile, loses a founder to its suitor.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and Social Capital's later internal rupture over partner firings tied to Groq suggests fragility — the industry absorbs young firms through talent migration rather than M&A, with 'quasi-exits' replacing formal acquisitions among venture franchises.
The trend: Established venture firms are consolidating capability by hiring away rising firms' partners instead of acquiring them outright, turning failed mergers into delayed talent absorption.