[Deathwatch] Eugene Kleiner, Silicon Valley pioneer, 80

[Deathwatch Central]

Many thanks to a reader that has been sending many of these notices to
my attention (and tossing-in a pun to boot) - Ed.

Silicon Valley Pioneer Kleiner Dies at 80
Mon Nov 24,10:11 PM ET
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

SAN FRANCISCO - Silicon Valley pioneer Eugene Kleiner, whose ideas and
money spawned a brood of high-tech giants, has died. He was 80.

Kleiner died of heart failure Thursday at his Los Altos Hills, Calif.,
home, according to a family statement issued Monday announcing his
death.

Although he shunned the limelight most of his life, Kleiner played a
pivotal role in building Silicon Valley, first as a scientist, then as
an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. In the 1950s, Kleiner helped
lay the groundwork for one of Silicon Valley's seminal companies,
Fairchild Semiconductor.

The company revolutionized the chip industry and became the
entrepreneurial breeding ground that hatched several other
groundbreaking companies, including Silicon Valley bellwethers Intel
Corp., National Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices.

During the early 1970s, he founded one of nation's most powerful
venture capital firms, Menlo Park's Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and
Byers, which has financed a long line of high-tech powerhouses,
including Sun Microsystems, Tandem Computers, Compaq Computer and
Amazon.com.

"Helping entrepreneurs find their way was a source of great pride for
him," Kleiner's son, Robert, said Monday.

A native Austrian who fled Europe before World War II, Kleiner
eventually settled in California during the mid-1950s when he and seven
other East Coast scientists were recruited by Nobel Prize winner
William Shockley to help build computer transistors.

Shockley's recruits eventually rebelled and left their startup to form
their own company. The defection tagged the men with an unflattering
nickname — "the Traitorous Eight."

With their subsequent achievements, the men would be hailed among as
Silicon Valley's founding fathers. Besides Kleiner, the eight men
included Intel Corp. co-founders Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, as well
as Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Jay Last and Sheldon
Roberts.

Using $3,500 of their own money, the entrepreneurs developed a way to
manufacture multiple transistors on a single silicon wafer. The
breakthrough enabled the men to raise $1.5 million from Fairchild
Camera and Instrument Corp. and launch Fairchild Semiconductor in
October 1957.

Within six months, Fairchild Semiconductor was profitable.

Kleiner later reconnected with Noyce and Moore to become an early
investor in Santa Clara-based Intel, now one of the most world's most
valuable companies with a market value of about $220 billion.

In 1972, Kleiner joined forces with Tom Perkins to form their own
venture capital firm. Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers has gone to
invest in more than 300 companies.

Although he remained a partner emeritus at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield
and Byers until his death, Kleiner stepped down from a day-to-day role
at the firm in the mid-1980s, his son said.

Kleiner, Perkins issued a short statement hailing its co-founder as a
visionary who "virtually invented modern venture capital."

Kleiner is survived by two children and four grandchildren. A public
memorial service is scheduled on Dec. 5 in Los Altos Hills.