It seems Tom Perkins is not the only general partner of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers leaving the board of a high-profile, publicly-traded technology company. Fellow venture capitalist John Doerr, a long-time Sun Microsystems board member, recently announced he will resign his Sun post on Nov. 2. However, Doerr's resignation was not in protest as was Perkins' departure from Hewlett Packard's board of directors. Instead, Doerr told CNet that he simply wants more time to spend with his family. Doerr joined the board of Sun in 1982, when Kleiner, Perkins first invested in the computer maker. Of course, Doerr probably could have achieved the same time savings if he simply refused to be the backup host for the Charlie Rose Show on PBS. As for Perkins, the long-time HP board member resigned in protest of chairman Patricia Dunn's investigation of HP's board over a leak to the press. Evidently, Perkins advised Dunn to simply ask each board member who spoke to a reporter for CNet, but she disregarded his advice. Perkins wasn't the leaker, but he resigned because the third-party investigator used fraudulent means to obtain phone records. No longer shackled to a desk at HP, Perkins will have more time to spend on his grand yacht, the Maltese Falcon. Maybe he'll invite Doerr's family for a cruise.—Matthew Wurtzel
See story about Doerr from CNet News.com
See CNet News.com's comprehensive coverage of the HP scandal
See earlier post about Perkins from Dealscape
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