One possible explanation is that venture capitalists had much better investment opportunities available to them in the 1990s, as the technology revolution gathered speed, whereas buy-out funds were badly hit by the collapse of the junk-bond market in the late 1980s and the recession of the early 1990s.

ECONOMIST: Pick carefully

He and the firm created almost out of whole cloth the high yield bond market that financed so many cutting-edge corporate entities in the 1970s and 1980s.

FORBES: When looking a gift horse in the mouth, it's best to accurately count the teeth: Lowell Milken's Donation, and the Ignorant Condemnation That Followed