Did Google's Connections to VC-Firm Facilitate a Deal Between TiVo and YouTube?

(NewsVisual, powered by IntellectSpace) -- The Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) often shows up in IntellectSpace Knowledge Maps as a sort of hub that connects important people, many of whom it seems fair to assumer could be the real movers-and-shakers behind the day’s business news.

The announcement by TiVo Inc (NASDAQ: TIVO) that it struck a deal with YouTube could be a case in point.

At first blush, KPCB may seem to have not even the remotest connection to this deal.

Yet NewsVisual created a Knowledge Map of the TiVo Board of Directors that shows that TiVo Director Randy Komisar is also a Partner with KPCB.  Click here to see that Map.

This led us to John Doerr who is also a Partner at KPCB.  Significantly, Mr Doerr is also a Director of Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG), which now owns YouTube.

In addition, NewsVisual reported in another article on Wednesday that former Vice President Al Gore is a new Partner with KPCB, too, as well as a Senior Advisor to Google.

Consequently, the personal connections to KPCB that the Knowledge Maps depict could be the really important behind-the-scenes story that helped to seal the TiVo and YouTube deal.

The Map below illustrates the direct link between Komisar and Doerr.

Click here for an interactive and fuller version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).