Hedge Funds: Where now for the techno mafia?

Silicon Valley investment bankers have one burning question: What's the next move for the "technology mafia" - the dozen or so influential hedge and mutual funds that turned technology issues into Wall Street's new blue-chip stocks?

The funds could only watch as Microsoft, Dell Computer, Cisco and Intel were dragged down when the global market rout finally hit New York on the last day of August.

"It's white-knuckle time for them," says an investment banker of the secretive group who were "in the bunker, taking all the pain" during the recent sell-off. Traders say the selling was led by European investors wary of a US recession followed by US retail investors happy to lock in the lofty profits of the past three years.

Outside the circle of investment bankers and venture capitalists who court them and the institutional investors who finance them, the members of the technology mafia are not well...