Misrepresentation

Media Mislabels Bain as Venture Capital

And Romney's not eager to correct them.

The media may be inadvertantly misrepresenting Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital, but the presidential candidate isn’t complaining. The Massachusetts company that’s become a point of contention in Romney’s quest for the Oval Office is a private equity firm. However, many in the media have mislabeled it with the term venture capital. There is a difference between these two types of businesses, namely that while venture capital is usually a job-creation industry which invests in a company from its early stages and profits off making it a success, private equity firms buy companies—using loans—for the purpose of selling them for a profit. The latter, though profitable for the private-equity firm, is not typically known to benefit businesses.