KPCB partners sell @Home stock

Three partners with Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers plan to sell 135,000 shares in @Home (ATHM), a KPCB-funded company whose stock has jumped threefold since going public eight months ago.

Three Kleiner Perkins partners have filed to sell shares during the past two days: Vinod Khosla filed to sell 60,000, Joe Lacob filed to sell 50,000, and Doug Mackenzie filed to sell 25,000 shares, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The sales would generate about $4.6 million based on @Home's current trading price of about 34, which is close to the company's 52-week high.

The three VCs received the stock from a recent Kleiner Perkins distribution of @Home shares to its partners, according to controller Mary Denton, who would not disclose the total distribution to each partner.

The shares represent a fraction of Kleiner Perkins's holdings in @Home, which total 12.9 million shares, or a 10.9 percent stake in the company.

Craig Columbus, an insider trading analyst for Disclosure, said the planned sale of shares is not particularly significant in gauging the company's future, because the investors involved are not company officers or directors.

Shares of @Home, which provides high-speed Net access via cable, have soared since the company went public in July 1997 at 10-1/2 a share. @Home traded as high as 35 today, up from its close of 32-15/16 yesterday.

The company posted 95 percent sequential growth in fourth-quarter revenues, to $3.7 million, and held its loss at $11.8 million, excluding a one-time charge. At last count, @Home had more than 50,000 subscribers, and in the fourth quarter entered five new markets, bringing its service to 21 markets.

Lacob's assistant said he would not comment on his decision to sell his @Home shares, and Mackenzie and Khosla could not be reached for comment.