Investment firm cleared in gender discrimination suit

Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers was vindicated Friday in a closely watched court case over allegations of gender discrimination that had consumed Silicon Valley in recent weeks.

A jury in a San Francisco superior court ruled in favor of the prominent investment firm on all counts, against charges that the company had discriminated against former employee Ellen Pao during the course of her employment and eventual termination in 2012, according to multiple reports.

{mosads}Shortly after the decision, however, the judge instructed the jury to go back to deliberations, because it had voted eight to four on one of the charges and nine jurors are necessary to reach a conclusion. 

Pao, who is now the interim chief executive at social forum site Reddit, had been seeking $16 million in damages plus punitive payments, but the jury on Friday determined that the company was not liable for any money.

She had claimed that the Silicon Valley funding firm failed to promote her to the partner level because of her gender and retaliated against her after she complained of sexual harassment. That retaliation ended in her ultimate firing, she alleged.

Workers in Silicon Valley had kept a close eye on the case, which seemed to capture much of the culture’s troubled and often debated relationship with gender diversity.