Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Some days late, but with great regret we realized the hedge fund media world has once again become a little smaller, a little duller and even more lonely. With HedgeWorld, one of the early player in the hedge fund media that was an inspiration and benchmark to HedgeNordic when we started out four years ago closed its doors for good and left us with this message on their website: http://www.hedgeworld.com/

Dear friends of HedgeWorld:

Fifteen years ago, HedgeWorld launched with a mission to provide news, research, data, opinion and analysis for a hedge fund industry that was on the verge of explosive growth. At the time, few other similar ventures existed. With a skeleton staff but a ton of moxie, HedgeWorld set out to cover the world of hedge funds. News reports chronicled the industry’s rise from misunderstood niche investment clique to misunderstood $2 trillion market moving force. The business was acquired, expanded, acquired again and downsized.

Today I write to tell you the ride is over. Thomson Reuters has decided to discontinue HedgeWorld as a business unit. The HedgeWorld editorial web pages will no longer be offered, although the Lipper Hedge Fund Database will continue to be provided to subscribers via HedgeWorld.com. The HedgeWorld Conferences business will continue under the PartnerConnect name with UCG, the firm that recently purchased HedgeWorld’s sister publications: Buyouts, VCJ and peHUB. Please keep an eye out for that here: http://www.partnerconnectevents.com/

Those of you who have known HedgeWorld the longest should remember it in its heyday, as an upstart start-up living billing cycle to billing cycle but shining an unapologetic light into a strange corner of the investment world. It was a business that perfectly embodied the entrepreneurial spirit of the industry it sought to cover.

Too many people to list here made HedgeWorld work. They know who they are, and many of you do, too. Their groundbreaking work lives on in the myriad other hedge fund web sites, news services and data feeds built to serve a market HedgeWorld’s founders identified a decade and a half ago.

As the last man standing editorially for HedgeWorld, it’s left to me to thank my former colleagues for their wonderful work. And I thank you for reading, e-mailing, contributing, speaking, networking, following, friending and retweeting. You made this collection of pixels a community. It’s been a hell of a good time, but now the party’s over. At that point you say goodbye and thanks for coming, you turn out the lights and close the door.

So goodbye, and thanks for coming.

Chris Clair
Former Managing Editor, HedgeWorld