Venture capitalists may not be exposed to toxic mortgage securities, but they, and the startups that they fund, will feel the pain, nonetheless.

A Yale University professor and a think tank analyst said the turmoil on Wall Street will extend the current deep freeze in the initial public offering market, curb merger and acquisition activity, and make it harder to raise money from limited partners.

As in the Jean-Paul Sartre play “No Exit,” venture capitalists are facing an existential dilemma.

They are funding and developing companies with no immediate path to reward their limited partner investors. In the second quarter not a single venture-backed company staged an initial public offering, the first time in 30 years that there was a complete shutout, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

The Gray Lady wants a spot on your buddy list.

On Thursday, The New York Times (NYT) rolled out the beta launch of its TimesPeople social network.

ESPN (DIS), the home of cable television staples like “Sports Center,” is seeking to ride the growth of digital media by negotiating for distribution rights on technologies that have yet to be invented, an executive said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Media and Telecom Conference in New York City, George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, cited the NBA. The NBA’s championship series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics is airing on ABC, ESPN’s broadcast sister network under the Walt Disney corporate umbrella.