Woman suing Silicon Valley firm says she asked for $10M

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The woman behind a sex-discrimination lawsuit against one of Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firms testified today the company repeatedly dismissed her attempts to open a discussion about gender bias then hired an antagonistic investigator to look into her complaint.

Plaintiff Ellen Pao took the stand for a second day in the high-profile case against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, telling jurors the chief operating officer told her the company wanted her to leave after she filed a written bias complaint in 2012.

The 45-year-old Pao's lawsuit says she had been retaliated against for years then fired nine months after she filed the complaint and five months after she sued the firm.

Kleiner Perkins has denied wrongdoing and says Pao didn't get along with her colleagues and performed poorly as a junior partner.

The lawsuit has spotlighted gender imbalance at elite Silicon Valley investment companies that are stacked with some of the nation's most-accomplished graduates — multiple degree holders from schools such as Harvard and Stanford who are competing aggressively to back the next Google or Amazon.

Women, however, are grossly underrepresented in the venture capital and technology sectors.

Pao testified she sought $10 million from the firm in exchange for voluntarily leaving, saying she believed the figure would prompt the firm to change its treatment of women.

"I thought $10 million would be a meaningful number that would actually hit their radar," she said.