UPDATE 1-Hedge fund Tiger Global lost 8.5 percent in February -source

(Adds Tiger Global's total assets)
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
BOSTON, March 3 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Tiger Global
Management, known for making big bets on technology companies,
lost 8.5 percent last month, leaving it down 22.5 percent for
the year to date, a person familiar with the numbers said.
The New York-based fund, which manages roughly $6 billion in
its hedge fund, did not tell investors exactly what caused the
February losses.
Tiger Global, in a recent regulatory filing, reported that
some stocks that the fund owned at the end of last year suffered
a beating in February. Business intelligence software solutions
company Tableau Software Inc DATA.N and home luxury
furnishings company Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc RH.N
both lost money in February and they appeared on the fund's most
recent 13F filing.
A spokeswoman for the fund declined to comment.
Tiger Global ranks among the industry's most closely watched
firms. It ended last year with a 6.8 percent gain when many
other firms lost money. But it started January off with a 14
percent drop largely because shares of Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O
and Netflix Inc NFLX.O , which had helped the fund last year,
tumbled in January.
The 15-year-old firm oversees a total of $20 billion. Last
year, Scott Shleifer replaced Feroz Dewan, who left the firm, in
running its public equity business.
In a letter sent to Tiger Global clients earlier this year,
the firm acknowledged the rocky start to the year, saying, "Our
longs declined considerably but our shorts have not gone down
nearly as much."
Many hedge funds are still compiling their monthly returns
for February and investors are bracing for a slew of bad
numbers, in part because they said some funds became too
defensive during the month and missed some of the market's
rebound.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 5.5 percent during the
first two months of 2016, having pared some losses in late
February.
Separately, Viking Global, another large and well respected
fund, lost 7 percent last month, likely in part because shares
of Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) VRX.TO tumbled last month when the
company told investors it was being investigated by the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also put off an
earnings call.