Bernard Vaughan

Bruckmann Rosser Sherrill & Co. has agreed to sell Il Fornaio, an owner of Italian restaurants and bakeries, to Roark Capital Group, a source close to the deal told Buyouts. Tracing its roots back to a baking school established in Italy in 1972, Il Fornaio owns and operates 21 full-services restaurants and two bakeries. Most […]

Centerbridge Partners LP isn’t wasting any time putting its second fund to work. The New York-based firm, which has so far raised $4 billion for the fund, is tapping it to invest in Seitel Inc., a Houston-based company that provides seismic data to the oil and gas industry, according to a regulatory filing. The seller […]

KSL Capital Partners LLC is preparing to close its latest buyout fund in June with $2 billion in commitments, a source familiar with the fundraising effort told Buyouts. The fund close is notable considering the difficulties many firms are having raising capital and for the fact that KSL Capital was only founded in 2005. The […]

Freeman Spogli & Co. has finally closed its sixth fund with $735 million in commitments, Partner Bill Wardlaw told sister magazine Buyouts. The fund fell well short of its $1 billion target. But, said Wardlaw, "given the fundraising environment, we were pleased with what we got." There must be some relief and exhaustion on the part of Wardlaw and his colleagues too.

Silver Lake and its co-investors are in line for a hefty return on their investment in Skype, which the parties have agreed to sell to Microsoft for $8.5 billion after owning it for barely a year and a half. The deal would also be a victory for the aggressive investment campaign Silver Lake employed in […]

Like skeptical parents mustering up the courage to check out “The Facebook,” private equity firms are tentatively looking for ways to invest in social media. While some firms with a technology focus, such as Silver Lake Partners and Elevation Partners, have taken stakes in major social media companies, growth equity-focused firms such as Summit Partners […]

Centerbridge Partners LP has so far raised more than $3.8 billion for its second fund, Buyouts reported yesterday, citing a recent regulatory filing. Buyouts reported in August 2010, when the firm began marketing the fund, that the New York-based shop was seeking $3.75 billion in commitments for the fund, Centerbridge Capital Partners II LP. It’s […]

Altamont Capital Partners, the new firm started by Golden Gate Capital co-founder Jesse Rogers, has closed its first deal, buying used car sales and finance chain J.D. Byrider from its founding family, as Buyouts first reported. “We’re fired up,” Rogers told Buyouts in an interview before the deal was announced. “It’s a deal we’re real […]

The assassination of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden could add momentum to President Barack Obama‘s plan to cut military spending, draw down forces in Afghanistan and perhaps hurt private equity investments in companies that rely on troop deployments, sources told Buyouts. “To the extent private equity either owns or is looking at businesses that depend […]

Highland Capital Management LP is seeking $750 million for its latest fund, Partner Patrick Daugherty said this week during a panel discussion at the Buyouts New York conference. The fund is Tunstall RCP II LP, a distressed opportunities fund which pursues a “loan-to-own” strategy of buying the credit of troubled companies with the intention of […]