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Sony Corp. is taking over the Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture for 1.05 billion euros ($1.45 billion), as it seeks to catch up with smartphone and tablet makers Apple and Samsung, Reuters reported Thursday. The deal gives Sony ownership of certain handset patents held by Ericsson and will enable it to integrate the joint venture's output with its own range of products and content. Until now Sony's tablets, games and other consumer electronics devices have been kept separate from the phones sold and created by Sony Ericsson, Reuters wrote.

TA Associates has completed its buyout of CoSentry, a data center, cloud computing, and managed service provider. Sellers were McCarthy Capital andWaittCorp Investments, the investment company of Gateway Computer co-founder Norm Waitt. Terms were not released.

OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension funds, has opened an office in New York City. The fund, with $53 billion in net assets, will have a 30-person team working in New York, specializing in real estate, infrastructure, private equity and capital markets.

Blue Point Capital Partners and Endeavour Capital have exited their interests in Legend Brands, selling the company to publicly traded RPM International Inc. Blue Point invested in Legend Brands from its 2006 vintage fund, Blue Point Capital Partners II, L.P. – a $400 million lower middle market buyout fund. Terms were sales were not released. Legend Brands, based in Burlington, Wash., is a designer and manufacturer of highly engineered restoration and cleaning products.

The Riverside Company exited its investment in EM Test Group, selling the Swiss manufacturer and supplier of electromagnetic compatibility testing equipment to AMETEK Inc. for CHF83 million ($93.8 million). Riverside owned EM Test Group for roughly four years. The sale generated a 3.4x gross cash-on-cash return and a 38% gross IRR for the firm, Riverside said.

GlaxoSmithKline is hoping to receive second round bids for a clutch of its non-prescription drugs by mid-November, Reuters reported Wednesday. Bain Capital and Blackstone, which has partnered with Prestige Brands, are seen as the front-runners and most likely participants for the second round of the sale, Reuters wrote.

Kidd & Co., a middle-market investment firm, has sponsored the recapitalization of Numet Machining Techniques Inc. in partnership with founding shareholders Mark Roscio and Tony Neto. Stratford, Conn.-based Numet is a manufacturer of precision machined parts, kits, and assemblies for jet turbine engines for commercial and military aircraft. Terms were not released.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. is planning to launch a new pan-Asia fund to raise as much as $6 billion in the first quarter of 2012, Reuters reported. KKR is not as far progressed with its plans as TPG Capital, which set a mid-October launch date for its Asia fund of up to $5 billion, or Bain Capital, which is already raising a new Asia fund of at least $2 billion. KKR's existing Asia fund is among the largest ever raised by a private equity firm for the region, along with a $4.12 billion fund raised by CVC Capital Partners Asia in 2008, and TPG's $4.25 billion TPG Capital Partners V fund raised in 2008, data provider Preqin says.

Buyout firm Lone Star is selling its entire stake in PGM Holdings, one of Japan's largest golf course operators, for 39.5 billion yen ($521 million), Reuters reported. Lone Star has agreed to sell the 64% stake to Japanese "pachinko" pinball machine maker Heiwa Corp.

Party City Holdings Inc. may complete a $350 million initial public offering this year, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Bloomberg. The company, which sells balloons and party supplies, filed for the IPO in April. Advent owns 37% of Party City, while Berkshire Partners has 36.14%. Weston Presidio has 17.45%, according to SEC filings.