Connie Loizos
American Internet Services (AIS), a San Diego-based company that manages the IT infrastructure of its clients, has secured a $43.5 million senior secured credit facility from Fortress Credit Corp., an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.
Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Company, named Richard Colton head of its Mergers and Acquisitions Industry Practice. Serving middle market and large corporate customers, including private equity firms, the practice provides clients with insurance, risk, due diligence, and employee benefit services and solutions. Colton, who will be based in new York, previously served as co-founder of Aon's mergers and acquisitions group and was also former chairman of Lockton's mergers and acquisitions group.
Devicescape, a San Bruno, Calif.-based WiFi software maker, has appointed Jeff Baeth to the position of CFO. Baeth joins the company from Jajah, where he served as CFO, helping facilitate the company's sale to Telefonica S.A. in 2010. Devicescape has raised nearly $16 million in funding, including from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and August Capital.
Earth911, a Scottsdale, Az.-based company that gathers, distributes and analyzes localized recycling information for its customers, has added Ed Skernolis to its advisory board. Skernolis spent 14 years with the Environmental Protection Agency, and 18 years as the director of government affairs for Waste Management, among other roles.
If you thought we might see a slowdown in the private equity secondary market in 2013, you probably don’t work for a pension fund, bank or insurance company. According to the private equity data provider Preqin, which just finished interviewing roughly 40 institutional investors worldwide, fully 98 percent of them said they expect to see as much if not more activity on the secondary market than last year.
Sample6 Technologies, a Boston-based developer of a so-called bacterial monitoring platform, has appointed Tim Curran as CEO. Curran was previously CEO of Vela Systems, which sold to Autodesk last year; he was also CEO of Eleven Technologies, acquired by Trimble Navigation in 2006. Sample6 is backed by Flybridge Capital Partners, Chevron Tech Ventures, The Kraft Group, Founder Collective and Boston University, among others.
Publicly traded, New York-based CTPartners Executive Search has hired Mark Hexamer, who was most recently a partner with the search firm Fortis Partners, where he worked with venture-backed technology and consumer organizations.
Relay Foods, a Charlottesville, Va.-based company that tries to make it easier for online users to shop for local and organic foods online, has hired Jill Douthit as its new CFO. Douthit previously served as VP of finance at Relias Learning and before that, as finance director for Silverchair Learning Systems. Relay has raised $3.1 million in funding, including from Battery Ventures.
Tepper Holdings -- an investment company controlled by Ron Tepper, the chairman and CEO of the Ontario-based transportation and logistics services provider Fastfrate Holdings -- has acquired a majority interest in Fastfrate from Fenway Partners, a middle-market PE firm based in New York. Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed but Fastfrate's board has unanimously supported it.
KSL, a Denver-based private equity firm specializing in travel and leisure enterprises, has acquired Malmaison Group, owner of UK boutique hotel brands Malmaison and Hotel du Vin. Terms of the deal, which involves 27 hotels altogether, are not being disclosed.