Dan Primack

A few weeks back, we asked you to vote on where we should hold the next peHUB Shindig. You picked Boston, which is great because it means I don't need to hop a plane. It will take place on Wednesday, March 31 at the Bell in Hand (yes, it's a bigger room than last time). Tickets are on sale now. Get yours by going here. Per usual, no content – just cocktails & conversation with other members of Boston's venture capital and private equity communities. Investors, entrepreneurs, bankers, lawyers and other assorted hangers-on. Tickets cost just $10 each, with proceeds being donated to a local charity that will be selected by event attendees (you can nominate a charity when you register). I urge you to get yours soon, since the last peHUB Shindig in Boston sold out. A very special thanks to our sponsors: .406 Ventures, Atlas Venture, Capital Dynamics and Velocity Financial Group.

Sorry for the light posting so far today, but I've been sidetracked by dozens of emails about my argument that Permira should tell portfolio company Hugo Boss to keep open its Ohio suit-making plant. Specifically, I said that Permira might be making a poor financial decision for itself, in that the resulting loss of future LP commitments could exceed -- or at least offset -- savings generated by outsourcing the Ohio jobs to [insert your own Asian nation here]. In response, the collective you has accused me of "hypocrisy," "populist buffonery" and of being a "raving protectionist." Some of these attacks are accompanied by compelling dissents, so let me try to address them:

Yesterday we wrote about the pending Ohio factory closure by Hugo Boss, a publicly-traded retailer controlled by private equity firm Permira. The central issue, of course, is money. What's odd, however, is that Permira seems to be making a questionable financial decision. Hugo Boss reportedly asked the workers to take a 25% pay cut from $12 to $9 and, when they refused, opted to shutter the facility and move the jobs overseas. Ohio officials tried to intervene with financial incentives, but it was too late.

Just one hour ago, KKR portfolio company NorthgateArinso, a UK-based provider of HR software and services company, signed a deal to buy the HR unit of Convergys for $100 million in cash. The paperwork originally was supposed to be finished up before market close, but sometimes these things take a bit longer than expected. I spent a few minutes on the phone with NorthgateArinso CEO Mike Ettling, shortly after the final T was crossed. What follows is an edited version of our conversation: 1. How did this deal process begin? Ettling: Convergys started the process last fall, and we've been engaged since last October. We stayed in it, and ultimately were the last horse in the race." [Ed. note: Jefferies ran the auction] 2. What does the Convergys unit bring NorthgateArinso that it didn't already have? Strategically we have a goal to become world’s leading HR services company. Today 35% of the global market is in the U.S., but up to this point only a very small percentage of our global revenues came from the U.S. In addition, one of our primary sweet spots in terms of our service offerings is providing services to global multinational corporations, and the U.S. simply has more of them than anyone else. So we just had to have a much bigger presence in the U.S. markets, which is why we stayed focused on this transaction and why we were there in the end. It just makes an enormous amount of sense for us.

When upscale men's fashion retailer Hugo Boss decided to close its Brooklyn, Ohio plant, state officials begged controlling shareholder Permira to reconsider. Both the facility and Hugo Boss itself were profitable, they argued, and the community could hardly afford the loss of another 400 jobs. Permira, a European private equity firm, didn't seem to listen. And, to add insult to injury, Hugo Boss said it was still on track to pay out a special dividend. Erin last month suggested that Permira was playing with fire: Companies usually cite fiduciary duties in making layoffs and shutting facilities — they have an obligation to make money for their shareholders. In the case of a private equity firm, those shareholders often are pension funds, which could quite possibly include the pensions of the workers getting laid off (and subsequently, losing their pensions?). Well, one of Permira's investors is the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), which has committed approximately 160 million to a pair of Permira funds (including the one that holds Hugo Boss). It doesn't appear that any OPERS members work at the Hugo Boss plant, but the system is still steamed with how the factory closure has been handled.

"The bubble gets bigger... and pop, money goes to the weasels..." Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

The European Venture Capital Association today released a white paper on the next stage of venture capital's evolution in Europe. Download it here.

The new Tommy Hilfiger store on 5th Ave. will close at 6pm tonight, in order to get ready for a private party being hosted by private equity firm Apax Partners. Maybe I'm just bored, but the news got my mind raicing. Could this party be related to a Women's Wear Daily about how Apax is looking to either sell Hilfiger or take it public? WWD wrote, in part: At the moment, the lead candidate to acquire Hilfiger is said to be $2.4 billion Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., which has been openly on the prowl for acquisitions and proved with its 2002 purchase of Calvin Klein that it can successfully incorporate a large global brand into its business... But buying Hilfiger could be a bit of a stretch for PVH, which has about $480 million in cash on hand. Sources said one option for PVH could be to structure a deal that resembled its acquisition of Calvin

RMB funds are all the rage among big buyout firms wanting to do business in China. The latest to join the party is expected to be Bain Capital, based on comments made yesterday by managing director Mark Nunnelly at the Reuters Private Equity and Hedge Fund Summit. This was the topic of my weekly video spot with Reuters. Watch it below:

Force10 Networks Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of network routing and switching equipment, has filed for a $143.75 million IPO. It plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol FTEN, with J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank Securities and Barclays Capital serving as co-lead underwriters. The company, which early last year merged with Turin Networks, […]