Dan Primack

PwC today released a study (download here) that found a majority of private equity pros expect the percentage of portfolio company dividend recaps to grow in the coming year, with most of that activity occurring in the middle-markets. Here’s one highlight (or lowlight, depending on your perspective): “94% of respondents consider dividend recaps an important part […]

Updated: The most persistent private equity myth is that the industry makes money by acquiring companies and then selling them off piecemeal. For example, Frank Gaskins of IPOdesktop.com said the following last Friday when we both were on CNBC to discuss the possibility of a Blackstone Group IPO: “[Blackstone’s] basic business is to buy to […]

I had lunch yesterday with a couple of bankers who focus on currency foreign exchange related to private equity transactions. Both were European natives, so the question arose of why the European public seems so much less charitable toward private equity than does its U.S. counterpart. After all, each day’s European press carries a new […]

A kind of disturbing story today related to the pending $19 billion buyout of Clear Channel by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners. As we’ve previously discussed, the deal is being opposed by a number of major CC shareholders, who claim that the $37.60 per share pricetag is too low. One such shareholder is […]

The National Venture Capital Association yesterday released its latest “Venture Impact” study (conducted by Global Insight), which claims that VC-backed company contribute 16.6% of U.S. GDP and 9% of the workforce. VentureImpact2007FINAL.pdf Venture Impact.ppt It’s also worth pointing to a brief critique of the study by Paul Kedrosky, who suggests that much of this success […]

The sky is bright, uncontested take-private buyouts are becoming are rare breed and I’m still trying to rationalize how Texas’ loss on Sunday didn’t bust my bracket. In other words, it’s time for some Tuesday Talkback. First up are some thoughts on the prospective Blackstone IPO. Lawrence writes: “The thing I struggle with is how […]

NVCA president Mark Heesen gave a speech in Colorado last month, in which he mentioned that New England was in danger of losing its traditional position as the #2 regional recipient of venture capital funding (behind perennial leader Silicon Valley). So I looked it up, and he’s right. If the first quarter were to end […]

I was in New York when Fortress went public, and it easily supplanted the weather as small talk du jour. One of my Buyouts Magazine colleagues kept calling out trading price updates, while most every phone call began with, “Well, whaddya think about that Fortress valuation?” One such call, however was more memorable. A fund-of-funds […]

One of the big storylines to the (possibly) pending Blackstone IPO is that the private equity giant is being hypocritical. Specifically, it is going public while simultaneously telling other public companies that they’d be better off by going private. What’s good for the goose… But this analysis leaves out an important addendum to the “go […]

Update: Video here. I’ll be on CNBC’s Power Lunch program at around 1:30 ET this afternoon, to discuss a report that Blackstone Group is prepping an IPO. Goldman Sachs would be the lead underwriter, and a filing could come within the next several weeks. Assuming this would be an actual IPO of the management company instead of […]