Dan Primack

I’ve spent the first few post-launch weeks in my Framingham, Mass. home office, but it’s now time to put on some shoes and hit the conference circuit (with a brief interruption for the holiday party circuit). So, in the spirit of shameless self-promotion, I’ll be at the: Yale SOM Private Equity Conference This Friday in Rye […]

Bain Capital is running out of money. Of course, that’s a bit like saying that an ATM machine is running out of money: Rest assured that someone will show up in the morning to fill ‘er back up. The Boston-based firm had raised $10 billion this past spring, including an $8 billion general fund and […]

We’re continuing to tinker with the site, and the latest addition is the introduction of our Featured Event Listings. Anyone can post an event notice for free, which lets you display the event name, location, time and website. But those wanting to both highlight their event (notice the shaded calendar boxes) and provide more detailed […]

Hawkeye Holdings, an ethanol company owned by Thomas H. Lee Partners, today pulled the plug on its proposed $350 million IPO. It had postponed the offering back in September (just as it was scheduled to price), with CEO Bruce Rastetter saying: “We have decided to temporarily delay our IPO in light of current conditions in […]

Private equity fundraising has broken volume records each of the past three years (including 2006), and a reporter yesterday asked if I thought the trend would continue in 2007. My answer was affirmative. From a buy-side perspective, I expect the limited partner community to increase its already-ravenous private equity appetite. Three reasons: 1. A continued […]

ZipCar Inc., the nation’s largest car-sharing service, has quietly raised $25 million in its second round of venture capital funding. Greylock Partners led the “Series E” deal, while return backers included Benchmark Capital and Boston Community Ventures. Car-sharing initially began as a “green” concept in the late 1990s, but since has grown into a full-fledged […]

Andrew Ross Sorkin of NY Times Dealbook has developed some middle ground between Ben Stein’s call for banning management buyouts and the private equity market’s calls for continued regulatory indifference. Specifically, he has a four-part plan for fixing certain problems inherent in management buyouts. It goes like this: 1. Require that a majority of minority shareholders approve the […]

NPR’s OnPoint program is currently broadcasting a conversation on private equity, with Bob Kuttner of The American Prospect and Steve Kaplan of the University of Chicago. Update: The broadcast is now over, but definately worth a listen. Podcast should soon be available at http://www.wbur.org/listen/podcasts/

It’s now been two days since a few disgruntled shareholders filed what they hope will become a class-action lawsuit against 13 top private equity firms. I hope that it doesn’t. To be clear, I am not an apologist for private equity firms. I think many of them charge unfair transaction fees to their limited partners, and […]

During the White House Correspondents Dinner earlier this year, emcee Steven Colbert said of President Bush: “He believes on Wednesday exactly what he believed on Monday, regardless of what happened on Tuesday.” Kind of reminds me of what I keep seeing on the private equity beat. The first example came last month, when Sevin Rosen […]