Erin Griffith

Here's a look at the last week's worth of scoops, data, and analysis from the peHUB team. Catch up on what you missed before it goes behind our paywall... All First Reads | All Second Opinions Joanna Rees Gets an Introduction to San Francisco Voters peHUB Returns To Boston - Shindig on March 31 Is New York's Startup Scene Surpassing Boston's? Not So Fast Spark Capital Backs Postabon New Yorker to Washington: Please Do Away with PE Tax Breaks? The New Dork: An Entrepreneur State of Mind Canada Posed To Scrap Impediment to U.S. Investment Chris Dixon: The Ultimate Founder's Founder Look, Forget the Yacht; Think Camper Trailer He's Back: Dan Rosensweig on Becoming CEO of Chegg - and How He Feels about Yahoo Today Amazon Shrugs in Colorado Inside One Very Private Equity Firm PwC: Expect A "Robust" IPO Market in 2010 Time To Put The Carried Interest Debate To Bed Laundry Room Chronicles: Placement Agents & FINRA Chris Dixon on Arugula-Eating Liberals, the Downside of Destination Sites and the Future of Hunch Sesame Street Jumps Into Social Networking; Fans Notice VC Bookworm

Uh Oh: Will Meg Whitman's investments pose a conflict of interest problem? The former eBay CEO and current Republican gubernatorial candidate has invested in private equity and hedge funds. (Dealbook) Kabletown: It didn't take long for 30 Rock to parody the NBCU merger with Comcast, and last night's episode was excellent. (Dealbook) Is it a sign? Deal rumours are running rampant, particularly in the retail chain arena. As Reformed Broker says, "This market is circulating more rumors than Fleetwood Mac's record company." Cheap Cigars: There was a "who's who" of Wall Street meeting in January to hash out the financial reform that's on the table today. Here's the story behind it. (Reuters) FYI: KKR's NYSE listing values the firm at $7.5 billion. (FT)

Private equity firm Mason Wells has held a strong first close on its third buyout fund. According to a regulatory filing, the growth equity firm has closed on $325 million in commitments from 18 investors. A source familiar with the situation said the fund has a target of $400 million with a hard cap of […]

As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from ratings agencies Moody’s Investors Service. This week Moody’s has some distaste for the Intergraph dividend recap, downgrading the company’s corporate family rating and calling the payment, which increases the company’s leverage by one and a half turns, “aggressive.” Company: HCA Inc. Sponsor: Bain Capital, KKR. Action: Moody's Investors Service assigned a Ba3 rating to the company’s proposed offering of $1.0 billion of first lien senior secured notes due 2020. Moody's also affirmed the existing ratings of HCA, including the B2 corporate family and probability of default ratings. Highlight: "Much like the secured note offerings completed in 2009, the current transaction continues to chip away at the considerable amount of bank debt scheduled to mature in the 2012 and 2013 time frame," said Dean Diaz, Vice President -- Senior Credit Officer at Moody's.

Hacking America: Wired Profiles Andrew Breitbart. (Wired) Police are the New Tax Collectors: Virginia hands out almost 7000 traffic tickets in one weekend to raise money for the government. (Economic Collapse via Clusterstock) Regret Nothing? John Kay says it's a bit disarming that Warren Buffet and George Soros are the only financiers to take personal responsibility for the financial collapse and bad performance numbers, rather than blaming it on "unprecedented" things like a "perfect storm." (FT) Need Those Soft Skills: If there is anyone in finance right now who feels the pain of lacking "soft skills," its Harry Markopolis. (FINS)

Dodd: "We don't need Republicans." (NY Times) Excited for Wall Street 2? Well you'll have to wait. The movie, which was slated to come out in April, has been pushed back to the fall now that it may get invited to Cannes. (Variety) Tricky Tricky: Is the Kabel Deutschland IPO an ambitious IPO or a cunning ploy to smoke out trade buyers? (Reuters) In the weirdest news you'll see today: Wondering what to do with leftover breast milk? This guy decided to make cheese out of it. Just, wow. (Reuters via WSJ) Who Hates Avatar the Most? I felt a little robbed after seeing Avatar (shouldn't it have been Pocahontas II?), but I certainly didn't hate it as much as these whiny mining executives. Reuters reports: "Let me put it this way, my kids saw the movie, and my kids know I'm a miner, and they didn't say anything to me," said Peter Kukielski, head of mining operations for ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker. (Reuters) Happy Birthday: VC-Backed Foursquare turns one today. Use that as a cheap excuse to try for the "Sweet 16" badge. I did! (Foursquare)

Boston-based HarbourVest Partners is preparing to hold a final close on its new cleantech fund. The firm has raised $139 million in commitments to date and is waiting to hear on one or two potential commitments before holding a final close, a source familiar with the situation said. Harbourvest launched fundraising just over a year ago with a target of $150 million and hard cap of $250 million. peHUB first flagged the fund in March 2009. The management company, called HarbourVest Cleantech Associates, was formed in April 2008. Harbourvest declined to comment.

Centerbridge Partners is one of those private equity firms that takes the “private” part just as seriously as the “equity” part. The New York firm’s partners rarely comment in the media, and even Centerbridge’s website is password protected. The radio silence is likely related to the volatile nature of Centerbridge’s deals. The distressed debt-buyout hybrid […]

Fake it to make it: The Economist on counterfeits. (Economist) Women Still Missing from Top Jobs: A new gender gap report from the World Economic Forum finds women making progress in the workplace, but there remain too few in the boardroom and C-suite. (BusinessWeek) Tough Times for Porn: The lender which backed a $14 million acquisition of the domain name www.Sex.com (a URL that is, to my dismay, very near, keyboard-wise, to the website of the SEC) is being foreclosed upon. It's for sale. (Reuters) Speaking of Porn: CNBC has a special on the difficulties of retirement in the porn industry. Because they don't have 401Ks. Someone should tell CNBC that there are a lot of industries with no 401k plans. The difference here I guess is that one's application for an office job is generally not enhanced by an Adult Entertainment resume... (CNBC)

I'm at the DBR Restructuring and Turnaround Summit in New York. When a question arose as to the sustainability of private equity's "amend and extend" strategy (a technique used in the last year to avoid loan maturities on highly levered companies) arose, Michael E. Tennenbaum of distressed debt investment firm Tennenbaum Capital Partners had this to say: "The longer you kick the can down the road, the dirtier it gets."