Erin Griffith

As an extension of my previous look at private equity investments in casual restaurants, I’ve compiled an in-comprehensive list of about 30 current private equity investments in the sub-sector. Important to note: Some of these may walk the line between casual and upscale; I tried my best to filter. Lastly, some of the listed entities […]

With last week’s news that Uno Restaurant defaulted and bankrupt Bennigan’s sold to a PE firm, it seems that the grim reaper of buyouts is moving from consumer to casual restaurants. You may recall my earlier look at the fates of consumer industry-focused private equity firms. You may also recall that Uno is backed by […]

In question today: IPOs, high yield bonds, patriotism, globalization, and the blame game. Reuters: Its not news to me, but now we have validation, the mega-buyout firms aren’t all sitting idle, they’re deploying capital overseas, more than half of it, to be precise. Dealbreaker: The New Owners. Ha. I think. The Aleph Blog: “You can […]

So we’re heading into the home stretch of 2008. Next week marks the official end of summer, and the beginning of one last push to get deals through before bonus time (no matter how battered those checks may look this year). Check back next week for a PEhub roundup of outlooks on Q408, which basically […]

In question today: TA Associates, American Capital, Castle Harlan, Bob Dylan, dinner parties and Caxton-Iseman Capital. ***Knicks star and Steve & Barry’s product pusher Stephon Marbury is suing the bankrupt retailer (and TA Associates investment) for the royalties he would’ve earned. Who thinks Sarah Jessica Parker’ll be next? ***In its second exit of the day, […]

There’s no shortage of LBO shops that lost their shirts (and even shingles) after failed ventures into the VC world in the late 90s. This, I’m convinced, was the birth of the phrase “stick to our knitting.” But what about the inverse? During the recent buyout boom, with LBOs both easy to finance and popular […]

***Economic doom and gloom fought back cancer, porn, Obama, the Olympics and boobs on bikes to take the title of most popular Reuters news story today, thanks to the comments on one Harvard Economics professor. Kenneth Rogoff says we are not out of the woods yet. ***PCMag.com’s Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites includes one business-related […]

The Carlyle Group’s Chairman, Louis Gerstner, announced his retirement today. Gerstner is known for saving IBM from demise in the early 90’s by shifting the computer products company’s focus to services. He joined Carlyle as Chairman in January 2003 (just after writing the humbly titled book Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? How I Turned Around […]

***When being rich and powerful isn’t enough… Bloomberg and New York magazine report on instances of financial types being denied access to exclusive clubs and restaurants, with one going so far as to screen “203” area code calls. Call it financial profiling? Slate might not think so. ***Dirt—or rather, making dirt capable of growing things—is […]

We know where McCain and Obama stand on carried interest (for a rate hike/against it, respectively). And we know, thanks to Dan’s survey, where PEHub readers stand (pro-Obama). And we also know that this differs slightly from the donation habits of private equity professionals (increasingly pro-McCain). But how will the election outcome affect your portfolio […]