Erin Griffith

***As you may have guessed by now, my two favorite things to write about are consumer/retail companies and bankruptcies. (When a consumer/retail company goes bankrupt, it’s like Christmas.) With that in mind, I was happy to read on Dealscape that I have no shortage of bankruptcy filings to cover—the first half of August has seen […]

Yesterday I outlined how to properly characterize trendy aka “sexy” companies. But how does one actually invest in them? I have long operated under the mindset that Heelys and Segway—companies whose faddish products save us from the dreaded act of walking—were both doomed. Heelys has had a somewhat rocky journey, losing almost half of its […]

Beverage Marketing USA, maker of AriZona Iced Tea, this week became the last large, successful, privately-held beverage companies to take on outside financing. Coke had been salivating over it for years — courting reticent entrepreneurs John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio — but it ultimately became more of a catalyst than a captor. After Coke paid […]

***It has to be said. After reading all about it on Infectious Greed today,  I declare, I am officially tired of people in finance labeling companies as either “sexy” or “unsexy.” There is nothing sexual about a company, or a balance sheet, or a business plan, first of all. Second of all, this is a […]

Reporters get plenty of esoteric press releases—each day my inbox produces a few chuckle-worthy requests for me to cover hard-hitting news stories like “Eleven People Already In Line For Opening of Ikea in Brooklyn,” or “Candy Dynamics’ Toxic Waste Candy To Be Exclusive Sour Candy Brand At Connected Celebrity Gift Lounge Celebrating 2008 Mtv Movie […]

Bankruptcy Insider today reported that both Goody’s Family Clothing and Linen’s ’n Things—two bankrupt retailers backed by private equity firms—had no luck selling their leases. They’re asking the U.S. Bankruptcy for the District of Delaware to let them reject the leases in question. Prentice Capital Management-backed Goody’s tried to sell 67 leases and received offers […]

In the spirit of still wishing I was on vacation, a few links related to my travel destination: ***Not all Wall Street jobs are disappearing into thin air. According to the New York Times, many of them are heading to India, in a move execs call “high-value outsourcing” or “knowledge process outsourcing.” The story goes: […]

Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Fed is discussing potential changes in regulation that would allow PE firms to invest more easily in beat-up lenders. Blackstone and Carlyle apparently talked with Paulson about it this month. It’s been pretty quiet on that front since that story, with news hogs like KKR and Mervyns taking up […]

Last post for a bit as I drop off the radar for a few weeks of vacation. Heading to India to return August 13… Some links on my way out: ***DLJ Merchant Banking has a new Chairman. Full story here. *** Flashback—Whole Foods/Wild Oats and XM/Sirius are back in the news today. Are these deals […]

***Disgruntled, fired, or bored I-bankers aren’t all parading into private equity—some of them (or I suppose a lot of them, according to Corporate Dealmaker), are moving into corporate development. Which is basically doing the same thing they were doing—M&A—except now they only have one client. ***The average large company gets one third of its growth […]