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 Tesla's Pitch to the Public: "Fund our DOE Debt" Boston VC Will Kohler Makes His Move ThisNext Goes Shopping, Buys Stylehive and Raises $1.2M Buyouts South: Sun Capital on its Fund Size Reduction David Turner at Guardian Life: "There Has to Be a Fire in the (GP's) Belly" Quote of the Day New York Shindig Photos Cognitive Dissonance Meets PE Fundraising Seth Gardner Goes from Cerberus to the Academy Q&A with Prophet Equity on Raising an Oversubscribed Debut Fund CIA Agents Search for Corporate Dirt 100 Bankers Advise on How to Get Your Companies Public This Year One Year In, How Would You Grade Obama? M&A Madness Apax Must Be Glad Its Psagot Deal Isn't Closed Report: Markstone Reaches Settlement with Cuomo HIG Capital Raising Bio-Focused Venture Fund TheFunded's Version of the Midas List Talking Private Equity Scandal

"Insensitivity - It lets you sleep." The FT has 20 questions with Jon Moulton, formerly of Alchemy Partners, now with Better Capital. (FT) Super Bowl Special: If the private equity industry needed to fill out a football team, it would be in a good position to do so. (PE Beat) Prodding: The Federal Reserve and other financial regulators, which have faced strong pressure from the White House and Congress to stimulate lending to small businesses, prodded banks on Friday to ease such financing. (NY Times) Remember the Macquarie Group Employee Browsing Nude Photos in the Background of a Newscast? He gets to keep his job. (BusinessWeek) European Meltdown? We may be close to a "Lehman/Merrill/AIG kind of September weekend", but with no buyer of last resort, writes Minyanville.

As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and Moody’s Investors Service. Company: Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc. Sponsor: Apollo Management Action: S&P raised its ratings, including its corporate credit rating to 'B-' from 'CCC+', on the company. Highlight: "The upgrade reflects an improvement in credit quality following the successful completion of Hexion's financing transaction including amendments to its senior secured credit facilities, and our expectation that an ongoing trend of improving operating results will continue into 2010," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Paul Kurias.

TV for Job Hunters: If you're unemployed, or looking for a better job, you should consider watching a new series starting at 9 p.m. called "Job Hunt," on Channel 25. (Cityroom) Steak for Stock: Can't afford to eat at Smith & Wollensky? The restaurant is now accepting worthless stock in exchange for meals. (BI) Yikes: Does former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker know the difference between private equity firms and hedge funds? (Dealbook) Roubini's New Name: Dissatisfied with "Dr. Doom," Nouriel Roubini is on the prowl for a new nickname. CNBC and Dealbreaker have some suggestions. Ah yes, the "Sentiment Gauge": Sentiment in the private equity industry improved in the fourth quarter of 2009 as the global economy recovered, according to a survey by Deloitte & Touche. (Bloomberg)

In case you were hibernating last month, here’s a rundown of January’s 14 biggest buyout news stories. Slideshow after the jump...

One year ago today, 11 PE-backed companies had bitten the dust. In 2008, we kicked off the year with eight PE-backed companies. Not the case in 2010. This January, only two (two!) companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Atrium Companies, backed by Kenner & Co. and Golden Gate Capital, and Uno Restaurant Holdings, owned […]

peHUB has covered every nano-development in the fundraising processes of some firms,and Insight Equity and Prophet Equity are two such firms. That's because an interesting narrative emerged from the parallel fundraising efforts. For all the background, you can read here, and here, and here, and here, but the short story is this: Ross Gatlin left Dallas-based turnaround shop Insight Equity as the firm prepared to raise its second fund. He left partly because the firm's terms and fund size were pretty ambitious. Insight had planned to increase its fund size from $300 million to $500 million, while introducing a graduated carry plan that reached 30% for anything above a 4x return, and included a new $250 million mezzanine sidecar fund. Meanwhile, Gatlin launched Prophet Equity and entered the market with a $250 million hard cap, standard carry and a higher than usual GP contribution.

Happy Groundhog Day! Or rather, not... Dual Track: IPOs become juicy targets for buyout groups (FT) Investigation: Is Peter Orszag's hair really a toupé? (Gawker) Citi Pig at the Bailout Trough: Some pro-Obama groups have really gone after Wall Streeters with their new ads. (HuffPo) Out of Dry Powder? This story argues that private equity firms are not going to do deals because they're out of money! That may be the case for the handful of firms who truly are out of capital and unable to raise ANY more, but actually buyout firms are more flush with cash than ever before, and the problem is that they don't have enough deals (either valuation-wise, or financing wise) to spend it on. I believe the slowdown in the pace of fundraising, is still lower than the slowdown in the pace of deals, not to mention, buyout firms came off a record fundraising year in 2007, and 2008 was only slightly slower ($260 billion in '08, compared with $64 billion in ‘09). (IDD, sub only) Porn at the SEC: More than two dozen employees of the SEC have been investigated over the past two years for viewing porn on their computers at work. (Cityfile)

Here are some potential M&A ideas, rumored or official, to jumpstart your deal pipeline. Our sources are various news reports and the Buyouts "Seeking Buyers" list. For prior lists, see below. IntriCon Corp. (Nasdaq: IIN) plans to divest its non-core electronics business unit, RTI Electronics Inc. The Arden Hills, Minn.-based company's board approved the move to liquidate the assets and expects to complete the sale by mid-year. The maker of body-worn medical and electronic devices will book a charge of $1.4 million to $1.8 million for the divestiture. For the first nine months of 2009, IntriCon's sales fell to $41.5 million from $50.1 million a year earlier. Its RTI Electronics unit generated sales of $4 million for the latest quarter, down about 30 percent from a year earlier. Argyce LLC was seeking a buyer for the drug development program assets of Genaera Corp.

Cleveland Rocks...? Riverside Co.'s Stewart Kohl in a Q&A in the Plain Dealer on Life in Cleveland, which reminds me of my favorite Youtube spoofs on life in Cleveland, which you may remember was featured in Michael Moore's movie about capitalism. (And I'm going to claim home-state immunity on Cleveland pot shots) (Plain Dealer via WSJ) Persistent Expectations: PE firms are still thinking there will be consolidation. I tend to still disagree... Behind the deal: How cutting prop desks hits M&A (Dealzone) Servicey: Two law firm white papers on PE for ya. (1) Emerging Market Private Equity: How To Find Light At The End Of The Tunnel. (2) Private Equity: Shaken, Not Broken Davos Won't Die: A roundup of what PE dealmakers said at Davos. (DailyFinance) Say What? Current and former C.I.A. agents are using their lie-detecting and interrogation techniques to help Wall Street make money. (Dealbook, also peHUB) Yep: M&A in 2010 won't be a boom (thankfully, I say) but it'll be bumpy. Deals will take longer. (BusinessWeek) Necessary Evil: Saying No Sucks. (Highway 12 Ventures)