Erin Griffith

Wow: Remember when Steve Jobs said the Segway would be bigger than the PC? Yeahhhh. It was quietly sold with little fanfare on Christmas eve, Dealscape reports. (Via @MKFlynn) Job Interview Techniques: Tips on how to research financial companies before interviewing with them. (FINS) Compensation: A report released by JobSearchDigest.com, publishers of Private Equity Jobs Digest, reveals that private equity and venture capital firms take very different approaches to compensation based on the size of their funds. More details here. Steve Rattner: Why are the former car czar/PE baron/NY Times editor/Democrat and his wife supporting Harold Ford? Because Kirsten Gillibrand broke his wife's brothers heart, apparently. (Gawker, WaPo) Hiring 2.0: Is it better to hire someone who gets social media but may not understand business strategy or to hire someone who understands business strategy and teach them social media? Tac Anderson asks his Twitter contingency and the answers are interesting. (New Comm Biz) Speaking of Social Media: Here are the 20 Best Marketing And Social Media Blogs By Women. (Forbes) Testing Rocking Waters: BC Partners seeks raise €5.8bn, the biggest fund since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. (FT)

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. This week is apparently Warburg Pincus week, as the firm’s portfolio companies make up two of the week’s three ratings changes. Warburg Pincus portfolio company Antero Resources was downgraded on its decision to take on $100 million in new debt to pay down another facility. Meanwhile the firm’s energy company, Bill Barrett Corp., was upgraded after the company increased its commitment under the company's unrated revolving credit facility. And CI Capital’s Ply Gem received another upgrade (last week was from Moody’s) on its new issuance. The company is receiving “unsolicited” ratings from S&P, which indicates CI isn’t being generous with information on the company for the ratings agencies to do their jobs with. Call this a victory for the watchdogs? I guess?

Behind the Skype: Bloomberg digs into Skype's founders relationship with eBay, Andressen, and Silver Lake. (Bloomberg) Poor, Poor Rich Banker: "You're a senior-level bonus baby of Wall Street. How do you cope with what's happening to you: the angry blogs, the editorials demanding contrition, the tax threats, the suggestion that your bonus is an ill-gotten gain, the inquiry commissions, the "vilification" in Jamie Dimon's words?" (Dealscape) Men and Women Respond to Stress Differently: Finding calls for gender-specific treatments for some diseases, researchers say (BusinessWeek) The Lloyd Face: Lloyd Blankfein showed an amazing variety of facial expressions during the Financial Crisis Inquiry yesterday, Dealbreaker has a breakdown. (Dealbreaker) Name Drama: J.W. Childs' apparel company JA Apparel is embroiled in a lawsuit with the company's founder and namesake, Joseph Abboud. (WSJ)

Mergermarket today released its Canadian M&A roundup. The data shows that the slowdown in Canadian M&A continued in 2009 as overall values decreasing by 20.8% and volume by 14.2%. However, there was an upward trend in volume figures throughout 2009 as the last quarter of the year saw an 81% increase from 65 announced transactions in Q1 to 118 in Q4. The sharp increase in number of deals was led by the Energy sector, which with 99 announced deals representing a quarter of Canadian M&A volume for 2009.

It's only 14 days into the new year and TA Associates has already done more deals than most firms do in a quarter. The firm this week acquired a majority stake in eCircle, a Munich, Germany-based provider of email marketing solutions, for more than €60 million. A day earlier, TA invested $45 million for a minority stake in Micromax Informatics Ltd., the third-largest mobile handset provider in India (a deal aided by the firm's recently opened Mumbai office). That's in addition to the firm's January 2 exit of Logistics Health. TA originally backed Logistics Health back in 2003, with a $72.5 million investment, selling it for an undisclosed amount for Gunderson Lutheran. Earlier this week TA managing director Michael Wilson commented on his firm's pickup in activity at a conference hosted by Gridley & Co. "Sellers are coming out of their fox holes to do deals now," he said. "They're saying, ‘We saw our lives flash before our eyes, and now things are starting to go back to normal. It's not back all the way but its safe enough to think about doing something."

Big Story of the Day: Congress is grilling the bank CEOs on compensation. Here's some of the best coverage: WSJ: Banks Admit Missteps Amid Grilling, Elliot Spitzer on HuffPo: 10 Questions The Financial Crisis Commission Must Ask, Dealbook: More Questions for the Finance Chiefs, Dealbook: Wall St. Must Pay ‘Mad Scientists' Well, Lobbyist Says, Newsweek: The subsidy that won't die. Management's Ticket to Ride: Deal Professor breaks down the management roll-over deal in Apollo's buyout of amusement park operator Cedar Fair. (Dealbook) The AIG Shortfall Agreement: Using the word `Redacted' about 840 times in a single 16-page document is begging for trouble. (FT Alphaville via Dealscape) Here comes an M&A boom. Better to be early than late. (Michael Mauboussin via Abnormal Returns) Dolla dolla: Bain Capital has cashed in on more of its Dollarama chips after being public for only 3 months. (The Deal Pipeline) $87,000 Rug: CIT's executive offices may be getting a makeover. John Thain is in the running for the firm's CEO position. (WSJ)

Buyout firm Roark Capital will no longer make financial services investments, a decision which leaves Partner Larry DeAngelo out of a job, according to a source familiar with the situation. DeAngelo joined the Atlanta-based firm in 2005 to lead its financial services investments. His tenure at Roark officially ended on December 31. The firm’s decision […]

Enhanced Equity, the private equity arm of Enhanced Capital, is raising its second private equity fund to invest in buyouts of and growth capital for lower middle-market companies. Enhanced Equity Fund II, L.P. has a target of $350 million, and the firm has closed on $106 million in commitments from 11 investors, according to a […]

Everyone Hates Goldman: Everyone, except for MBA students, who all still want to end up there. (Bloomberg) And maybe the firm's senior management, if they are in fact required to give to charity. Ups and Downs: Wellington Fund declares that Canada's private equity industry is on fire. Meanwhile, the U.S. market is anemic. But Mergers & Acquisitions says we need to put things in perspective. Wall Street Bonus Mad Libs: Canned outrage, basically. Mildly funny. (LolFed) Tale of Two Entrepreneurs: Ah, the lemonade stand metaphor of life. (Seth Godin) Reminds me of this lovely lemonade stand metaphor for the finanicial crisis. Back to DIY: All eyes are on VC-backed Etsy as its founder pulls a Steve Jobs, returning to the CEO role after some time away from the company. (Dealscape)

NewStar Financial Inc. last week sold the largest U.S. collateralized loan obligation in more than a year. The Boston-based firm, which lends to middle market buyouts, will use $225 million of the $275 million in proceeds to fund an existing portfolio of loans, allotting the remaining $50 million for originating new financing. The new money will be weighed toward leveraged buyouts, a source familiar with the facility said. That a CLO would sell in this market is encouraging, but the deal wasn't cheap. NewStar got Libor plus 375 on the AAA-rated tranche of its loan, which is expensive, but still lower than the market rate of between Libor plus 550 to 650 for new loans. The AA-rated tranche is priced at Libor plus 750.