Erin Griffith

Everyone remembers Forstmann Little & Co., the once-great buyout house that never really survived the telecom crash, sputtering its way to a full-on halt in 2006. And like we all know, part of the problem, and beauty, of the buyout business is that it takes a long time to wind these things down. Today Citadel […]

Stock-wise, This Decade Sucked. Performance of US stocks was even better in the 1930s. Yeesh. (WSJ) What Our Bacon Intake Says About the Economy. Enough said. (Minyanville) Creativity, Meet Destruction: The Decade Rewrote the Corporate Handbook, Thanks to the Web, Globalization and the Collapse of Two Bubbles (WSJ) Ho No? I don't know about you guys, but I love to hate the New York Post's covers and ridiculous, shameless puns. Now you can relive the past decade's worth of covers (and vote on your favorite!) (NY Post) CFOs Gloomy About 2010, Survey Finds: The quarterly Duke University-CFO magazine survey finds finance chiefs glum on prospects for 2010, expecting further job cuts. (BusinessWeek) Nice Bet: David Tepper bet big on the financial sector and won big. His hedge fund is up 120% for the year. (WSJ) Listicle: Top five investing lessons from 2009. (LA Times)

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 Insider Trading Taints Private Equity (Again) More Pain in the Portfolio Dangers Of Relying On Government For Cleantech $ Q&A With Marlin Equity On the Fundraise of the Year Zynga Poised to Exploit Global Keiretsu How To Build Your Startup - Or Not Schwarzman Gets a Lump of Coal for Dirty Energy Plants What Does Stanford's Non-Sale Mean? Memo to Congress: There are Legal Issues With Taxing Carried Interest as Ordinary Income Hoffman Unleashes His Optimism at TEDxSV Top-Performing Private Equity Firm? Try Leonard Green BDCs and Their Fees Errors Reported In Canopy HSA Accounts Another CEO Indicted For Wire Fraud Elevation Partners: We're Not Fundraising (Yet) Does Deloitte Not Understand FAS 157? Midweek M&A Madness Gellert Leaves VC To Launch GateGuru Message Received: RingCentral CEO Likes Cloud Computing Phone Systems 2009 Private Equity Timeline Ghosts Of Chanukah Past From GP to LP: "Moving Up The Food Chain"

Happy Hanukah Steve: Mr. Schwarzman is taking blows left and right on the blogs these days (peHUB not excluded). First, we have, via Cityfile, a brutal criticism of the "Schwarzman" branch of the New York Public Library, formerly known as the "Main Branch." (Vanishing New York) Then we have blogs like Dealbreaker mocking his family holiday party, except when you think about it, he was kindof asking for it if he really did dress up as the Grinch. (Dealbreaker) That's all on top of the Santa and elves protest from earlier this week, in which he received a lump of coal for being "a very bad boy." Speaking of Blackstone: The firm is preparing a big exciting IPO of a pretty young deal. (BusinessWeek) Private Equity is EVIL: Here's what Kansas City, and fans of the city's Worlds of Fun water park, think of Apollo Management's deal to buy their parent company, Cedar Fair: Apollo Global Management is a $51 billion private equity company that owns a lot of businesses and has a lot of offices around the world. It's the kind of company that, right this second, probably has a facility buried hundreds of miles underground, filled with scientists working on a gas to turn people into zombies. Test subjects Volunteers will be taken from the Oceans of Fun wave pool. They know what they're doing. (Pitch.com via WSJ.com) Balk balk: Clear Channel's effort to lighten its debt load hit a snag yesterday when a group of bondholders claimed a plan to raise $750 million in debt without their permission effectively put the company in default. (NY Post) Screwed by Citi Again: "The nausea we feel with respect to Citigroup (C) and our Treasury Secretary just hit a new high." (Business Insider)

Black Diamond Capital, a debt investment firm based in Greenwich, Conn., has held a first close on its third fund. The firm gathered $206 million in commitments from 11 investors for BDCM Opportunity Fund III, according to a regulatory filing. No target was named. The firm’s prior fund raised $982 million in capital commitments in […]

The public offering for a credit fund owned by THL Partners has been placed on hold for the foreseeable future, several sources familiar with the situation tell peHUB. The Boston-based firm filed a prospectus to raise $300 million for a business development corporation (BDC) in June. That THL Credit would wait for better timing to take its funds public is no surprise, despite an increasingly hot IPO market. The other BDC in registration this year already threw in the towel. In May, Nelson Peltz filed with plans for a similar move, seeking to raise $300 million for a newly formed blind pool BDC called Trian Capital Corporation. That effort was pulled from the market in August, citing the lack of investor appetite for BDC IPOs.

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 and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. Mixed bag this week, with a handful of downgrades, one upgrade and two withdrawals, one for "business reasons," which can mean any number of things, including the company not liking its rating. To this I say, 'lame.' Company: Wastequip Inc. Sponsor: Carlyle Group and Odyssey Investment Partners Action: Moody's lowered the company’s corporate family and probability of default ratings to Caa2 from Caa1. In addition, the ratings on the senior secured credit facility and term loan were lowered to B3 from B2. Highlight: ‘The ratings downgrade reflects Moody's view that revenues and earnings will remain at relatively low levels and that financial leverage will remain elevated over the near term.”

Survey time! Last year peHUB readers participated in Semaphore's Confidence Survey, which tests PE sentiment in areas like income and confidence in their colleagues and managing partners. Highlights from last year's survey include one respondent's bluntly saying "PE is dead and I wish my boss were too". Yikes. To participate this year, go here. Call a Spade a Spade: Terra Firma has filed a lawsuit against Citigroup for talking the firm into the EMI deal. Felix Salmon calls it "slightly batshit." (Reuters) Eating Our Words: We already looked at some private equity false alarms, but BusinessWeek has done a similar story with a broader focus. (BW) Headline of the Day: Apparel maker North Face has sued a parody company called South Butt for trademark infringement. South Butt, which boasts the slogan "Never Stop Relaxing" was created by a college kid who wanted to poke fun at wearers of brand name outdoor apparel like North Face. (ABA Journal)

Yesterday we reported that Doug Dossey left his position as managing director at mid-market buyout firm FdG Associates to take a position with Blum Capital. Today I’ve got more details. Dossey made the move in August after Blum Capital approached him in March, possibly as a result of attention from his work on the firm’s buyout of infrastructure company Joseph B. Fay & Co. In an interview with peHUB, Dossey said he wasn’t looking to leave the firm he spent 11 years with, but found the prospects of Blum Capital's buyout segment intriguing. As a partner with Blum Capital, he is charged with “re-energizing” the firm’s private equity business.

After writing for months about the fundraising famine, I feel like I'm in bizarro world this week. First Marlin Equity closes its fund at $200 million over its target (after turning away another $350 million). And now Atlas Holdings has increased the target on its first institutional fund because of heavy demand, according to a source familiar with the situation. The Greenwich, Conn.-based firm decided to increase its target from $300 million to $350 million. The firm has received a strong response from investors in both the U.S. and Europe, a source familiar with the situation said. Atlas is planning a first close next week on north o $100 million in capital commitments, the source said. peHUB first reported the firm's fundraising effort in October, noting that Capstone Partners is acting as the firm's placement agent.