Erin Griffith

(Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm the Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] plans to announce two or three deals soon in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, co-founder David Rubenstein said on Wednesday. The deals may be in the $100 million range, he said on the sidelines of an industry conference in Brazil’s financial capital Sao Paulo. (Reporting […]

* Wanna be a bank CEO? Iceland's Arion bank is hiring! * And in the WTF category, we know Goldman Sachs has been the target of a lot of populist ire lately, but are its employees loading up on pistols to defend themselves against a potential uprising? * Harvard has an MBA Oath. To a more perfect world! Or something. * In related b-school news, U.S. MBA programs are casting a wider net in search of international students. Forget China and India. Think Nigeria, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan. * And call this progress. Carlyle has agreed to share more of its fees with investors.

The Odd Story of A Self-Important Dad: AKA Skip McGee III, the former head of investment banking at Lehman Brothers. He's written a ridiculous letter to his kid's school and Dealbreaker got wind of it... (Dealbreaker) PE Salary Freeze! Roughly six in 10 private-equity firms have frozen salaries or are considering doing so in the future. (Deal Journal) Speaking of PE HR: Clusterstock has a take of the grueling process to get hired at a buyout firm. But frankly, as I read it, I had to agree with some of the commenters-the process seems pretty standard. If you can't describe and model an LBO, why are you applying to work at a buyout firm? (Clusterstock) PR Problem: Following the Goldman Sachs' take-down in Rolling Stone earlier this year, Vanity Fair has a new profile of the firm and its not necessarily flattering. (Vanity Fair) And: Deal Journal piles on, writing that the "PR hits keep coming." (DJ)

Law Firm Debevoise & Plimpton's latest private equity report examines blind pools, management contributions, and how the SEC's new rules addressing Pay to Play affect you. Download it below.

As M&A slowly picks up, a new advisory firm has launched to meet the needs of short-handed PE firms, a year after many of them laid of junior level staff. New York-based Accordion Partners has launched with the plan to provide outsourced mid-level analytical services to buyout firms. Meaning, when time and resources are tight, […]

In case you were hibernating last month (judging by deal volume, it appears many of you were), here's a rundown of November's biggest buyout news:

Halfway through the year and we had triple digits in our sights. But an improving economy and flexible lenders may keep keep the PE-backed bankruptcy list from topping 100. In the month of November, saw just five bankrupt portfolio companies, a slight drop from October's . We've long crossed last year's total of 49, but unless things really fall apart in December, we're not going to double that number. Newcomers to the list of money-losers include Wind Point Partners, MatlinPatterson,Genstar, MSouth Equity Partners, and Sterling Group. We also added THL Partners' storied investment in Simmons, which finally found its way into the restructuring courts. That, as we all know thanks to extensive coverage by the New York Times, isn't actually a money-losing deal. But it is THL's second bankruptcy this year; the firm last month lost its investment in Nortek. Bruckmann Rosser also joins the two-timer list with its bankruptcy of Lazy Days RV. Earlier this year the firm saw its tomato company Eurofresh collapse into bankruptcy.

Which Way: Wall Street is looking for "direction." Investors are betting that the Dubai situation won't have a major impact on the U.S. (CNN) Meanwhile: Deal Journal wonders something similar... Asking, Will Dubai be the next Lehman Brothers? Answer: "May not" be, but could have "nasty surprises." (Deal Journal) And One Last Dubai World Note: Here's a list of the assets the conglomerate could be forced to sell. (Reuters) Back to Basics: Pension funds want buyout funds to go back to their roots! Besides, the private equity industry ended sometime last year anyways, they say. (P&I) Who Does Cap and Trade Hurt and Harm the Most? Do I smell targets? (dealReporter)

Law firm Nixon Peabody today brought some fresh blood into a leadership role in its investment funds practice. John Koeppel has been appointed from within the company to lead the group, succeeding Charley Jacobs, who remains in the firm's fund formation group and continues to be involved in developing the firm's Paris office. I spoke with Koeppel briefly about what's keeping his group busy in a barren fundraising landscape. What is keeping you busiest these days? I can't imagine it's fundraising. Or new fund formation for that matter. We're still counseling clients on timing for fundraising, and dealing with day-to-day regulatory things. A number of clients are active in the secondary market. We have a few looking to exit investments, and we have a few looking to grow their portfolios, and a few are looking to come out of their investments in early 2010, so we're giving them the lead time to take to get out of those.

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... Apollo Amends IPO Filing, Discloses New Performance Figures Weekly Downgrade Wrap-U Companies Led By Women Are Greener From the Filings: VC Deal Scoop As India Rises, Silicon Valley Falls Behind HBS Biz Plan Winner Gets Venture Capital Funding Triton Partners Raises $472 Million Another Ad Acquisition For Google Third Quarter Deals Had Lowest Deal Multiples in Six Years Surprised, BookRenter.com Rushes Out Funding News Reid Hoffman to Speak at TEDx Silicon Valley New Jersey's Investment Freeze is Frozen (For Now) Are "Commoners" Overvaluing Twitter and Facebook? Investors Dig Into Hot Potato While Others Freeze, Marlin Equity's Fund Is On Fire