Swiss energy firm Alpiq's sale of German power engineering business Alpiq Anlagentechnik Group is attracting interest from a number of private equity firms and trade buyers, Reuters wrote Thursday. First round bids are due in mid-November.
Publicly traded LSI Corp. is paying $322 million in cash to buy SandForce Inc., a maker of flash storage processors and solid state drives. Founded in 2006, SandForce has raised money from venture capital investors DCM, Storm Ventures, Translink Capital and Canaan Partners.
Len Blavatnik's Warner Music Group and KKR-backed BMG Music are in the lead to win the auction for the recording and music publishing assets of EMI Group from Citigroup Inc., Reuters reported Thursday. Blavatnik appeares close to clenching a $1.5 billion deal for EMI's labels, which include Capitol and Virgin, two people told Reuters. Vivendi's Universal Music Group, the world largest music company, reportedly dropped out of the running for EMI's record label assets. Citigroup seized control of EMI in February after its previous private equity owner, Terra Firma, defaulted on a loan.
Sony Corp. is taking over the Sony Ericsson mobile phone joint venture for 1.05 billion euros ($1.45 billion), as it seeks to catch up with smartphone and tablet makers Apple and Samsung, Reuters reported Thursday. The deal gives Sony ownership of certain handset patents held by Ericsson and will enable it to integrate the joint venture's output with its own range of products and content. Until now Sony's tablets, games and other consumer electronics devices have been kept separate from the phones sold and created by Sony Ericsson, Reuters wrote.
TA Associates has completed its buyout of CoSentry, a data center, cloud computing, and managed service provider. Sellers were McCarthy Capital andWaittCorp Investments, the investment company of Gateway Computer co-founder Norm Waitt. Terms were not released.
Pipeline Supply & Service, which is backed by Cadent Energy Partners, has acquired Wasatch Supply. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Wasatch provides consumable supplies and equipment to the oil and gas, pipeline and construction industries in the US and abroad. News of the deal was announced by GulfStar Group, a Houston IB.
Market volatility may have slowed down M&A but there still are some bright spots. So far in 2011 there have been 503 U.S. announced mergers that are private equity backed. These deals are valued at$77.5 billion, which compares to the 632 deals for all of 2010 that totaled $69.34 billion, Dealogic says. Transaction values, according to the data, are up 12%. However, these totals don't include the mammoth Kinder Morgan deal. Kinder Morgan agreed to buy El Paso Corp. for about $38 billion, including debt, earlier this month. CORRECTED: The Carlyle Group, and Goldman Sachs Inc.’s buyout arm, Highstar Capital, along with Riverstone Holdings, bought Kinder Morgan in 2007. Kinder Morgan went public earlier this year but the PE firms still hold stakes.
Pioneer Behavioral Health said Wednesday that its stockholders approved its planned sale to Acadia Healthcare. The deal was announced in May. Acadia, which operates 19 behavioral facilities around the country, is backed by Waud Capital. The transaction is expected to close on or about Nov. 1.
Marty Staff, American Apparel's chief business development officer, is leaving the company, effective immediately. Staff remain available to advise the company during a transition period, the company said.
Pet Supplies Plus said Wednesday that its executive chairman, Harvey Solway, is retiring effective Dec. 31. Pet Supplies Plus is backed by Irving Place Capital.