Buyout shop Providence Equity Partners is in talks to buy learning software maker Blackboard Inc., Reuters reported. Blackboard, based in Washington DC, hired Barclays Capital in April to advise it on unsolicited, non-binding acquisition proposals. A deal could happen as early as next week, Reuters said.
Australian fast-food company Collins Foods, which is owned by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners, is planning a $263 million initial share offering, Reuters reported. Deutsche Bank and UBS have been appointed as joint lead managers for the IPO. Collins Foods manages more than 380 KFC and Sizzler franchises.
Ya Blew It! Botched turnaround costs Radio Shack S&P 500 membership The Quickbar Strikes Back! Twitter plots more aggressive ad strategy Dealing: Providence Equity Partners in exclusive talks for Blackboard That Was a Breeze: Wind turbine company Danotek snaps up more funding
The global private equity firm 3i Group has sold the Helsinki-based chemicals company KemFine to CABB, a German chemicals company for an undislosed amount. 3i has owned KemFine since 2004. PRESS RELEASE: 3i, an international investor focused on private equity, infrastructure and debt management, and funds managed by 3i, have agreed to sell KemFine, a […]
VCs Khosla Ventures and Opus Capital pitched in, along with other investors, to provide Touchtone Semiconductor with a $12 million funding, it was announced. Pierre Lamond, a general partner with Khosla Ventures, and Gill Cogan, general partner with Opus Capital, worked on the transaction. Cathal Phelan, chief technical officer at Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and a 25-year semiconductor industry expert, has joined the company’s board of directors.
Yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made public its definition of venture capital firms for the purposes of exemption from SEC registration requirements. VCs and the NVCA hoped, with bated breath, that few if any VC firms would get sucked into the same category as private equity and hedge funds. But even exempt firms face some filing requirements and could be subject to SEC examinations under a separate SEC rulemaking. (Austin Ventures recently hired a combination compliance officer and general counsel, raising questions about the extent of such requirements. In addition...
Not every IPO can be LinkedIn. Or HCA, apparently. Today, shares of Vanguard Health Systems fell below their $18 IPO price. Nashville-based Vanguard sold 25 million shares at $18 each earlier this week via bookrunners BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citi, Deutsche Bank Securities and JP Morgan. The underwriters have the option to buy an additional 3.75 million shares. Vanguard's stock yesterday stayed barely above water, closing at $18.05 a share. Today, Vanguard's shares fell 24 cents, or 1.33%, to $17. 81 in afternoon trading. Volume was 1.26 million. With its stock below its $18 IPO price, Vanguard officially became a broken deal.
For years, municipalities have been kicking the proverbial can down the road, hitching bonds, pension and revenue estimations to over-optimistic expectations of home prices’ appreciation—and, by direct extension of this, over-inflating their tax projections. If Meredith Whitney is to be believed, the United States is still facing potentially hundreds in billions of dollars of municipal […]
Triago has come out with its latest quarterly report. Among the noteworthy finds, the net asset values across all categories of PE funds soared 7% late last year (from October to December 2010), the report says. This marks a 40.1% cumulative gain over seven consecutive quarters and puts PE portfolio values nearly on par with the prefinancial crisis peak, Triago says. Net asset values will likely rise for an eighth consecutive quarter. But before you jump for joy, Triago warns that funds from 2005 to 2008 remain far from the hurdle rates that will trigger carried interest for GPs. This means trouble for exit volumes, cash distributions and fundraising in the second half of 2011, Triago says.
Universal Music Group is reportedly working on a bid to buy EMI, Reuters reported. EMI was put up for sale this week by Citigroup, which took control of the music company when private equity owner Terra Firma defaulted on a loan.