Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman will announce his bid for the White House next Tuesday, bringing a moderate Republican and expert on America’s fastest growing competitor into the race to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. “I intend to announce that I will be a candidate for the presidency a week from today,” Huntsman, former […]
The board of Graham Packaging has decided to back the offer from Reynolds Group Holdings, which is offering $25 a share. Graham, which is backed by the Blackstone Group, already has a $22.10 a share offer from Silgan Holdings. Graham notified Silgan yesterday of its decision. Silgan has three business days to make a "responsive offer," according to a statement.
Warren Lee has been promoted to general partner within Canaan Partners, the VC firm he joined in 2005. He serves as head of Canaan Partners’ New York City office. Lee also hosts the Startup@Work Founder Speakers Series and founded the NYC Turing Fellowship Program. Prior to joining Canaan, he worked at Comcast Interactive Capital.
Verto Partners has lured Pete Bassi, former president and chairman of YUM! Restaurants International, to join the Dallas-based firm as a managing director and partner. Under Bassi’s leadership, Yum opened new locations in multiple new countries. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for BJ's Restaurants Inc. and Potbelly's.
Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus are exiting Telcordia Technologies after six years. Ericsson said today that it is buying the telecom services provider for $1.15 billion cash. Piscataway, N.J.-based Telcordia provides mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services. It produced $739 million revenue for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2011. Providence and Warburg acquired Telcordia in 2005 for $1.35 billion. Each PE firm put in $150 million equity for a combined $300 million, a source says. The rest of the deal was paid using debt.
Blue Point Capital Partners has exiting its stake in Packers Holding, selling the company to Harvest Partners. The sale yielded a 6x return for the middle market private equity firm. Specific terms of the sale to Harvest Partners were not released. Blue Point invested in Packers Holdings from its $400 million fund, Blue Point Capital Partners II L.P. Packers Holdings is a provider of outsourced cleaning and sanitation services to the food processing industry.
The Gores Group has completed its acquisition of the assets of Clarkesville, Georgia-based Scovill Fasteners, a manufacturer of engineered closure products. Terms of the deal were not released. Gores Group is based in Los Angeles, and its current private equity fund has committed equity capital of more than $4 billion.
Publicly traded Smart Modular Technologies Inc. has announced the expiration of its “go-shop period,” which followed Silver Lake Partners’ buyout offer in April. Buyout shop Silver Lake Partners will acquire the Newark, Calif.-based Smart Modular Technologies in a cash deal that values the company at roughly $645 million. Smart Modular is a maker of memory chips. Silver Lake has roughly $14 billion under management.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. may face roadblocks from regulators on its planned $1.6 billion buyout of Taiwan electronics components maker Yageo, Reuters reported Tuesday. The island’s financial regulator has reportedly expressed concern over minority shareholders' rights, Reuters said. The next significant date for the deal will be on June 24, when KKR and will have the choice of a second and final extension or walking away from the deal for a year, Reuters wrote.
Buyout shop Lazard is looking to sell a stake in Australian biscuit maker Unibic to an Asian partner, and is in talks with potential buyers, Reuters reported Tuesday. A strategic buyer would help the company – Australia’s third largest biscuit maker – expand its Asian business.