The third quarter isn’t officially over, but we here at PE Hub believe that Q4 effectively starts after Labor Day and wraps up around Thanksgiving. Things have been plenty slow for July and August, but according to an informal survey of investor expectations, the fourth quarter will end up on par with the first half […]
Deja Vu Edition: More IPO bashing, more aging media, more Blackstone, and more PE investing in financials. And of course, my favorite take on the fake death of the real Steve Jobs. Reuters: After my IPO bashing today, more bad news. The exchanges are feeling the pain from not just a lack of new issuances, […]
*WSJ, CNBC, FT say it isn’t; but perhaps the blogosphere is not so sure? Dow Jones today published a list of private equity firms interested in bidding for Lehman Brothers’ wealth management arm, Neuberger Berman, worth around $10 billion. The Journal’s list included obvious suspects like KKR, Bain Capital and TPG. The FT counted Hellman […]
Financial buyers may be somewhat subdued in the current uncertain credit markets but deals are still being done. This morning US private equity house Clayton, Dubilier & Rice succeeded in picking up the industrial testing division of UK mid cap engineer Bodycote. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice won what looks like quite a competitive process, seeing […]
No one’s selling today unless they have to, and in traditional media, some of them just have to, a buyout pro told me. There isn’t a lot of happy news for print media companies this summer. Cox Communications is trying to sell some of its newspapers, which PE firms are interested in, one source says, […]
These days, the word “big” is a relative term for PE professionals. In a semi-regular column, I’ll explore how the some of the biggest (or at least most interesting) deals are getting done.Today’s Big Deal (Kind Of) goes to Sentinel Capital Partners, for its purchase of Mobile Dental Services. My pick is a bit of […]
It’s the numbers edition: One bankruptcy, $3 billion in assets for sale, $900 million in fresh capital, two troubled mattress companies, many a unitranche loan, and one train stopped dead in its tracks. Oops: Cadence Innovations is bankrupt. Again. Yucaipa was the lone wolf PE backer among the handful of hedge funds that brought the […]
Mitt Romney is probably just days away from being named John McCain’s running mate, and the Democrats are already taking shots based on his time running Bain Capital. During a press conference earlier today in Denver, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe referred to the former buyout kingpin as a “job killing machine in business” who […]
And Mrs. Fields makes 32. The struggling pastry maker officially filed for a pre-packaged Chapter 11 plan yesterday. Capricorn Holdings will lose its control over the company to bondholders.I posted the original list about a month ago, so it’s time to update July’s LBO-Backed Bankruptcy List. New additions: Mervyn’s + Mrs. Fields. Download the latest […]
I sometimes use this space to slam private equity firms that eschew any sense of corporate responsibility, particularly when it comes to employees at their portfolio companies. So it is my great pleasure this morning to report on the exact opposite: A firm going above and beyond to help vulnerable portfolio company employees and their […]