The private equity market has experienced a series of small and mid-sized bankruptcies over the past few months, but now it’s got a big one: Linens ‘n Things filed for Chapter 11 down in Delaware this morning, and announced plans to close 120 of its more than 500 stores. Apollo Management had taken the Clifton, […]
Update: ABC now reporting that the talks are dead. Good. If 2007 was the year in which private equity became a dirty word, 2008 has been the year in which it hosed off and began selling soap down on Wall Street. In fact, a good case could be made that the industry has helped salve […]
Eos Airlines today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and said its final flights between New York’s Kennedy Airpoirt and London’s Stansted Airport would be tonight. This is just the latest in a recent rash of PE-backed airlines to go bust, following Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines. In a statement, Eos said: “This announcement is […]
Update: Bain and THL turn down the banks’ offer. The Clear Channel banks today offered to enter into binding arbitration with Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, in order to reach resolution of their dispute. This is the type of lifeline you throw after being slapped silly by the courts, and continues to illustrate […]
Buyouts Magazine today made official what we’ve all known for a while: Q1 deal volume hit the skids. U.S. buyout firms last quarter closed just 226 “control” deals, and the 53 with disclosed values were worth just $46.1 billion. For context, 283 deals were completed in Q1 2007, with $103 billion in disclosed values. But […]
When I won the PE Wire NCAA tournament pool last year, no one was more surprised than me. I grew up in New York City as a rabid Knicks fan with minimal interest in college basketball. Despite my lack of experience, I accurately forecast the final score of the 2007 National Championship with an 84–75 […]
The would-be Clear Channel bankers lost yet another legal battle today, as a Texas judge rejected their motion to dismiss the case. The judge also set a June 2 trial date, and made no changes to the temporary injunction granted two weeks ago. For those living under a rock — a rock without Internet access to peHUB […]
I spent part of yesterday’s flight reading BusinessWeek’s cover story on the Freescale buyout, which a headline writer suggests is “private equity’s ugliest deal.” Let’s leave aside that hyperbole for a moment, since Refco is private equity’s ugliest deal in recent memory, and Freescale isn’t (yet) nearly as ugly as the dozens of PE-backed companies making […]
Most M&A attorneys may be down in New Orleans, but the Clear Channel litigation keeps chugging along anyway. Yesterday a federal judge kicked Clear Channel’s Texas complaint back to the Lone Star State, after the banks had requested a change to federal venue. That’s bad news for the banks, particularly given how Texas juries are […]
Are you holding tickets to fly on a private equity-owned airline? May I suggest a train or automobile? ATA Airlines today canceled all current and future flights, after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. If that sounds familiar, it might be because Aloha Airlines did the exact same thing earlier this week. In fact, the […]