Typical Blackstone, which finally closed on its mega $21.7 billion dollar fund, the same week Barry Bonds broke the most coveted record in American sports. (Did Goldman send a taped video message congratulating them?). Hats of to them and the fact that it is pretty amazing that Blackstone has been able to raise close to $67 […]
I just read this news: The Carlyle Group and Onex Partners have completed their acquisition of Allison Transmission from General Motors Corp., for $5.575 billion. The $1.5 billion equity tranchewas split evenly between Carlyle and Onex, while current Allison president Lawrence Dewey has become CEO of the newly-independent company. It led me to wonder whether […]
In their inevitable search for more tax revenue, some in Congress have latched onto an idea that would irreparably damage the most effective growth engine of the American economy: Private equity funds. Convinced that they can have their cake and eat it too, they want to change tax treatment of long-term “carried interest” rights held […]
If you at all follow the start-up industry, you have heard the taxing news: Congress wants to raise taxes on VCs and private equity executives. Blackstone’s IPO and the perceived excessive economics reaped by the firm’s principals appears to have been the impetus for the new legislation proposed by representatives Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Barney Frank […]
The goal: obtain information about M&A etc. Current target: “30% aimed at chief investment officers” (sic) More compelling target: you How they are doing it: Research using general search and even systems like LinkedIn/MySpace/Facebook, craft personalized phishing e-mails (that appear to come from friends) with links that point to malicious sites (that probably look like familiar […]
Now this is a transaction that was bound to happen months ago. Although the valuation is certinly on the upper part of the scale, given consolidation and specialization of leading and medium sized hotel conglomerates, this question (topic of this message) posted by WSJ is certainly one worth taking a look at. Given the equity […]
By looking at a list of ttm acquisitions in the Retail and Luxury Goods Industries, I am still surprised that no big names have still been targeted by buyout firms, especially big fashion houses in Europe. Although transactions like the ones involving Cerutti 1881 Milano SpA, Dufry AG, Histoire d’Or, Garrard & Co. MQ Sweden AB, Jil […]
As I wrote earlier here (/?p=303), WiFi gadgets that can provide Internet, video, and voice with no carrier subscription are coming. To date no such devices have been widely popular or deployed. They have a decent chance of changing Cingular’s and Verizon’s business, forever. I for one was surprised to realize that the iPhone is […]
You can download a PDF of this article, with footnotes, here: Beyond Two and Twenty.pdf Victor Fleischer, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, has written a draft article entitled Two and Twenty: Taxing Partnership Profits in Private Equity Funds, that has received significant attention from Congress, tax practitioners, the trade press and the […]
The proposal to change the tax rules for carried interest is unfair not per se, but it is unfair because it singles out fund managers for tax discrimination. Proponents of treating carried interest as “compensation,” taxable at high ordinary income rates, do have a good argument to a point. The carried interest is obviously compensation […]