Second Opinion

Frothy IPO Payday? Get in line. PE pros are going to have to wait it out. (Reuters) Yelp Grows Up: Fortune on Yelp's recent spate of changes, emphasizing that the changes are NOT "as a sign the company is capitulating to critics." (CNN Money) Going To Be a STAR: Bob Wigley, a former Merrill Lynch banker, is going to Hollywood. (Deal Journal) Two Things: In case you were away from the internet all day today, you may have missed the explosion of coverage (and arteries) over KFC's new Double Down sandwich. (It features fried chicken patties as buns.) Here's a review of it. And here's a letter to the CEO of PE-backed Yum! Brands (KFC's owner) requesting the company market the disgusting 1000-calorie sandwich ("a troubling symbol of corporate irresponsibility in the face of America's obesity epidemic") the same way cigarette companies market their products. Meaning, keep ‘em away from the kids. (Letter) Headline Speaks For Itself: Finally, a Broadway-Style Song About Credit Default Swaps. (NY Mag)

Secrets Not Safe at a Pizza Place: Wow, this Reuters blogger overheard some details of the Galleon case via a consultation with a priest at a pizza place. Shoulda stuck to the confessional. (Reuters) Bro-ing Down: Alec and Tom Gores have joined forces to take on Miramax. Done It Again: The Wall Street Journal broke a big BIG story today on alcohol. Heard of it? It leads to "colorful" behavior. (Dealbreaker) IPOs Are Back. AGAIN. (WSJ) "Hot Girls:" Still love Wall Street. Here's a list of who showed up at Fashion meets Finance last night. (Deal Journal)

Econoblogging: Which media companies will find their revenue streams threatened by the shift in the financial media landscape? (Naked Capital) Anti-Wall Street Film: Independent filmmaker Danny Schecter would like to remind Wall Street that the disdain for bankers "is not coming from a bunch of lefties in some basement in the East Village. It is coming from mainstream America." (Deal Journal) Debunk: The myth of the beautiful investment banker. (eFinancial News) Dire Warning: Guy Hands, chairman of Terra Firma, says Britain faces a decade of pain, social unrest and unemployment (Guardian) Are You Paying Taxes? You're in the minority. The recession and new tax credits have nearly half of US households paying no federal income tax. (AP) Beating Back the Vultures: A new law passed on Thursday will limit the ability of so-called vulture funds to sue some of the world's poorest countries in British courts for full repayment of debts. (Reuters)

Rumourtown: Business Insider is reporting that Yahoo wants to buy Foursquare for $100 million. Somehow I'm skeptical. And here's one blog post that agrees with my skepticism. Private Equity's Merger Vanguard: Funds of Funds are bulking up. (WSJ) Everybody Panic! There was a zany power outage today during Alan Greenspan's testimony. "Several gasps were heard." Sounds like a scene from a cheesy murder mystery. (Dealbook) MBAs with a Social Conscience: More business school applicants say they want jobs in sustainability and social enterprise. The implications are potentially huge. (BusinessWeek) Dimon:Schwarzenegger::Blankfein:DeVito What really gets Jamie Dimon's goat? Being lumped in with Lloyd Blankfein. (Dealbreaker)

Charts: Why California Pension Managers Shouldn't Be Allowed Near Money. (Paul Kedrosky) Investors ♥ Junk: They can't get enough of high yield bonds. (FT Alphaville) Feature: Private Equity ventures into China. (China Daily) Carried Interest 2.0: If most GPs strongly believe they're top-quartile performers, then does that mean we should change our performance fee equation to 10% carry below 2x? (Private Equiteer) No FUN for Apollo: The firm's deal to acquire Cedar Point has fallen apart on price. Shareholders asked for more; Apollo said no. All this is to say that one of the best stock ticker symbols out there-FUN-will remain afloat, for the time being at least. It remains to be seen if KKR's rumoured buyout of HOG (Harley Davidson) will steal away another good one. (peHUB)

Plans Plans Plans: Apax Partners has pledged to exit from 10 of its portfolio companies during the course of 2010 and return 5 billion euros to investors. (FT) Davos Report: Of Women, Sleep Deprivation and Financial Meltdown (Dealbook) Servicey: Making a good first impression at your finance interview. (FINS) Traders Made More Than CEOS: Many Wall Street chief executives took a big pay cut for 2009. But their real value may have been in deflecting attention from their troops-who enjoyed the largest collective payday on record. (WSJ) Finally? Secondary deals surged in Q1. (Preqin)

Extreme Makeover: Wall Street edition. (NY Times) Growing Pains: American Apparel is having some issues after its explosive growth. Is anyone surprised or upset by this news besides investors in the American Apparel SPAC? Probably not. Maybe this means the company will buy fewer exploitative billboards... (WWD) Going Up: Deal multiples, that is. Apparently buyout barons are ready to start paying more for companies. I wonder if that loosening of the all-important "discipline" coincides at all with a return of leverage... (Reuters) I Knew It! Back when Berkshire, Advent and Bain struck their deal to acquire Skillsoft, we wrote that analysts and shareholders seemed unimpressed by both the price and the opportunity for a counterbid. Lo and behold, the buyout firms have sweetened their bid. (Reuters) Opportunity is EVERYWHERE: David Rubenstein is the biggest private equity cheerleader out there. While other accomplished buyout barons such as Kravis or Bonderman may sit back with the attitude that they don't have to explain themselves to us, Rubenstein is out there beating the buyout drum. (CNN)

Squeezing Out Value in Any Way They Can: What happens when companies that earned their PE backers dividend recaps end up in bankruptcy? The creditors are suing. (WSJ) The case of SemGroup and Carlyle/Riverstone is one notable example. (WSJ) Dubai World: Bankers met today to begin sorting out the conglomerate's debt. (Reuters) Sharia Compliant PE: Glacial movement in the private equity (PE) sphere of Islamic finance could finally be showing signs of a thaw. (Westlaw) Consolidation Time for Mobile Operators: The biggest threat to mobile-service providers isn't the Internet, but overcapacity and low-margin customers. (BusinessWeek) Who Knew: Wal-Mart earned more than half of its income on grocery sales last year. (WSJ)

Good News For MBAs: Wall Street is hiring again. (BusinessWeek) All The Bankers in China: They've got one thing in common--they're all from Goldman Sachs. (WSJ) ILPA Powwow Update: It was "productive." High profile super secret meetings usually are... (PE Manager) Gossip: How did Kendrick Wilson III "Soothe" Steve Schwarzman's "Bruised Feelings"? (Dealbreaker)

ILPA SHOWDOWN OF DEATH: Check out the guest list at this special meeting of the Buyout Baron Gods to throw down on terms with investors. It took place today at an unnamed New York hotel. Everyone from Glenn Hutchins to David Rubenstein to Jim Coulter was there. It's like a meeting of the five (three?) fathers (Come on, you know they do that secret society crap.) Even the Journal is calling them "The Big Guns." And on the investor side we have Joe Dear, John Breen, and Ahmed Gubash. (WSJ) Total Domination: Wall Street is taking over the world. First Carl Jr.'s, now, American Idol may now be controlled by JPMorgan's private equity arm. (DealBook)(Dealbreaker, of course, has thoughts on this.) Further Proof: Here's what else is in American Idol's parent company's stable. (Times Online) Too Big To Not Fail? Paulson's fund is out of control big. (BusinessWeek) Against Conventional Wisdom: When should a VC-backed company shop a term sheet? (Dividends and Preferences) Tom Geithner: "Just one of the girls." (Dealbreaker)