Groupon Inc. plans to launch a roadshow for its initial public offering next week, on Monday or Tuesday, Reuters reported Tuesday. An IPO for the daily deal company is expected to value Chicago-based Groupon at more than $10 billion. Groupon filed for an IPO in June. Underwriters are being led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co and Credit Suisse. The news of Groupon’s roadshow was reported earlier on Tuesday by the AllThingsD blog.
2 min read · 19 October 2011
Chicago-based NXT Capital has launched a venture financing business, NXT Capital Venture Finance, which will provide senior and subordinated term loans of up to $20 million. Jan Haas, former president of Velocity Financial Group, will lead the effort.
2 min read · 18 October 2011
Mattel Inc. is in talks to buy Hit Entertainment, the British owner of Thomas the Tank Engine, for a little over 500 million pounds ($788.9 million), Reuters reported, citing the Wall Street Journal. Apax Partners is selling Hit Entertainment.
1 min read · 18 October 2011
Venture firm Greylock has formed a dedicated team to help its portfolio companies recruit talented employees. Jeff Markowitz joined the firm to focus on executive level talent. And Dan Portillo has joined to focus on product and engineering recruiting, the firm announced Monday. Markowitz joins from Heidrick & Struggles, where he was the managing director of the venture capital practice. Portillo joins from Rypple, where he was the VP of customer success.
3 min read · 17 October 2011
Liquidnet, a venue for institutions to anonymously trade public stocks, is expanding into trading shares of private and pre-IPO companies such as Facebook and Twitter, Reuters reported Monday. The move puts Liquidnet in competition with private exchange SecondMarket. The market for trading in private companies, Liquidnet says, could grow to some $7 billion in value this year.
2 min read · 17 October 2011
The Carlyle Group is moving ahead with plans to buy a food processing company in Saudi Arabia by the end of the year, Reuters reported. The firm, which said in April that it was aiming for deals in Saudi Arabia, did not disclose terms of the deal or the name of the company.
2 min read · 17 October 2011
Saban Capital Group Inc. is paying 692 billion rupiah ($78 million) for a 5% stake in Indonesian media firm PT Media Nusantara Citra, Reuters reported Monday. Saban Capital is controlled by billionaire Haim Saban. Los Angeles-based firm, which owns the Power Rangers franchise, will have an option to buy an additional 346.2 million shares or 2.5% stake in the company over the next 27 months, Reuters wrote.
2 min read · 17 October 2011
Hamilton Lane managing director Andrea Kramer has been named to the board of the Private Equity Women Investor Network, an invitation-only networking organization for senior women general partners, limited partners and private equity professionals.
2 min read · 17 October 2011
2 min read · 17 October 2011
Publicly traded communications company Polycom Inc. has acquired Vivu Inc., a provider of video collaboration software. Terms of the acquisition were not released. Vivu had reportedly raised venture financing from investors including Inventus Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Quest Venture Partners.
4 min read · 17 October 2011
