There have now been more PE-backed bankruptcies in 2009 than in all of 2008, based on data compiled by peHUB and Buyouts Magazine. Five more companies filed in July, bringing the yearly tally to 53 -- compared to just 49 last year. Station Casinos was the month's largest bust (in terms of purchase price), having been acquired by Colony Capital in 2007 for $5.4 billion. The others were all originally sub-billion deals, including CCS Medical (Warburg Pincus) and RathGibson (DLJ Merchant Banking). You can download the entire 2009 chart after the jump. But first, a bunch of disclaimers: Our data is only for control-sponsored deals that included at least one U.S. sponsor. As such, we exclude foreign-sponsored companies (like Arclin), VC-backed companies (like ProtoStar) and PIPEs (like BearingPoint). We do track
1 min read · 31 July 2009
Today is the last day of July, so the Thomson Reuters data team sent over some monthly M&A deal activity info. It shows one of three things: (1) Most deal-makers spent the past 31 days on vacation; (2) There were few good deals left after June’s relative bonanza; or (3) The July numbers will increase over time, as new data gets entered into the system (i.e., deals not yet disclosed). Thomson Reuters reports that global M&A fell to just $99 billion in July, compared to $287.9 billion in June and $357 billion in July 2008. All of the decrease, however, was on the strategic side. Private equity-sponsored deal volume actually increased from $7.36 billion in June to $13 billion in July. It was the industry’s busiest month since last August, although the vast majority of deals were still outside of the U.S. You can view and/or download the data after the jump...
1 min read · 31 July 2009
Newbie venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is a bit of an enigma, when it comes to its public profile. On the one hand, it's impossible to say the firm is in stealth mode, given that Andreessen has done more interviews in the past month than Barack Obama. On the other, Horowitz is apparently in some sort of witness protection program, the firm has no website and doesn't comment at all about employees whose names aren't in the masthead. In fact, the only other employee we even know about is Ronnie Conway, and that's only because poppa Ron told some people about it last week at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. But thanks to LinkedIn, we know now at least two more members of the Andreessen Horowitz family: Scott Kupor, chief operating officer, and Shannon Callahan, director of human resources and recruiting.
1 min read · 30 July 2009
Earlier this year, video processor startup Novafora Inc. boldly acquired publicly-listed Transmeta Corp. for $255 million. A few months later, company CEO Naki Rakib and VC backer Robert Genisier (Vertex Capital) rang the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange. Yesterday, the San Jose, Calif.-based company shut its doors. peHUB has learned that the company laid off all 40 employees yesterday at noon, after being unable to attract additional venture capital funding. Existing backers Vertex and Gemini Israel Funds apparently opted against another large investment, and no new firm stepped up. "VC appetite has really dried up for later-stage semiconductor companies," says a former Novafora executive, reached at his home this morning. "They all want to do social networking and things like that."
1 min read · 30 July 2009
Sun Capital Partners got hit with a pair of resignations this week: David Blechman, a principal in the firm’s New York office, and Douglas Werking, a vice president of operations in its Florida shop. No word yet on either of their destinations. Blechman seems to be leaving immediately (he's already off the website), while Werking will remain on through the end of August. Blechman had been with Sun since 2006, before which he spent five years as a vice president with The Blackstone Group. Werking also joined in 2006, after having served as a managing director with another turnaround firm. This leaves Sun with 45 senior investment and operational pros, and it’s planning to hire new junior staffers later this summer (get those resumes ready). One would think
1 min read · 30 July 2009
What follows are seven VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. None of them has been otherwise disclosed: * Ibiquity Digital Corp., a Columbia, Md.-based developer of digital HD radio technology, has raised around $42.48 million in new VC funding. The company reports that half is in cash and half is an exchange offer of existing shares. Backers include ABC, Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Grotech Capital Group, JPMorgan Partners, New Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Ford Motor Co., Harris, Texas Instruments and Visteon. The company had previously raised over $140 million since 1999.
2 min read · 29 July 2009
1 min read · 29 July 2009
A group of around two dozen placement agents have formed a lobbying group, to address state and federal efforts to ban their usage by PE/VC firms trying to raise capital from from public pension systems. The group has retained MultiState Associates to do the regulatory glad-handing, and is being spearheaded by C.P. Eaton Partners and Atlantic-Pacific Capital. I spent some time on the phone this morning with C.P. Eaton founder Charlie Eaton, to learn more about the group's objectives and structure. What follows is an edited transcript: Is this group supposed to be around for the long haul, or is it more a short-term creation to deal with immediate issues at the state and federal level? Eaton: We haven’t thought beyond the current issues. I think we assume we might have to work on this all year, and if we can address and get a favorable outcome in New York, then perhaps it would create a precedent that would be used in states like Illinois and New Mexico, which both have bans in certain jurisdictions. We always knew the SEC would get involved, so that would be part of the program as well. We may not need to keep this coalition together after that, although we could obviously continue discussions and commiserate more informally.
4 min read · 29 July 2009
Fireman Capital Partners, a Boston-based shop founded by ex-Reebok chief Paul Fireman, is hopping into the long line of private equity firms considering a 2010 fundraise. The investment thesis is control investments in small/mid-cap consumer companies, with an emphasis on growth potential (i.e., not turnarounds). Fireman is currently investing out of a $60 million friends-and-family fund, which is being supplemented by an undisclosed amount of additional capital from the Fireman family. Paul is not involved in the operational day-to-day (his official title is chairman), but is expected to work regularly with portfolio companies on strategy (he’s apparently spent a bunch of time with Hudson Jeans, which is the firm’s first consumer investment). His son Dan is one of the firm’s three partners, while there also are a pair of directors and a slew of operating partners. One of those operating partners, Stacey Madison (Stacey’s Pita Chip Co.) sourced the Hudson Jeans deal.
1 min read · 29 July 2009
DLJ Merchant Banking Partners soon plans to begin pre-marketing its fifth fund, with formal fundraising to begin sometime in 2010, peHUB has learned. No word yet on a target, but parent bank Credit Suisse is expected to remain on board as a cornerstone investor. DLJ MBP is currently investing out of a $2.1 billion fourth fund that closed in Q3 2006. It has approximately $300 million in uncommitted capital remaining, and is in advanced talks on two deals (with a possible third on the horizon). The reason I bring this up today isn't the 2010 timeframe, since just about every PE and VC firm I know is kicking the can toward that intersection. Nor is it because DLJ MBP could possibly find itself as a temporary member of the zombie
2 min read · 28 July 2009
