Mattress maker Spring Air is expected to cease operations within the next few days, according to a report in Furniture Today. peHUB has learned that the move would come after company management failed to reach a buyout agreement with Riverside Company, which had been in talks to acquire Spring Air from current sponsors H.I.G. Capital and American Capital. It's unclear exactly what caused the deal breakdown, although one source says the conflicts were related to demands being made by creditors like components maker Leggett & Platt. Also unclear if the failure of a buyout could lead to some sort of bankruptcy filing. This last issue gets even tricker when one looks at an April 22 article from Furniture Today, in which Spring Air CEO Steve Cumbow said:
2 min read · 06 May 2009
The Blackstone Group this morning reported Q1 earnings, including a $94 million loss. That's obviously a large number, but basically on par with Q1 2008 ($94m loss) and well below the $824 million shellacking Blackstone took in Q4 2008. The firm is holding a media call at 8:30am, to be followed by an analysts call at 10am. I'm going to live-blog the first one, and we'll also listen in on the second one in case something of greater interest emerges. Blackstone Q1 Media Call
1 min read · 06 May 2009
Constellation Ventures, a former affiliate of Bear Stearns Asset Management, today announced that it has become part of Highbridge Capital Management's principal investment effort. It also has closed its third fund with $300 million, and renamed itself Constellation Growth Capital. So've got 5 Questions for Cliff Friedman, Constellation's founding partner. 1. Bear Stearns collapsed while you were in the middle of fund-raising. Did you ever think that Constellation wasn’t going to be able to raise another fund? No. First of all, we had great strength in our existing portfolio. Then, once the hedge funds blew up, we got a lot of inbound interest from secondary buyers wanting to do a lift-out of the firm. We went down the path of lining up a serious buyer, but then Todd Builione, COO of Highbridge, called me up and asked to sit down and talk about how Constellation could have a future at Highbridge.
3 min read · 05 May 2009
Private equity activity dipped in April, compared both to the prior month and the prior April. According to data provided by Thomson Reuters (publisher of peHUB), private equity firms were involved in 124 deals last month, with a disclosed value of approximately $7.8 billion. This dollar amount is off around 8.67% from the $8.53 billion worth of activity in March, and is down a whopping 69.77% from the $25.78 billion of volume in April 2008. But the numbers do contain a pair of silver linings. First, the dollar volume was higher than four out of the past five months (March being the exception). Second, private equity deals accounted for 6.9% of global M&A, which is the highest percentage since last August. Get 2009 data after the jump:
1 min read · 04 May 2009
Omidyar Network, the philanthropic venture capital firm formed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has laid off several staffers, including members of its investment team. In an email to friends and colleagues, one investor wrote: "The organization has gone through some restructuring to better reflect current market conditions and support its evolving investment model. Several positions have been eliminated, including my own." I've left a message for Omidyar Network's spokeswoman, in order to get more details. Specifically, I'm interested in how the group views the "current market conditions," given that it hired six new staffers just seven months ago.
1 min read · 04 May 2009
Last week, peHUB reported that eCast Network founder Samuel "Mouli" Cohen had been sued for allegedly defrauding a charitable organization out of approximately $18 million. We incorrectly identified the suit's plaintiff as the charity itself, Vanguard Public Foundation, rather than the correct plaintiffs: Samuel Mills and Mary Dalsin Mills, self-described Vanguard benefactors, in their individual capacities and as trustees of the Mills Family Trust. According to the suit, the Millses indirectly purchased shares in eCast, via investor groups set up by Vanguard president Hari Dillon and Vanguard co-chairman Danny Glover. Mills also allegedly paid Cohen directly for various fees and expenses related to a purported acquisition of eCast by Microsoft. We note that Vanguard Public Foundation did not invest in eCast, nor did it file suit against Cohen or make any public allegations of fraud against Cohen. It also is worth noting that we happily make these corrections at the behest of Cohen himself, who has threatened litigation against us (read letter here). In that spirit, after the jump is an updated post -- with the names changed where appropriate. peHUB stands by its assertion, based on multiple sources, that Microsoft had not agreed to acquire eCast Network. Finally, we did send an email to an old email account affiliated with Mouli Cohen (ea@moulicohen.com), and received a reply. We replied with a request to speak with Cohen, but never heard back.
5 min read · 04 May 2009
Personalized genetics company 23andMe Inc. has secured $11 million of a $24.26 million venture round, according to a regulatory filing. This is the company co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, which had raised around $9 million in Series A funding from Google, Genentech, New Enterprise Associates and Mohr Davidow Ventures. Probably best described as one part personalized medicine, one part online informatics. No investor info is disclosed on the filing, including if any new Google money would have come from Google.org or Google Ventures. The latter's Rich Miner said Friday that all future Google venture investments would come from Google Ventures, but given
1 min read · 04 May 2009
Greetings from rainy Nantucket, where the 2009 Nantucket Conference is underway. We were supposed to hear this morning from Skype COO Scott Durschlag, but he's apparently stuck in London because of the upcoming IPO (I may use that excuse this weekend). Stepping up as an overly-qualified pinch-hitter is Rich Miner, of the newly-formed Google Ventures. My plan is to live-blog the Q&A, which is set to begin at around 10:45am ET. Get it after the jump.
1 min read · 01 May 2009
2 min read · 01 May 2009
The SEC has charged Aldus Equity and its founding principal Saul Meyer, as part of a pay-to-play scandal involving the New York State Common Retirement Fund. Meyer also has been named in a suit brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and has surrendered himself to authorities. From the SEC complaint: "Meyer caused Aldus to pay sham fees to Morris in order to obtain a Common Fund investment even though Aldus was already serving as a private equity consultant to the Common Fund and was already negotiating with the Common Fund's investment staff about the proposed investment before Meyer had ever met Morris." Aldus has replied by calling the charges "appalling and careless," adding that the SEC wants a "trial by news release." (here is its full statement) Here is a copy of the SEC complaint: Sec Complaint Publish at Scribd or explore others:
2 min read · 30 April 2009
