1 min read · 19 March 2009
1 min read · 19 March 2009
I'll be on CNBC tomorrow morning at 10:10am ET, to discuss Goldman Sachs' attempt to put a bunch of its private equity capital into distressed debt. Expect me to reiterate these points, and also to discuss the overall subject of PE firms getting into distressed debt investing. For example, will Goldman LPs really accept that we're in a short window to buy distressed debt, when most of them have been burned by the exact same claim over the past 14 months ("95 cents on the dollar is a great opportunity... 85 cents on the dollar, 80 cents on the dollar...")
1 min read · 18 March 2009
Gili Raanan, founder of such companies a nLayers Inc. and Sanctum Inc., has joined Sequoia Capital as a general partner, peHUB has learned. He will work out of the firm's Israel office, which lost partner Yuval Baharav last month. Sequoia recently raised $200 million for its fourth Israel-based fund. Raanan's relationship with Sequoia goes back at least a decade. The venture firm was an initial investor in Sanctum, an e-business security software company that raised $55 million before being acquired by VC-backed Watchfire (itself later bought by IBM). He then went on to found nLayers, which application discovery and mapping software. nLayers got scooped up by EMC in mid-2006, after which Raanan spent a few months as EMC's vice president of strategy.
1 min read · 18 March 2009
Yesterday’s big private equity news was that GS Capital Partners, the PE arm of Goldman Sachs, wants to reallocate half of its remaining dry powder toward stressed and distressed debt opportunities (mostly debt). There is around $9 billion left in the firm’s six fund – of an original $20 billion stash – so we’re talking real money here. Three quick thoughts after the jump...
1 min read · 18 March 2009
Chris Hughes has more professional accomplishments at 26 year-old than most of us will have in a lifetime. He co-founded Facebook with college roomates Mark Zuckerburg and Dustin Moskovitz, before leaving in 2007 to help the fledgling Obama campaign launch an online media strategy. The result was My.BarackObama.com, which many credit with getting the Illinois Senator elected. Now Hughes has a new fulltime gig: Entrepreneur-in-residence with venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners. “Chris has a unique connection to what it takes to build and start entrepreneurial companies, especially those driven by the energy of young people,” says Neil Sequeira, a partner with General Catalyst. “What we really want him to do is to be out there in the community helping young entrepreneurs and encouraging them with infrastructure and guidance.”
1 min read · 17 March 2009
Boston-based private equity firm TA Associates has decided to cut the carried interest on its latest fund from 25% to 20%, peHUB has learned. The move has drawn applause from limited partners, including those whose investment committees might have balked at paying premium carry in this economic environment. The fund in question here is TA XI, which we're told has soft circles for most -- if not all -- of its $3.5 billion target.
1 min read · 17 March 2009
Highland Capital Partners has just begun accepting applications for its third-annual Summer@Highland program, which is designed to “provide selected student entrepreneurs with the environment and resources for advancing their startup initiative/company to the next level.” Specifically, selected entrepreneurs and teams will receive a financial stipend for the summer, complimentary office space in Highland’s Massachusetts or Silicon Valley locations and access to Highland’s investment staff (for advice, etc.). There is no investment commitment either by participating entrepreneurs or Highland, but if you really hit it off…
1 min read · 17 March 2009
We barely bat an eyelash these days when a PE-backed company goes bankrupt, given the toxic mixture of economic shrinkage with massive debt loads. But we really need to take notice of what's going on over at the (former) Connecticut School of Broadcasting, because it's morally reprehensible. CSB was a career college founded in 1964, with a focus on training students interested in radio or television. DLJ Growth Capital Partners, an affiliate of DLJ Merchant Banking, bought a majority stake in the company less than three years ago, in a transaction valued at approximately $50 million (around half in equity) Under DLJ's ownership, CSB quickly began adding new campuses. Under the economic downturn, however, it also began struggling to meet looming debt payments from lender PNC Financial. A source says that DLJ repeatedly reached out to PNC about some sort of refinancing arrangement, but that it was unable to get a reply (I know, sounds a bit far-fetched). Then, in early March, CSB management suddenly realized that its checks were bouncing. The reason was that PNC had siezed the company's assets, without first informing either the school or DLJ Growth Equity. On March 5, CSB notified students that all 26 of its campsuses were being shuttered, effective immediately. This included students who were in Week 15 of a 16-week course, for which they had paid around $12,000.
2 min read · 16 March 2009
It's that very special time of year, when corporate America turns its collective blind eye toward sports gambling. That’s right dear reader, it’s time for our seventh annual March Madness Extravaganza. The contest is open to all peHUB readers, with the top finisher to receive three prizes: (1) Premium Membership to peHUB, which includes one year of complimentary access to our editorial archive; (2) A complementary one-year subscription to the Thomson Reuters print publication of your choice: Buyouts, PE Week, Venture Capital Journal or European Venture Capital Journal; and (3) The opportunity to write a lead column for peHUB Wire, which could mean anything from an essay to a company advertisement to a plea for work. Instructions on how to play after the jump...
2 min read · 16 March 2009
