Private Equity
1 min read · 01 October 2008
2 min read · 01 October 2008
The Big Money: Reads Buffet’s biography so we don’t have to. Dealbreaker: It’s like March Madness, only for banks. BusinessWeek: Fannie and Freddie shrouded in scandal? Even though they’ve already had their day in the bailout sun, I feel like anything smelling like fraud may not be good PR well for further bailout votes. Infectious Greed: Kedrosky thinks we need more smaller banking crises—it was the “dangerously quiet” period that hurt got us here. SEC: The SEC gets more specific about FASB. Dealbreaker thinks this suggests a throwing in of the towel. Dealscape thinks the information has little effect.
1 min read · 30 September 2008
2 min read · 30 September 2008
VC-backed companies don’t have a lot of exit options right now, but (finally) private equity is stepping up to fill that void. Today Bedford Funding, a tech-focused PE fund, bought 100% of Authoria Inc. for $63.1 million. The software company has received something like $140 million in funding from at least seven different VC firms over the past nine years. (Details here.) As one source put it, “these investors were exhausted.” But we’ll get to the abysmal VC returns later. The main takeaway from this deal is that a PE firm has finally provided an exit for venture capital money. It hasn’t been too common, as VCs are still relying on trade sales or “APOs” (alternative public offerings). Or they’re simply digging in for longer hold periods. Seems silly to me--why wouldn’t they sell to a mid-market PE firm? I asked Charles Jones of Bedford Funding, Michael Blaber of Authoria, and some industry sources to break down the transaction.
3 min read · 30 September 2008
Alpine Investors has made an undisclosed investment in YLighting, according to a source familiar with the situation. An announcement is due in the coming days. This news comes as the firm enters the market with its fourth fund.
1 min read · 30 September 2008
AP: While the bailout the Dow dominated today’s headlines, the auto-makers scored a bailout of their own, in the form of a $25 billion check. This seems like nothing, in light of today’s events, but on any other day, wouldn’t people be skeptical if not downright annoyed that Detroit gets a free pass for its failure to innovate? FT: Michael Skapinker declares, “Three decades of untrammelled free markets and minimal government are over,” comparing 1978 and 2008 in a pretty engaged economic analysis. Dealbook: Picks up on two Lazard bankers’ published shame over what Wall Street has done to the economy. Dealscape: Unveils Charlotte’s little petname for itself: Banktown. Also points out that old Banktown isn’t looking so glib after today’s news. Dealbook: Unsarcastically calls Dow’s 777-point nosedive a “slide.”
1 min read · 29 September 2008
This morning AP quoted senators saying, and I paraphrase, "Everyone wants this to pass, but no one wants to vote for it." Its as if the press is going to make up hit lists of the guilty bailout supporters for voters to line up and execute. And perhaps that's not completely off the table, when you read accounts stating the press distorted the public's view of the "wildly unpopular" bailout plan. That same service reports that there is a correlation between "no" votes and seats up for re-election in very close races. (UPDATE: That hit list? They made it.)
1 min read · 29 September 2008
What we know First of all, there’s Wachovia Capital Partners. It’s located under Wachovia’s “Capital Markets: Principal Investing” division. The firm has invested $3.5 billion in more than 200 mid-market companies, and its partners have been together since 1988. It’s based in Charlotte, N.C., and led by Scott B. Perper, Frederick W. Eubank, II and L. Watts Hamrick, III. According to the firm’s web site, it can do turnarounds, mezzanine, MBOs, LBOs, growth, and recap investments. What’s the status of its funds?
2 min read · 29 September 2008
To herald the near-end of Q3, we have a list of the year’s largest announced private equity deals. Earlier I pointed out that TPG could be in the running to strike the second largest American PE deal of the year. Beating out the US were two foreign infrastructure deals: TransAlta Corp., the $7.8 billion Canadian buyout backed by Credit Suisse, GE Infrastructure and LS Power Equity Partners; and Asciano Group, a $4.08 billion Austrailian buyout executed by TPG, and once again, CS and GE. Click here to download a chart of the top 20 with full details. See the Top 10 after the jump.
1 min read · 29 September 2008
