Apple has acquired a Silicon Valley startup, WiFiSlam, which makes mapping applications for smart phones, writes Reuters. Apple confirmed the acquisition, but declined to give details.
1 min read · 25 March 2013
Private equity firm Apax Partners will cut a tenth of its investment staff and shrink its London headquarters as it struggles to raise capital for a new fund, a source familiar with matter said on Friday.
2 min read · 22 March 2013
Technology giants Apple, Google and Amazon are furiously maneuvering for position in the online music business and looking at ways to make streaming profitable, despite the fact that pioneer Pandora has never made a profit, Reuters wrote Friday. It has been more than a decade since the iPod heralded the revival of Apple and presaged the smartphone revolution. Streaming service Pandora is spending freely and racking up losses to expand globally. Even social media stalwarts Facebook and Twitter are jumping on the bandwagon.
6 min read · 22 March 2013
U.S. activist shareholder Nelson Peltz has in recent weeks been building up stakes in PepsiCo Inc. and Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The newspaper said the exact size of Peltz's stakes in the two companies were unclear, but cited one source as saying that Peltz had spent at least $2 billion in a concerted buying spree.
1 min read · 22 March 2013
CVC Capital Partners and PT Multipolar Tbk raised around $1.3 billion by selling part of their stake in Indonesian retail giant PT Matahari Department Store, Reuters wrote. London-based CVC, which bought a 60 percent stake in Matahari in 2010, is on course to make a return of between seven and eight times its initial investment if it eventually exits its entire stake at the current valuation, according to Reuters calculations. By private equity standards, making two times cash paid is considered a success.
4 min read · 22 March 2013
Walk-in clinics are popping up in shopping malls and main streets across the United States and private equity is helping fund the expansion, Reuters reported Thursday. At least a dozen private equity firms have in the last few years plowed millions of dollars into urgent care clinics, which have become popular with people who do not have regular doctors or who like the convenience of their extended hours of operation. Several private equity executives told Reuters they are eager for more acquisitions in this sector because they expect profits to grow as healthcare reforms boost the number of Americans with health insurance by more than 30 million over the next decade.
4 min read · 21 March 2013
Walk-in clinics are popping up in shopping malls and main streets across the United States and private equity is helping fund the expansion.
4 min read · 21 March 2013
Energy Future Holdings Corp, the power company that went private in a $45 billion buyout but last month said it could go bankrupt, is facing a new headache as a unit's creditors have filed a $725 million lawsuit to recover unpaid interest, writes Reuters. Affiliates of the hedge fund Aurelius Capital Management LP sued seven current and former Energy Future Competitive Holdings Ltd directors, saying they improperly let the parent once known as TXU Corp be repaid billions of dollars of fraudulent intra-company loans without ensuring full payment to creditors, writes Reuters.
4 min read · 21 March 2013
Uganda's sole state pension fund said on Wednesday it would start investing in Kenyan debt and equities and establish a private equity fund to expand its Ugandan investments into unlisted companies, Reuters reported. The National Social Security Fund is one of the biggest investors in the country with assets of 2.74 trillion shillings ($1.04 billion) last year, and has about 130 billion shillings to invest every month from contributions.
2 min read · 20 March 2013
Private equity deals in Israel declined by 10 percent to $2.6 billion in 2012, with more than half of the investment in software companies, according to the IVC Research Center writes Reuters. The buyout of software firm Paradigm Geophysical by Apax Partners and JMI Equity for $1 billion accounted for 39 percent of the total annual deal value.
2 min read · 20 March 2013
