CVC Capital Partners has agreed to buy Italy's Cerved from private equity peers Bain Capital and Clessidra for 1.13 billion euros ($1.5 billion), writes Reuters. Cerved is a provider of business credit data and provides information to over 30,000 clients, including 90 percent of Italian banks and more than 80 percent of Italy's top 1,000 companies.
1 min read · 03 January 2013
Microsoft Corp has bought start-up id8 Group R2 Studios Inc, writes Reuters. id8 Group R2 Studios was started in 2011 by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Blake Krikorian.
1 min read · 03 January 2013
Leading Chinese companies are looking for investments in Israeli technology to help boost their growth and development, similar to what U.S. companies have done in the past two decades, Reuters wrote Wednesday. A delegation of senior Chinese business leaders visited Israel last month in search of opportunities, pressing ahead with the trip despite rockets that fell in the commercial center of the country during fighting with Gaza militants. Chinese have invested $3 billion in Israeli companies to date. The biggest investment was the $1.4 billion acquisition of 60 percent of MA Industries, the world's largest maker of generic crop protection chemicals, by China National Chemical Corp. in late 2011.
3 min read · 02 January 2013
Storage and data security company Imation Corp. bought Nexsan Corp, a privately held provider of disk-based storage systems, for about $120 million in cash and stock, Reuters reported. Imation will pay $105 million in cash and $15 million in stock, the company said in a statement. Shares of Imation closed at $4.67 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday.
1 min read · 02 January 2013
Private equity firm Sun European Partners has sealed two acquisitions in the packaging sector totaling around $700 million, helping to consolidate an industry battling to cut costs to cope with faltering demand. Sun European, an arm of U.S.-based Sun Capital, said on Wednesday it had received regulatory approval to buy the cosmetics division of Rexam's personal care business and that it was also buying Paragon Print and Packaging. The deals bring Sun Capital's total number of deals in the packaging sector globally to 34 since its inception in 1995.
3 min read · 02 January 2013
Cheezburger Network has raised $5 million in new financing, Reuters reported, citing a new filing with the SEC. The social humor company is backed by investors including Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, and Avalon Ventures. The company has raised a total of $37 million to date, Reuters wrote.
2 min read · 02 January 2013
Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts, thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013, Reuters reported. Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a similar measure into law earlier this month that took effect immediately. The Michigan law also penalizes educational institutions for dismissing or failing to admit a student who does not provide passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Reuters wrote.
4 min read · 02 January 2013
Two Best Buy board directors have resigned, including one of its former chief executives, almost seven months after its founder, who is now mounting a bid for the struggling retailer, left the board, writes Reuters. The departures will leave Best Buy with four vacancies on its 11-member board.
3 min read · 02 January 2013
Media giant Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, emerged from bankruptcy on Monday, ending four years of Chapter 11 reorganization. Chicago-based Tribune's said on Sunday that its portfolio would include eight major daily newspapers and 23 TV stations. As part of the Chapter 11 exit, the company closed on a new $1.1 billion senior secured term loan and a new $300 million asset-based revolving credit facility.
2 min read · 31 December 2012
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Blake Krikorian has quit the board of Amazon.com Inc about a year and a half after joining to take up an unspecified role at the buyer of a company he owned. Krikorian, known for co-founding Sling Media in 2004, informed the rest of the board on Wednesday of his intention to resign, Amazon said in a Friday filing. Spokesman Ty Rogers added that the serial entrepreneur, whose latest endeavor is home-automation startup id8 Group R2 Studios Inc, has sold a company and quit in order to take up a position at the acquirer. He did not name the company involved or the buyer.
2 min read · 31 December 2012
