(Reuters) - Tubular, a small San Francisco start-up that provides analytics for YouTube content creators, has raised $2.5 million in venture capital in the latest sign of how far the business ecosystem has evolved around the Google-owned video repository.
3 min read · 19 December 2012
Russian state technology firm Rusnano, alongside a group of investors, is investing $93 million in three U.S.-based pharmaceutical firms to develop drugs to treat illnesses such as epilepsy, Reuters reported Wednesday. Rusnano is making the investment with U.S. venture capital fund Domain Associates and other investors. Rusnano partnered with Domain in March with plans to invest around $760 million in U.S. healthcare and parmaceutical firms to bring new drugs to the Russian market.
1 min read · 19 December 2012
The private equity consortium which owns half of Abu Dhabi healthcare provider Al Noor Medical is reviving plans to sell its stake through a stock market listing in 2013, four sources aware of the matter said, Reuters reported. The group, including Dubai-based Ithmar Capital and Qatar First Investment Bank, is looking for new advisers after dropping HSBC Holdings and JP Morgan Chase, following an aborted previous listing, three of the source said. The banks had held informal investor meetings on an Abu Dhabi initial public offering (IPO) in late 2011 but a significant discrepancy between owners and investors over the company's valuation stalled the plan.
3 min read · 19 December 2012
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Inc. on Wednesday said there were "numerous issues" with a supposed takeover offer from PST Capital Group Ltd., revealed in a securities filing, Reuters wrote. Rocky Mountain said it received a letter from PST with the address on the envelope handwritten. It was addressed to the chairman of the board, whose name was misspelled. Furthermore, Rocky Mountain said the return address listed a law firm that, when contacted, said it did not represent PST.
1 min read · 19 December 2012
German utility E.ON is to sell a majority stake in its waste-burning unit to private equity firm EQT, disposing of a non-core assets to cut debt, Reuters reported. E.ON said on Wednesday it would sell its Energy from Waste unit to a newly formed joint venture with EQT Infrastructure II, a fund belonging to EQT, the private equity firm backed by Sweden's Wallenberg family. E.ON, Germany's largest utility, will hold 49 percent in the joint venture, while EQT Infrastructure II will own the remainder.
2 min read · 19 December 2012
Belgian visual technology company Barco said on Wednesday it had acquired a majority stake in a Norwegian projection technology firm to help it push deeper into the mid-sized segment of the projection market. Barco, whose main growth engine in recent years has been digital cinema projectors, said it had bought a 61 percent stake in projectiondesign from private equity firm Herkules Capital. The remaining shares are held by minority shareholders. Terms were not released.
1 min read · 19 December 2012
The world's biggest private equity firms, including Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, told a judge on Tuesday they competed fairly and feverishly for multibillion-dollar takeovers even though some investors of the acquired businesses argue that they colluded to drive down prices and split up deals, Reuters wrote. In what may become a landmark case for the private equity industry, the 11 defendants, including other top tier firms Carlyle Group, Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital, argued in federal court in Boston that the plaintiffs have shown no evidence that the firms conspired to fix prices on $250 billion worth of leveraged buyout deals between 2003 and 2007.
3 min read · 19 December 2012
Australian surfwear company Billabong International received a $556 million bid, the latest takeover play in a tumultuous year in which three previous offers withered, but its shares fell sharply on Wednesday as it cut its earnings forecast, Reuters reported. A consortium led by director Paul Naude and New York-based Sycamore Partners offered A$1.10 per share, a 12 percent premium to the stock's last trade before a trading halt on Monday.
3 min read · 19 December 2012
New York State's public pension fund is reviewing its investments in firearms manufacturers in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a spokesman for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said on Tuesday. The fund also supports Cerberus Capital Management's move to sell its stake in the Freedom Group, which makes the AR-15-type Bushmaster rifle used in the attack, DiNapoli spokesman Eric Sumberg said in a statement, Reuters reported.
1 min read · 19 December 2012
Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP completed on Wednesday the sale of Metaldyne LLC for about $820 million to another buyout firm, its second divestment of a U.S. auto part supplier it picked up from bankruptcy in as many years.
2 min read · 19 December 2012
