Sprint Nextel Corp. raised its offer for Clearwire Corp. by 7 cents per share to buy the rest of the wireless service provider for $2.2 billion, Reuters wrote Monday. Sprint, already the majority owner, will pay $2.97 per share for just under half of Clearwire. Sprint, whose previous offer price was criticized by some minority shareholders as too low, said the raised offer had the unanimous approval of Clearwire directors.
1 min read · 17 December 2012
British chip designer Imagination Technologies on Monday agreed to buy MIPS for $100 million after it outbid Ceva Inc. for a second time, Reuters reported. Imagination and Ceva have been battling to buy the operating business of MIPS since last month when a $60 million agreed offer from the British company triggered a bidding war. Imagination's $100 million offer trumps a $90 million bid from Ceva last week. MIPS was a pioneer of 32-bit and 64-bit processing, and its technology is in blu-ray players, digital televisions and video games consoles such as the Sony PlayStation 2.
1 min read · 17 December 2012
Weeks before he accepted a $1 billion offer from Facebook Inc., Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom had verbally agreed to sell his photo-sharing company to Twitter Inc. for $525 million in March - but then called off the deal, according to a New York Times report citing unnamed sources. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ultimately acquired Instagram after pushing through a cash-and-stock deal just weeks before Facebook's May initial public offering. The transaction closed in September at a $715 million valuation, reflecting Facebook's stock drop since the offering, Reuters reported.
2 min read · 17 December 2012
SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, the family entertainment company controlled by private equity firm Blackstone Group, is close to filing for an initial public offering, Reuters reported. Orlando, Florida-based SeaWorld, perhaps best known for its performing killer whale Shamu, has selected Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to lead the offering, which could come in early 2013. SeaWorld may try to raise $500 million to $600 million in the IPO.
2 min read · 17 December 2012
Carlyle Group LP's planned $780 million takeover of TCW Group Inc could prove less lucrative than envisioned due to the investment manager's financial ties to buyout firm EIG Global Energy Partners LLC, a TCW document to its lenders shows.
5 min read · 17 December 2012
KKR & Co L.P. has finished raising $6 billion for its second pan-Asia fund, according to sources, the largest private equity pool ever assembled for the region, with strong demand from pension funds and endowments seeking emerging market returns, Reuters wrote Sunday. KKR's latest Asia fund, which follows a $4 billion regional fund it raised in 2007, is over-subscribed, the sources told Reuters, meaning demand exceeded the current total despite challenges facing investors putting money into the region's slowing economy.
4 min read · 17 December 2012
Best Buy Co Inc agreed to extend the deadline to February 28 for founder Richard Schulze to make a bid for the company, continuing the uncertainty for shareholders over whether he can put a bid together.
3 min read · 14 December 2012
Private equity firms KKR & Co. and Permira positioned themselves for a hefty dividend from ProSiebenSat.1 and an exit from the German media group they control after it agreed to sell one of its best-performing units. ProSiebenSat.1, Europe's second-biggest media group after RTL, detailed plans on Friday to sell its Nordic operations to Discovery Communications for about $1.7 billion.
2 min read · 14 December 2012
Indian telecoms tower operator Bharti Infratel's share sale to raise up to $830 million was subscribed 1.3 times, a weaker-than-hoped for response to the country's biggest initial public offering in two years. Bharti Infratel could price the IPO at around 230 rupees per share, near the top end of the indicative price range and at the level it agreed to allot shares to cornerstone investors in the pre-IPO sale, Reuters reported.
2 min read · 14 December 2012
Richard Branson's Virgin Money and US private equity group JC Flowers have submitted bids for 316 UK bank branches being sold by RBS, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters Friday. But Britain's biggest customer-owned financial services group, Nationwide, which previously indicated an interest in the branches, did not proceed with a bid, its spokesman told Reuters.
1 min read · 14 December 2012
