Priceline.com said it will buy Kayak Software Corp. in a friendly deal valued at $1.8 billion, bolstering its travel research and advertising capabilities, Reuters reported. Priceline is offering $40 a share for Kayak, a 29 percent premium to the company's closing price of $31.04 on Thursday. It expects to pay $500 million in cash and $1.3 billion in equity. Kayak, which offers a website and mobile applications to help consumers compare prices for airlines, hotels and rental cars, went public in July with shares priced at $26. It operates like a search engine, letting consumers compare pricing along with other websites such as Priceline.com rivals Expedia Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide Inc.
3 min read · 09 November 2012
Private equity group Carlyle Group will sell part of its stake in a Japanese restaurant chain operator Chimney Co. in an initial public offering in December, its third attempt to list a Japanese asset this year. Carlyle will sell 7.9 million shares, or 45 percent of its holdings in Chimney, which it invested in 2009, according to a statement issued by Chimney. Chimney will issue 1 million new shares, making the total size of the offer at 9.25 billion yen ($116 million). Carlyle may sell as many as 1.32 million additional shares depending on the market conditions, Reuters wrote.
2 min read · 09 November 2012
Merge Healthcare Inc., a provider of medical imaging software solutions that is exploring a sale, has attracted interest from at least five private equity firms, Reuters wrote. Thoma Bravo, GTCR, Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe, Francisco Partners and Avista Capital Partners are among the buyout firms that have had meetings with the company's management and considering submitting offers this month, Reuters said.
2 min read · 09 November 2012
Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by defeated presidential candidate Mitt Romney, thanked its investors on Thursday for their support and patience over the last year as it confronted "political hyperbole and distortion." Romney's bid for the White House led to a broad political attack on the private equity industry, which was accused of raiding companies and cutting jobs at a time of high unemployment and growing income inequality, Reuters wrote Friday.
3 min read · 09 November 2012
An eventual bid for Best Buy Co Inc by founder Richard Schulze could come below his initial proposal of around $8 billion and is now not expected to be made before December, sources familiar with the matter said, in a new twist to the months-long saga at the struggling electronics retailer.
3 min read · 09 November 2012
Carlyle Group LP reported on Thursday a third-quarter profit, as the value of its assets increased and it cashed out on some of its private equity investments, returning money to its investors. Carlyle reported third-quarter economic net income, a measure of its profitability, of $219 million, compared with a loss of $191 million a year before. Assets under management were $157.4 billion at the end of September, up 0.8 percent from the end of June, while fee-earning assets under management were $115.1 billion.
1 min read · 08 November 2012
Chemical maker TPC Group Inc. said private equity firms First Reserve Corp. and SK Capital Partners raised their offer price for the company by 12.5 percent, days after it got a rival proposal from Innospec Inc. The offer price has been raised by $5 to $45 per share, TPC said in a statement.
1 min read · 08 November 2012
Kenyan private equity house Catalyst Principal Partners has secured $125 million to invest in the east African region over the next four years, it said on Thursday. The Catalyst Fund 1 will be invested in a range of consumer growth-related opportunities in the region, which has some of the fastest economic growth rates in the world, said Paul Kavuma, chief executive of Catalyst.
2 min read · 08 November 2012
Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds, Reuters reported. Access to that sizable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor. It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel's Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.
2 min read · 08 November 2012
Private equity firm Permira has raised about $875 million from the sale of its remaining stake in casino operator Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd, capping a highly profitable investment that nearly tripled the firm's money over the past five years, Reuters reported. Permira sold its final 5.94 percent stake in Galaxy on Thursday, a day after the shares reached a record high and just two weeks after the gaming company reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.
4 min read · 08 November 2012
