Fidelity National: Forget Megadeals. Are Club Deals Back?
The much-rumored, much-hyped buyout of Fidelity National Information Services has ballooned in size: In just one week, the value of the rumored LBO zoomed from $10 billion to a whopping $15 billion. The private equity industry is looking for any reason to party, of course. It's no wonder that Fidelity National has become a giddy flashpoint for potential renaissance of big-time private equity dealmaking. 2007 redux! What's not to be excited about? Not so fast. Fidelity National is not in the same mold as those big 2007 buyouts at all. Unlike those deals, in which a single firm typically splashed out billions of dollars, it's going to take three big private equity firms to pay for Fidelity National: Blackstone Group, THL Partners and TPG Capital. So take heed: The club deal, not the megadeal, is more likely to determine the future of private equity.
