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(Reuters) - Private equity firm Silverfleet Capital is seeking to sell Sterigenics, the Chicago-based firm whose gamma-ray sterilisation technology is used by medical device makers, sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
Silverfleet is hoping the business, which it bought in 2004, will fetch about $800 million and expects it will attract interest from private equity firms and trade bidders, the sources said. Silverfleet declined comment. Sterigenics's listed competitors include Steris Corp (STE.N) and Canada's MDS Nordion (MDS.TO).
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Rescare said Thursday that it has yet to make a decision on a $370 buyout offer from Canadian private equity firm Onex Corp., according to Bloomberg News.
Rescare, a home health services provider, said a special committee of independent directors continues to hold talks with Onex. There's no assurance any deal will result from the talks, Rescare said. Onex, holds 24.9 percent of the voting power of ResCare stock, made an offer for the company last month.
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(Reuters) - The private equity backers of oil firm Kosmos Energy are considering taking it public in either the U.K. or U.S., which could value the company at around $5 billion, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
Kosmos, backed by private equity firms Warburg Pincus (WP.UL) and Blackstone Group LP (BX.N:), had agreed to a deal last year to sell its interests in Ghana's Jubilee oilfield to Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N:) for $4 billion, sources close to the deal had said at the time.
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Cloud Companies Are Becoming Hot M&A Targets
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 At the VMworld conference this week, the buzz has mostly been about the bidding war over 3Par, which Hewlett-Packard won today with its $2.4 billion offer. (As we previously reported, a few VC firms stand to benefit from the 3Par acquisition). Meanwhile, VMware has purchased two VC-backed cloud-related companies: Integrien, a provider of network analysis, and TriCipher, a security software developer. No term...
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PE-Backed IPOs See Steeper Price Cuts
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 Currently, the IPO pipeline stands at 161 companies seeking to raise more than $56 billion in total proceeds. Private equity firms control about a quarter of those companies. Collectively, they’re seeking to raise more...
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peHUB Second Opinion 9.2
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The Sony Walkman outsells the iPod in Japan for the first time since Apple's music player hit the market nine years ago. In related news, Sony still makes the Walkman.
Taxing rich British bankers didn't work out so well, admits the politician who introduced the tax last year amid cries over banker bonuses. Are Dell's shareholders on Xanax? Mmmm, robot not so smart after all. Mmmm quant fund strategy losing money. Mmm time to reboot. Good news for far-flung virtual companies (and big, chatty families): Skype just introduced 10-way calling. What Craigslist founder Craig Newmark wishes he'd said to CNN's Amber Lyon when she ambushed him.
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Why Ping May Be Bad News for Blippy: UPDATED
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 On the heels of the announcement, numerous comparisons were made to the social network MySpace, which has ceded virtually everything but music to Facebook and now looks well-positioned to get clobbered by Ping. Yet a smaller startup may struggle even more to coexist peacefully with Ping: 9-month-old social buying site Blippy, which has raised nearly $13 million from VCs and angels, principally August Capital and Charles River Ventures. While in one sense, Ping validates the startup’s raison d'être -- clearly Jobs has observed that people like discussing the music they've bought –- it could potentially slow the number of new registrants to Blippy, where iTunes purchases are shared far more frequently than any other types of purchases. As of today, for example, Blippy users have let the service track 389,217 800,565 of their iTunes purchases, compared with 249,112 348,389 Netflix rentals, 55,148 34,225 Amazon purchases, 1,459 1,290 Zappos purchases, and just 900 199 Macy’s purchases. Philip Kaplan, co-founder of Blippy, hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment, but in a tweet after yesterday’s Ping announcement, he acknowledged the impact of Ping. “Apple's new thing, Ping, mainstreams the idea of sharing your purchases,” he wrote, adding, “Which is both good and bad (I liked when Blippy was crrraazzy [sic]).” (UPDATE: Kaplan just emailed to say that a small bug in Blippy's interface rendered the numbers we published earlier today wrong. In fact, you can see from the new numbers in the text above that Blippy is even more reliant on iTunes' purchases than we'd initially reported. Kaplan also writes that: "We admit there was something nice about being on the edge, 'that startup where crazy people talk about what they're buying.' But we love Apple and hope they're able to help take the idea of sharing one's purchases to a wider, more mainstream audience. Fortunately for Blippy, unlike Apple, Blippy isn't limited solely to iTunes purchases.")
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Dickey Family Coughs Up $20-$25 Million for Modern Luxury
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 Last week, Dickey Publishing announced it had acquired the assets of Modern Luxury, which includes 26 titles in 12 markets, like New York, L.A. and Chicago. The Dickey Family controls Cumulus Media, which will operate Modern Luxury through Cumulus' Structured Management Services division. Modern Luxury was expected to sell for $10 million but ended up going for $20 to $25 million. Some think that's too high. The magazine company, though operating in many markets, is losing money. Earlier this year, Modern Luxury ousted its CEO, Michael Kong, after defaulting on $120 million in debt.
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3G Capital Scoops Up Home Of The Whopper for $4 Billion
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 3G Capital is paying $24 a share, according to an announcement Thursday. The WSJ says that banks are financing about $2.8 billion of the deal. John Chidsey, BK’s Chairman and CEO, will stay through the transition in these roles and then become co-chairman. Alex Behring, a 3G managing partner, will also become co-chairman. TPG Capital, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Bain Capital currently own a combined 31% of BK. They are tendering their shares in the deal. So who is 3G Capital? The Financial Times says it’s a hedge fund based in New York that is backed by a group of Brazilian entrepreneurs, collectively known as “the Trio." The Trio are best known for building the Brazilian brewery that became InBev.
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Bob Geldof (rock star and philanthropist) and Mark Florman are working together to launch a buyout fund that seeks to raise $750 million, Financial News reported. The vehicle will make investments in Africa and will target agribusinesses, financial services and telecommunications companies, according to a statement from NL EVD International. Florman previously worked for U.K. buyout shop Doughty Hanson.
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Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC agreed to acquire a 42.5 percent stake in Univar NV in a transaction that values the distributor of commodity and specialty chemicals at about $4.2 billion. CVC Capital Partners Ltd. plans to hold onto a 42.5 percent stake in the business. Univar’s management and other existing investors will own the remaining interest.
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peHUB First Read
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 * BHP investors set $155 as top price for Potash. * Samsung unveils iPad rival. * Henry McCracken on the Galaxy tablet. * SEC is probing "quote stuffing." * Barclays vice chairman of its wealth management unit warns about the demands of high net worth individuals. * William Gibson, SciFi author, writes NY Times op-ed about Google. * Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co, which operates the struggling A&P supermarket chain, is mulling the sale of its Food Emporium stores. * Ryan Faas on Apple TV, Ping and iTunes. What does it mean? * GM plans to start the roadshow for its IPO after the Nov. 2 midterm elections. * Unsafe myths about hurricanes, lightning and tornadoes.
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(Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is expected to fetch about $1.5 billion for the two defense services units it put on the auction block in June, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The largest U.S. defense contractor could sell its Enterprise Integration Group (EIG) unit for about $1 billion, while its Pacific Architects and Engineers Inc (PAE) business is being marketed for about $500 million, the sources told Reuters. Final bids are due next week, one of the sources said. They asked not to be named because details of the auction are not public. EIG, which provides systems engineering and integration services, has attracted interest from several private equity firms including: Kohlberg Kravis Rober
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(Reuters) -A consortium led by a Malaysia-based private equity firm has joined a slate of bidders including French retailer Casino (CASP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Britain’s Tesco (TSCO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), in bidding for some of Carrefour’s (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Southeast Asian assets, sources said. Malaysia’s Navis Capital Partners has bid for Carrefour assets in Singapore and Malaysia, sources familiar with the deal told Reuters. Navis declined to comment on the deal. Carrefour, Europe’s top retailer, is exiting Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in a deal that could raise about $1 billion to focus on markets where it has a leading position, sources with knowledge of the matter have
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Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe has bought a majority stake of Peak 10, a Charlotte, N.C.-based data center operator and managed services provider. Peak 10's management will also have a stake. The sellers were Seaport Capital and McCarthy Capital. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in early October.
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Wow! $30M Series A for a People Search Company
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 And Brian and Matthew Monahan, the 23- and 26-year-old brothers behind 4-year-old Inflection, don’t want you to feel silly years from now if their company accomplishes what it’s setting out to do: transform the public records industry and become the go-to place for people search. While you can find out plenty about people via search giants like Google and Yahoo -- and despite a succession of other sites like PeopleFinders.com and PublicRecordFinder.com that make it easier to find public records online -- the Monahan brothers say they’ve already compiled so many public records that any firm that tries to catch up now will be eating their dirt. It's a claim that Matrix Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures plainly agree with. Matrix led the company’s Series A, giving it $15.25 million, while Sutter Hill Ventures chipped in another $14.75 million. (The company isn’t disclosing its pre-money valuation, though the brothers say they are “happy with it” and that they raised as much capital as they did because they didn’t want to seek out a second round any time soon.)
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peHUB Second Opinion 9.1
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There’s no escaping Facebook, even when you're shopping in a real store.
Lesson for entrepreneurs: Bill Bartmann lost $3.5 billion and his company, but he didn’t give up. Now he’s making a comeback. Kooky idea of the day: Rapper Snoop Dog has teamed with Symantec to raise awareness about cybercrime. Got some rhymes for da house? Check out the Hack is Wack rap contest. Outlandish claim of the day: Mike Arrington says Google offered a developer a $500,000 cash bonus to stay at Google for a year instead of going to Facebook, but the developer turned down the offer. In this economy? Job-cutting bosses get paid more than their peers, says new study. Anyone seen my hatchet? Steve Jobs wants to own your living room. Like we didn't see that one coming.
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Alley Cat Rees Launches SF Mayoral Bid
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 Rees, who Forbes dubbed an “alley cat” 10 years ago for breaking into the proverbial old boys club of venture capital, says she has officially launched an “exploratory campaign for Mayor of San Francisco,” according to an email she sent supporters. She identifies herself as a “progressive independent.” “I’m not part of the...
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