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Erin Griffith

peHUB Rewind

Posted on: November 21st, 2009



Deborah Gage

Companies Led By Women Are Greener

Posted on: November 20th, 2009
This is one conclusion of a study from UC Davis and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives in Palo Alto, which looked at 400 of the largest publicly held companies in California to see how many of them had women board members or executives.

They didn't find many -- women hold only 10.6% of the board seats and executive jobs at these companies, and only 15 of the companies have women CEOs. At 30% of the companies, both board members and executives were all male.

One of the counties that ranked the lowest for women-led companies, by the way, was Santa Clara, which is in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Still, companies that do have women in leadership positions also had better environmental records.

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NEWS

11.20.09 6:26pm

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Hospitality company Centerplate will acquire smaller rival Boston Culinary Group Inc in a move to beef up its presence in the large college market, as well as other entertainment venues, the company said on Friday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Centerplate Chief Executive Officer Desmond Hague said it will be less than the $210 million private equity firm Kohlberg & Co paid in January for Centerplate.

Companies like Centerplate and Boston Culinary handle food service as well as concession sales at numerous venues around the country, including sports stadiums, airports and convention centers.

“We vehemently believe that the college market is a boom business for us for many, many years,” Hague said in a telephone intervi

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Erin Griffith

peHUB Second Opinion 11.20

Posted on: November 20th, 2009

Wacky Business School Traditions: Including pants-free pub crawls, Olympics, human castles, mustache competitions.... (BusinessWeek)

Daily Dose of Snark: The Wall Street Journal Tackles the Important Stuff. (Cityfile)

Rising Renminbi: Chinese private equity funds are emerging in big cities as China promulgates new regulations aimed at creating a homegrown private equity industry, one that Beijing hopes will strengthen the country's capital markets and fuel private sector growth in an economy overly dependent on government investment. (NY Times)

Keep It Classy, Ohio: My home state charmingly blames the crappy ratings from S&P and Moody's for $457 of its losses on investments, and there's a lawsuit to boot. (NY Times)

On the Unlikely Pairing Between Carlyle and the SEIU: "Lions and lambs have indeed laid down together, although we're not exactly sure who the lion is here." (PE Beat)


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Erin Griffith

How TCW Met Magic Johnson, Formed “Capital Assist”

Posted on: November 20th, 2009

At yesterday's Buyouts West conference, Deborah Gage interviewed Mark L. Attanasio, managing director at TCW. As Dan noted in this morning's peHUB Wire, the Milwaukee Brewers owner said he wouldn't trade Prince Fielder.

More closely related private equity, he discussed the formation of TCW's new joint venture with Magic Johnson. How does a mid-market mezzanine lender get hooked up with a former L.A. Lakers great? This is how:

"I went over to Ron Burkle's place to visit the Stanley cup. Ron owns the (Pittsburgh) Penguins, and they won the Stanley Cup, and I though maybe some of that good karma would wear off on the Brewers. It didn't. What did wear off was Eric Holoman, the President of Magic Johnson Enterprises and Magic's business partner. We recognized that, greater than anything we might do in terms of financing MJE's companies would be to figure out what to do about the lending gap created by the fall of companies like CIT and American Capital. We have an underserved market in middle market finance."

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NEWS

11.20.09 5:16pm

Calix Networks Inc., a Petaluma, Calif.-based provider of communications access systems and software, has filed for a $100 million IPO. It plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol CALX, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley serving as co-lead underwriters.

The company reported $144 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2009, with net loss of $28 million.

The company has raised around $220 million in VC funding from Foundation Capital (9% pre-

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Deborah Gage

NVCA: The Tweets Are In

Posted on: November 20th, 2009

All week, Startuphire.com and the National Venture Capital Association have been sending out press releases highlighting U.S. jobs created this year by venture-backed companies -- more than 35,000 to date.

They also asked employees of these startups to submit 140-character testimonials on what inspires them to get up and go to work each day.

Here are some of them:

"Our CEO is wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt right now. At bulbstorm.com, we're too busy innovating to iron!"
Bart Steiner, CEO, Bulbstorm

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NEWS

11.20.09 3:11pm

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley electric sports car maker Tesla Motors is planning to go public soon, two people familiar with the situation said, outlining plans to sell stock and cash in on investor appetite for green technology and interest in battery-powered vehicles.

The six-year-old start-up’s investors include Google Inc (GOOG.O) founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

An IPO filing from Tesla, best known for its $109,000 all-electric Roadster, is expected any day, said one of the sources. The person did not give a specific time frame.

Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes declined to comment on what he called “rumor

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11.20.09 1:17pm

Medidata Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: MDSO), a New York-based provider of electronic data capture and data management software for clinical researchers, has filed for a secondary public offering of 4.5 million common stock. The company’s closing price on Wednesday was $17.39 per share, compared to its June IPO price of $14 per share.

Selling shareholders include Insight Venture Partners, which currently holds 2.46 million shares for a 21.2% ownership position. Medidata’s filing did not indicate how m

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Deborah Gage

Why Chegg.com Was Financed With Credit And Debt

Posted on: November 20th, 2009

Or at least partially with credit and debt...

Insight Venture Partners led a $57 million Series D round of equity funding into the company this week, plus helped provide a $25 million credit facility. In addition, Chegg.com got a separate $30 million debt facility from Pinnacle Ventures and TriplePoint Capital. Total equity funding is now over $90 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Chegg.com bills itself as the Netflix for college textbooks -- students order books from its website and receive them in the mail, along with a prepaid envelope to return them -- and it needs enough financial flexibility to be able to accommodate its fast growth, according to Insight's Deven Parekh.

Read more »


Erin Griffith

Weekly Downgrade Wrap-Up

Posted on: November 20th, 2009

As usual, we have a week’s worth of ratings actions on the debt of LBO-backed companies from S&P and Moody’s Investors Service. This week was a busy one for downgrades and debt exchanges, with eight downgrades and one upgrade.

Company: Energy Future Holdings Corp.
Sponsor: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Action: S&P raised its corporate credit rating on EFH and its unregulated subsidiaries TCEH and EFCH to 'B-' from 'SD' and assigned a 'B–' corporate credit rating to EFIH. This rating action follows EFH's recent announcement that it and its subsidiaries have completed the exchange of its $357 million of various securities within the entire capital structure.
Highlight: “These ratings reflect EFH's consolidated creditworthiness post-exchange.” The outlook on these corporate credit ratings is negative, reflecting weak financials and increasing refinance risk.


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NEWS

11.20.09 1:06pm

(Reuters) - Playboy spent 56 years making sure that the world would know it by the sign of its bunny ears. Now that the company is up for sale, Playboy’s iconic logo, not the magazine, might be what saves it.

Playboy Enterprises Inc (PLA.N) is in talks with at least one possible bidder for the Chicago-based company.

Fashion house Iconix Brand Group (
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11.20.09 1:04pm

(Reuters) - Carlyle, CVC and funds linked to Morgan Stanley and Macquarie are readying binding bids for Gas Natural’s Madrid gas-distribution assets ahead of a Nov. 30 deadline, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The deal, valued by sources at more than 500 million euros ($743 million), is part of a string of asset disposals aimed at cutting Gas Natural’s (GAS.MC) 22 billion euro debt pile by the end of the year.

On Nov. 3 the Spanish power company’s chief executive, Rafael Villalesca, said there were six or seven potential bidders for the assets but the sale process could take another two months. [ID:nL3268319

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Dan Primack

The End of Transaction Fees?

Posted on: November 20th, 2009
Tom Danis of RCP Advisers suggested yesterday that one reason Charlesbank Capital Partners had an oversubscribed fundraise was that the new vehicle’s terms gave 100% of transaction fees to limited partners (rather than a split). It wasn’t so much the expected dollars, Danis said, but more that Charlesbank was responding to what is broadly seen by LPs as a fairer alignment of interests.

Handing 100% of transaction, portfolio monitoring and other fees is a key tenant of the ILPA guidelines proposed earlier this year. But here is my question: If most firms adopt the ILPA guidelines on fees, will that end the taking of fees? In other words, will GPs still have incentive to pilfer from portfolio companies if they can’t stuff any of it in their back pockets?

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NEWS

11.20.09 8:19am

QuinStreet Inc., a Foster City, Calif.-based provider of online vertical marketing solutions, has filed for a $250 million IPO. The company reported $260 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, with net income of around $17.2 million.

QuinStreet has raised nearly $60 million in VC funding, from firms like Split Rock Partners (16.4% pre-IPO stake), Sutter Hill Ventures (10.55%), Granite Global Ventures (7.05%), Catterton Partners (5.87%), Focus Ventures, Rosewood Capital,Charter Gr

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Dan Primack

peHUB First Read

Posted on: November 20th, 2009

NEWS

11.20.09 6:49am

LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity-owned fund manager Gartmore plans to list in London in a move which could kick-off a much-touted run of initial public offerings among companies owned by cash-hungry buyout firms.

Gartmore, which was bought out by management in 2006 backed by U.S. firm Hellman & Friedman, will list an about 30-50 percent stake to raise 500 million to 550 million pounds ($833.1 million to $916.4 million) in the country’s biggest IPO this year, people familiar with the matter said.

Hellman & Friedman’s stake will fall below a majority position from about 52 percent at present, a company spokeswoman said, although she declined to give further details.

The listing — which is expected by year-end and would value Gartmore at abou

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11.19.09 10:26pm

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR.AS) reported a third-quarter profit on Thursday and said it is seeing improving debt markets and opportunities to invest.

KKR closed a long-awaited deal in October to buy its Amsterdam-quoted fund, becoming a Euronext-listed company and completing the first step toward an expected move to the New York Stock Exchange.

Its third-quarter earnings

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Erin Griffith

peHUB Second Opinion 10.19

Posted on: November 19th, 2009

Diss: Man is Sam Zell ever a jerk. At a recent conference he dissed Wilbur Ross, saying, "all the new savants on commercial real estate (like) Wilbur Ross...I find their comments..are inversely related to our knowledge of the industry." (WSJ)

Barbarians at the gateau? KKR wants a bite of Cadbury. (Dealscape)

Old news: How many "PE IS BACK!!!!!" and "NO WAIT NO ITS NOT!!!!" stories does one year need? Apparently the past 238741273 were not enough, as CNN has caught wind of this crazy new trend. (CNN)

Speaking of Old News: If you made it to Buyouts East last March, you will have heard Steve Young's funny, touching speech comparing private equity to his experience as a star quarterback, but if not, Dealscape has relayed the main points of it, recently given at one of their conferences. (Dealscape)

Guy Hands: Drawing Japanese yen crisis comparisons. (FT)

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Nothing is more frustrating than expecting a check and then not getting it, and no one knows that better than the former shareholders of PayQuik.com.

In a complaint filed in Delaware federal court recently, the representative of the former stockholders of PayQuik sued Citibank )PayQuik’s acquirer) and U.S. Bank (the escrow agent) to compel the release of the balance of the escrow. At the closing of the transaction, Citibank placed 10% of the merger consideration in an escrow account with U.S. Bank. Near the end of the escrow period, Citibank brought an indemnification claim, but the stockholder representative asserted that Citibank submitted this claim one day after the escrow period had expired. As is typical, the escrow bank took no position on the dispute, so the stockholder representative decided to seek a court order directing release of the funds.

This raises an interesting question that we have come across on other transactions: What options do the former stockholders of an acquired company have if the acquirer brings a claim near the end of an escrow period that the stockholders believe is either invalid or of little merit?

Read more »
Plan B and A123 By Howard Anderson



peHUB First Read Posted on: November 18th, 2009
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Jason Calacanis To Start New Angel Group Posted on: November 16th, 2009
peHUB Second Opinion 11.16 Posted on: November 16th, 2009






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