The Gores Group, a buyout firm that oversees $3.8 billion across three funds, has started raising a fourth fund to tap opportunities among distressed situations at the smaller end of the market. The new fund, the Gores Small Capitalization Fund LP, has a $300 million target.

Information about the new fund was contained in memos from the San Diego County Employees Retirement Association, which finalized a $30 million commitment to the new fund at its Dec. 15 investment meeting, confirmed Yegin Chen, San Diego CERA’s head of private equity, in an e-mail message.

Terms of San Diego CERA’s investment include…

Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, has joined Tiburon’s board. Tiburon, which is backed by The Gores Group, provides public safety and security solutions for law enforcement, fire and rescue and corrections agencies.

The Gores Group, via its Gore Logistics Holdings LLC, has acquired supply chain company Clark Holdings, the company announced. The deal closed on November 4. Gores Group is a private equity firm with offices in Los Angeles and Boulder, Colo.

Happy Monday! If you want to catch up on news you may have missed last week, here are peHUB’s top 10 posts, as judged by the pageviews of our regular readers. Hot topics included Q3 fundraising, performance data from Colorado PERA, UTIMCO and New York pension funds, and a growing number of restaurant bankruptcies.

ONE: Slideshow: 15 Largest U.S.-based Venture Funds Raised in Q3 – by Lawrence Aragon
TWO: CrunchFund Wasn’t the Only Newbie Fund Raised in Q3; Here Are 18 Others (slideshow) – by Lawrence Aragon
THREE: Slideshow: Top-Performing PE/VC Funds Of 3 Big-Apple Pensions – by David Toll
FOUR: Top Ten Performing Funds From The Colorado PERA Venture Portfolio (slideshow) – by Mark Boslet
FIVE: Qwikster and 7 Other Terrible, Short-Lived Ideas (slideshow) – by Connie Loizos
SIX: Slideshow: Riverside’s Lessons from the Loo – by Buyouts magazine
SEVEN: Slideshow: Restaurant Bankruptcies Make PE Queasy – by Bernard Vaughan
EIGHT: Slideshow: UTIMCO in 17 Active Funds with IRRs > 25% (subscribers only) – by Lawrence Aragon
NINE: Gores Group Turns More Industry-Focused (subscribers only) – by Bernard Vaughan
TEN: Welsh Carson To Buy Triple Point Tech from ABRY – by Luisa Beltran

Los Angeles-based private equity firm Gores Group has furthered its investment in Tiburon Inc., completing payment of an undisclosed amount of debt. Gores Group bought Tiburon in 2007. The company makes automated public safety and security products for law enforcement, fire and rescue and corrections agencies.

Clark Holdings Inc., the provider of logistical service for print media and other supply chain management clients, will be acquired by Gores Group LLC for $0.46 per share, a premium on the company’s stock of about 171 percent. EVE Partners advised Clark on the deal.

The Gores Group has entered into a “stalking horse” asset purchase agreement to buy body armor maker Point Blank Solutions Inc. Subject to bankruptcy court approval, the Gores Group plans to close the acquisition of Point Blank’s assets by November.

Los Angeles-based buyout firm Gores Group, will acquire the United States operations of Hypercom Corp. Terms of the deal were not released. Hypercom provides electronic payment and transaction devices and services to retail and banking industries customers.

After roughly a year of talks with various private equity firms, Nokia and Siemens have ditched plans to sell a stake in their joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, Reuters reported. The companies had been in talks with private equity groups including Gores Group, Reuters said.

The Carlyle Group is exclusive talks to acquire digital set-top box maker Sagemcom from the Gores Group, Reuters reported. Under the terms of the deal being discussed, Carlyle would take a 70% stake, with Sagemom’s management and employees holding the remaining 30%, Reuters said. Financial details of the deal were not released.