Z Capital Partners is fundraising for its second special situations fund. Lake Forest, Ill.-based Z Capital is looking to raise $500 million, according to an SEC filing dated Dec. 31.

Align Networks, which is backed by General Atlantic, is merging with Universal SmartComp, which is a portfolio company of The Riverside Co. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. The combined company will operate under the Align Networks brand name and be led by Align CEO and President Butch Hofstetter. Both General Atlantic and Riverside will remain investors [...]

Aaron Dorr, a veteran banker recently let go by Jefferies & Co., has found a new home.

Dorr has joined Sandler O’Neill and will head the firm’s asset management group, according to a statement. Dorr will be based in New York and will report to Brian Sterling and William Hickey, Sander’s co-heads of investment banking.

Jefferies & Co. isn’t officially shuttering its asset management advisory business, but it is letting go of some industry veterans in the space.

Kevin Pakenham and Aaron Dorr, both MDs in the financial institutions group, will be leaving Jefferies, a source says. Karamvir Gosal, also an MD, as well as two junior bankers, will be leaving as well, the person says. Their departures are expected to occur in coming weeks.

Pakenham, Dorr and Gosal all hail from Putnam Lovell, which Jefferies acquired in 2007. It’s not clear if Jefferies is ousting all of the bankers in the asset management advisory division, but it is letting go of the senior bankers, the source says.

Tom Flanagan has joined Jefferies as a managing director in the firm’s financial sponsors group. He previously ran the mid-market financial sponsors group for Lehman Brothers.

Four venture-backed companies have made it out so far this quarter, but if you’re wondering whether an M&A pick-up could be far behind, the answer may depress you. “Four [venture-backed] deals [in Q2] don’t constitute a thawing of the IPO market,” says Paul Deninger, vice chairman of the investment bank Jefferies & Co, who believes we [...]