Iris Dorbian
First Read ushers in the morning with news that Alibaba will reportedly sell its Meituan-Dianping stake For $900 million, J.P. Morgan Chase wins naming rights to New Warriors arena in San Francisco and Facebook posts $1 billion in profit, causing its stock to surge in after hours trading.
In Second Opinion, five former brokers are acquitted of fraud in London Libor trial, Uber is fined $1.3 million for ambiguous driver training videos in France and the FTC sues DeVry University for allegedly deceiving students about finding jobs.
Component Hardware Group, a portfolio company of Windjammer Capital Investors, has acquired Specialty Food Service Hardware Inc and sister company Vision Parts & Accessories Inc. No financial terms were disclosed. Based in Canada, Specialty and Vision are providers of components and parts to the commercial food service and wholesale plumbing markets.
The Private Equity Growth Capital Council has named Mike Sommers president and CEO of the private equity trade association. Sommers will begin his new job in early February. Previously, Sommers was the chief of staff to former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representives John Boehner.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP has hired Norm Champ as a partner in the law firm's private funds group. The former director of the SEC's investment management division, Champ's appointment becomes effective February 1, 2016.
Oak Hill Capital Partners has agreed to acquire Imagine! Print Solutions, a Minneapolis-based provider of printed in-store marketing solutions. The seller is the company founder Bob Lothenbach who will retain a "significant" minority ownership stake in Imagine! No financial terms were disclosed. Houlihan Lokey provided financial advice to Imagine! in the transaction.
Belcan Inc, which is owned by AE Industrial Partners, will acquire Europe-based East Kilbride Engineering Services, an engineering consulting company. No financial terms were disclosed for the transaction that is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP acted as financial advisor to Belcan and AE Industrial Partners on the deal.
Cybersecurity company SignalSense has hired Kurt Kokko as chief technology officer. Previously, Kokko worked at the Walt Disney Company. SignalSense backers include Trilogy Equity Partners.
Ares Management LP will acquire a minority stake up to 20 percent in Montage Hotel & Resorts as well as provide up to $200 million in future growth financing. Montage Hotel & Resorts is a luxury hospitality company.
Euclid Analytics, which provides customer location analytics, has named Brennan O'Donnell as senior vice president of sales and business development. Previously, O'Donnell worked at SurveyMonkey where he was the vice president of sales and customer success. Euclid is backed by Benchmark Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Cox Enterprises and Groupe Arnault.