Steve Bills

David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, says a degree in humanities is an ideal foundation for a career in private equity.

Buyout pros often torpedo their own deals because of a lack of emotional intelligence and a failure to build rapport with those on the other side of the negotiating table, says David Solomon, the CEO of Lazard Middle Market.

1. GTCR was one of the first private equity firms to bring on a full-time capital markets person to monitor conditions in the credit markets. What do you think will happen to the deal economy if and when the Federal Reserve begins to taper off its market intervention? There are many variables involved, so it’s […]

After two years of sluggish deal making in the technology industry, participants in a survey are “modestly bullish” that the pace of mergers and acquisitions will pick up in 2014, according to a report by the law firm Morrison & Foerster.

1. Congratulations on your creation of Heritage Home Group LLC and the acquisition of the assets of Furniture Brands International Inc out of bankruptcy. What attracted you to this deal? Heritage Home Group was a company we created to buy the assets and some obligations of Furniture Brands. This shows a lot about our team […]

Bain Capital LLC stands to make more than 4x its invested capital when it completes the sale of insurance software maker Applied Systems Inc in a secondary sale to Hellman & Friedman LLC, a person with knowledge of the transaction told Buyouts.

The JOBS Act gives buyout shops unprecedented ability to market their funds to investors broadly but limits the actual sale of partnership interests to investors who are accredited — the same standard that always has applied. But for fund sponsors seeking to reach the vast retail market, suggests Lennine Occhino, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown, maybe the most direct route would be to market themselves to defined contribution retirement plans, such as target-date funds.

You were recently named chairman of the board at Real Mex Restaurants after you bought out a minority investor. Congratulations. RealMex had been in the Sun Capital portfolio before it went into Chapter 11, where you acquired it. Does it give you special concern to step into a situation where a peer has struggled? It […]

As if fundraising weren't difficult enough, new and changing rules in Europe are likely to entangle — or perhaps strangle — GPs and LPs for years to come. Will the AIFMD affect your fundraising strategy?