The Carlyle Group is in talks with private equity firm Gores Group about buying a majority stake in French decoder maker SagemCom, Reuters reported, citing a news item in Les Echos. Carlyle offered less than 500 million euros ($723 million) for the stake, the French newspaper said. Gores Group currently holds 65.7% of SagemCom, which […]
In 1998, I received a request from the CEO of Putnam Investments to lead an Internet strategy project. Amazon.com had gone public in 1997, and there was a concern within most companies that the Internet would disintermediate their distribution channels similar to what was happening in the book retail industry. From a financial services perspective, […]
(Reuters) – It may take the Supreme Court to end a years-long battle between a pair of Olympic rowing twins and Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has lost a court ruling that he hoped would lead to the end of litigation by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who accused him of stealing their idea for […]
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman will announce his bid for the White House next Tuesday, bringing a moderate Republican and expert on America’s fastest growing competitor into the race to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012. “I intend to announce that I will be a candidate for the presidency a week from today,” Huntsman, former […]
The board of Graham Packaging has decided to back the offer from Reynolds Group Holdings, which is offering $25 a share. Graham, which is backed by the Blackstone Group, already has a $22.10 a share offer from Silgan Holdings. Graham notified Silgan yesterday of its decision. Silgan has three business days to make a "responsive offer," according to a statement.
Warren Lee has been promoted to general partner within Canaan Partners, the VC firm he joined in 2005. He serves as head of Canaan Partners’ New York City office. Lee also hosts the Startup@Work Founder Speakers Series and founded the NYC Turing Fellowship Program. Prior to joining Canaan, he worked at Comcast Interactive Capital.
Verto Partners has lured Pete Bassi, former president and chairman of YUM! Restaurants International, to join the Dallas-based firm as a managing director and partner. Under Bassi’s leadership, Yum opened new locations in multiple new countries. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for BJ's Restaurants Inc. and Potbelly's.
Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus are exiting Telcordia Technologies after six years. Ericsson said today that it is buying the telecom services provider for $1.15 billion cash. Piscataway, N.J.-based Telcordia provides mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services. It produced $739 million revenue for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2011. Providence and Warburg acquired Telcordia in 2005 for $1.35 billion. Each PE firm put in $150 million equity for a combined $300 million, a source says. The rest of the deal was paid using debt.
Blue Point Capital Partners has exiting its stake in Packers Holding, selling the company to Harvest Partners. The sale yielded a 6x return for the middle market private equity firm. Specific terms of the sale to Harvest Partners were not released. Blue Point invested in Packers Holdings from its $400 million fund, Blue Point Capital Partners II L.P. Packers Holdings is a provider of outsourced cleaning and sanitation services to the food processing industry.
The Gores Group has completed its acquisition of the assets of Clarkesville, Georgia-based Scovill Fasteners, a manufacturer of engineered closure products. Terms of the deal were not released. Gores Group is based in Los Angeles, and its current private equity fund has committed equity capital of more than $4 billion.