NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bridgepoint Education Inc BPI.N shares were up 7 percent on Wednesday following the college operator’s initial public offering, which priced below expectations. The shares opened at $10.50 on the New York Stock Exchange — the same level at which they priced in Tuesday’s IPO, or 30 percent below the midpoint of […]
HCA Inc. is planning to sell between $1 billion and $1.5 billion of 10-year senior secured first lien notes. It had originally said that it would offer just $500 million. The yield is expected to be nine percent. HCA was taken private in 2006 by Bain Capital, KKR and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity. www.hca.com
Istithmar said that it has injected an undisclosed amount of new capital into department store chain Barneys New York. The money is expected to ensure that Barneys meets its 2009 schedule of shipments. Istithmar bought Barneys in 2007 for $943.2 million from Jones Apparel Group.
MILAN (Reuters) – Fiat SpA’s chief executive, facing a two-week deadline to work out a partnership with Chrysler LLC, warned the troubled U.S. carmaker’s unions he would ditch the idea unless they agreed to cut labor costs. In a clear message to U.S. and Canadian unions, Sergio Marchionne told Wednesday’s Globe and Mail newspaper a […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Chrysler LLC’s first-lien lenders are preparing a counter-offer for the U.S. Treasury that might include equity in a Chrysler-Fiat alliance and some cash in exchange for abandoning their claim to some $7 billion in debt, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The Chrysler lenders are considering a response after being […]
Vistar Corp., a foodservice distributor owned by The Blackstone Group and Wellspring Capital Management, has agreed to acquire the assets of Five Star Distributors Inc., a Chicago-basedprovider of vending and office coffee products in the Midwest region. No financial terms were disclosed.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bridgepoint Education Inc, an operator of online and campus universities, became the third U.S. company to go public this year, but priced its deal 30 percent below the midpoint of its estimate range of $14 to $16, a source with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. San Diego-based Bridgepoint sold […]
eBay has announced it will take Skype public via IPO in the first half of 2010. The implication for private equity? We now have proof that, at least in this case, the buyer/seller disconnect on pricing will not ease up through the recession, and M&A will remain down. What I mean is that eBay just thumbed its nose at the “masters of the universe,” who have been "raging bulls" -- proclaiming this discounted environment is the “best buying opportunity of their lives” for the past six months. Valuations may be low, but rather than settle, sellers will simply work around it. In eBay's case, this means announcing an IPO rather than negotiating with the company's former founders and four private equity firms. The best part of the IPO press release is the details. Quelling the debate over the company’s profitability, eBay tells us that Skype’s margins in 2008 were approximately 21%. Further: “In 2008, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 percent from 2007.” Can’t wait to find out what this prices at--if it's above the $2 billion eBay reportedly asked for, KKR, Providence, Warburg and Elevation may regret walking away.
Two can play the game of press leaks. If you read between the lines of yesterday’s reports on eBay’s potential divestitures of Skype, it appears both sides of the deal might be using the media to influence pricing. Before I get into it, I want to mention that a private equity investor told me his firm first received the Skype pitch around nine months ago. The inquiry was led by Mark Dyne of Europlay Capital Advisors. You may remember that name from Skype’s initial sale to eBay—Dyne was a member of Skype’s board (he didn't return calls for comment). My source’s firm passed on the deal because Skype isn’t profitable, he said. The company’s profitability has been debated, but it had $550 million in revenues last year, according to its annual report. So, The New York Times broke the news, reporting that Skype’s founders had been talking with private equity backers to help them buy the company back from eBay. The crucial pricing details are:
Ancor Capital Partners has acquired FCA Packaging Products LLC, a Moline, Ill.-based maker of industrial shipping containers. No financial terms were disclosed. William Blair & Co. advised FCA on the sale.