Archipelago Learning Inc., a Dallas-based provider of online education tools and services, has filed for a $75 million IPO. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol ARCL, with BoA Merrill Lynch serving as sole underwriter. Providence Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Archipelago Learning in January 2007, for $84.5 million. www.archipelagolearning.com
(Reuters) – Bankrupt luxury home builder WCI Communities Inc (WCIMQ.PK) said it has emerged from Chapter 11 as a private company, eliminating more than $2 billion in debt and liabilities. The company, once led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, constituted a new board of directors comprising five members. Monarch Alternative Capital, a private investment firm, […]
Don't you just love a good "Background of the Offer" story? It's just like Days of Our Lives, only written by M&A lawyers. Exciting stuff. This week we got a peek at the action leading up to Advent International's agreement to purchase mall clothing retailer Charlotte Russe. We knew there would be some juicy details since buyout firm KarpReilly LLC had made a play for the company that went awry. This episode of Days of Our Private Equity Lives shows that once again, financing trumps price. Advent International won the auction with a lower bid because, according to the filing, "the greater certainty of closing under the Advent proposal outweighed the $0.25 per share difference in price between the two proposals." We saw the same phenomena earlier this year when Anheuser Busch sold KKR its Korean beer company, Oriental Brewery. Sources told peHUB that KKR's final bid was lower than two rival bids from local firms Affinity Equity Partners and MBK Partners, but KKR won the auction because its debt financing was guaranteed.
Pacific Plaza Health and Living, a Costa Rican private healthcare complex, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Aureos Capital’s Emerge Central America Growth Fund. PRESS RELEASE Aureos Capital’s Emerge Central America Growth Fund (EMERGE) has invested in Pacific Plaza Health and Living (“PPHL), a state-of-the-art private healthcare complex, designed to serve the growing […]
ABRY Partners has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Grande Communications Inc., a San Marcos, Texas-based telecom provider. No financial terms were disclosed, although a March VentureWire report said that ABRY was trying to secure more than $125 million in debt financing through SunTrust Bank. Grande has raised over $340 million in VC funding […]
WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) – The retailing business of Samsonite Corp, the world’s top luggage maker, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday as part of a reorganization aimed at closing roughly half of its 173 U.S. stores. Samsonite Company Stores LLC said its Chapter 11 filing is aimed at focusing the business on its outlet stores, which […]
Regency Energy Partners (Nasdaq: RGNC) has raised $80 million in a private placement from Harvest Partners and MTP Energy Management.
Teakwood Capital, a Dallas-based private equity firm, has acquired MyOpenJobs, an operator of vertical career sites and Web-based recruiting management software. No financial terms were disclosed.
LONDON (Reuters) – Incisive Media, the business-to-business publisher, is splitting into two with Apax Partners, its private equity owner, to keep control of the American Lawyer Media business in the U.S., while banks take over the struggling UK arm, the Financial Times said on Thursday. The FT said Apax has agreed to inject $15 million […]
LONDON (Reuters) – National Express (NEX.L) has received a final proposed takeover offer from a consortium led by its largest investor for 500 pence a share, sending its shares up 13 percent. The consortium comprising Spanish shareholder the Cosmen family and CVC Capital Partners said in a statement it had raised its indicative cash offer […]