PE Deals

The largest leveraged buyout in history may have just gotten larger. Vornado Realty Trust just announced that it has offered $52 per share for commercial real estate giant Equity Office Properties Trust, with Starwood Capital and Walton Street Capital also participating. This tops an existing $48 per share bid from The Blackstone Group, and would […]

Goldman Sachs is not prohibiting club deals in the $10 billion auction for General Electric’s plastics unit. Moreover, it could care less about the sleepy Department of Justice “inquiry” into private equity collusion. Forgive my declaratives, but something needed to be said after the Wall Street Journal incorrectly published the following in yesterday’s edition (sorry for the delayed […]

A Biomet Inc. shareholder has sued four private equity firms — Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group — and the company’s board of directors over a proposed $10.9 billion buyout. You can read the complaint here: Lawsuit against Biomet and Four PE Funds.pdf The lawsuit’s claims are typical […]

Now updated with ACG/Thomson press release and underlying data Last month, I asked PE Week Wire readers (become one here) to participate in the Bi-Annual ACG/Thomson DealMakers Survey. The official results come out tomorrow, but since everyone was so generous with their time, we got a sneak peak: Ninety-three percent of respondents (1,230 in all) believe that the current […]

I was on CNBC this morning for a 2007 buyout market outlook segment (video link here), but we ended up mostly talking about whether or not Home Depot will go private. For the record, I think there is better than a 50/50 chance of Home Depot receiving a bid – and a similar likelihood that […]

My colleagues at Buyouts Magazine are putting the finishing touches on their latest issue, which will include a vast smorgasbord of 2006 data and analysis. In the meantime, they’ve sent over a few tasty nuggets. First up is disclosed LBO deal volume, which comes in at $314.78 billion for 316 transactions (including leverage). There also were 691 deals with undisclosed […]

Circuit City is a “potential” leveraged buyout target, according to a new Bear Stearns research report out today. The analysis comes after the electronics retailer posted a surprise Q3 loss, was picked up by Dealbook and has helped send the stock… PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP! I know that both the analyst and the NYT blogger were […]

When the U.S. Department of Justice began its inquiry into club deals earlier this year, a spokesman for the UK Financial Services Authority told me that it was planning “no investigation into private equity deals in the UK.” Now, less than two months later, officials from the FSA are interviewing people involved in four key takeover bids to try […]

John Lehman is chairman and a founding partner of J.F. Lehman & Co., a mid-market private equity firm focused on the aerospace, defense and maritime industries. He also is the former Secretary of the U.S. Navy, and recently completed service as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (a.k.a. […]

Debate continues to rage over whether buyout firms are somehow cheating on their deals. Are they stealing companies from hapless shareholders? Are they colluding on large transactions in a blatant violation of anti-trust laws?  And if not, how else can the enormous profits so many buyout firms generate be explained? All are interesting questions that […]