PE Deals

CHICAGO, Jan 6 (Reuters) – The winning bidder in the long-awaited sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team will be identified this week, three sources close to the process said on Tuesday. “Bidders have been told a single party to negotiate with will be chosen this week,” said one source, who asked not to be […]

Erin Griffith lists 49 PE deals that went Chapter 11 in 2008, up from just two in 2007. Wow! But, not one technology deal made the list. (Wow again?) Leveraged buyouts in the technology sector are not new, as firms like Welsh Carson, TA Associates, GA and Warburg Pincus have been at it for over 25 years. But when the tech bubble burst and the IPO market became terminally ill back in 2000, these old-line firms were joined by a rush of overfed VCs (Battery, NorthBridge, Insight), generalist buyout shops and several new tech-focused PE firms – all of whom went on a remarkable fund-raising and shopping spree. The new breed of tech-focused PE firms were lead by names like Silver Lake, Francisco, Golden Gate, Vista and Vector. Many of these firms were built on tech banking talent that spent the 1990’s taking companies public. With the public markets dominated by hedge funds, day traders and regulators – these PE firms focused taking their old banking clients private. Like all LBO activity – the velocity and amplitude to tech buyout deals were dramatically enhanced by free credit and peaked in Q2 of 2007, when Kronos was taken private by Hellman and JMI for $1.8b, or 17x EBITDA.

Yellowstone Landscape Group, a portfolio company of Gridiron Capital, has acquired Austin Outdoor, a Bunnell, Fla.-based provider of landscaping services in Florida and The Bahamas. No financial terms were disclosed.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goody’s Family Clothing, a privately held apparel retail chain which emerged from bankruptcy in October, plans to liquidate its remaining stores as the U.S. economic recession has undermined its ability to continue operating. “The company is in the processes of obtaining bids to liquidate substantially all collateral and inventory,” said Cathy […]

Add one more bruise to the growing list of battered Apollo management investments. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus believe Inkeepers USA, a hotel REIT investment made by the firm's publicly traded BDC, is heading for default in '09. For background, Apollo Investments is a BDC traded on NASDAQ under the ticker AINV. It makes equity, debt and senior secured loan investments across a variety of sectors and has a $1.34 billion market cap. You may remember the fund's CEO, John Hannan, resigned in November; he's been replaced by COO James Zelter. The fund took Innkeepers USA Trust private in April 2007 for $1.5 billion. According to the analyst report, the deal brought Innkeepers from 4x leverage to an estimated 10x proforma expected 2008 EBITDA (page nine has a nice before and after cap structure chart). The report states that the investment is "significantly underperforming," and likely to see a rocky '09.

Total Safety U.S. Inc., a Houston, Texas-based portfolio company of DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, has acquired Wholesale Radio Rental Inc., a provider of portable communication devices for use in the petroleum, oil and gas and petrochemical industries. No financial terms were disclosed.

Macrovision (Nasdaq: MVSN) has terminated its agreement to sell the TV Guide Network to One Equity Partners for $225 million, after reaching a $255 million agreement to sell TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online to Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF).

Yankee Hill Management has acquired a majority stake in Great Western Products Co., a Hollywood, Ala.-based maker of movie theater concessions and equipment, according to LBO Wire. No financial terms were disclosed, except that PNC Financial Services provided senior debt and South Franklin Street Partners provided mezzanine debt. www.gwproducts.com

Penda Corp., a Portage, Wis.-based maker of thermoformed solutions, has agreed to merge with Durakon Industries Inc., a provider of thermoformed automotive components. No financial terms were disclosed. Penda is a portfolio company of Resilience Capital Partners, while Durakon is a portfolio company of Littlejohn & Co. Both private equity firms will be the shareholders of the combined company.

UK private equity group, Key Capital Partners (KCP), announced on Tuesday that its portfolio company, Pandora Books, which supplies books to UK schools, has bought competitor, Badger Publishing, from EDCO, the Irish educational publishing division of Smurfit Kappa Group.   Although no deal value was disclosed, the combined turnover of the new company will be […]