PE Deals

(Updated) Equity Office shareholders yesterday overwhelmingly approved the $55.50 per share buyout offer from The Blackstone Group, thus cementing the largest-ever LBO at around $39 billion (including around $16 billion in assumed debt). I wrote a few days ago that Blackstone might be better off losing the deal if it were able to collect the […]

Yesterday I wrote that Blackstone Group might be better off losing the Equity Office deal to Vornado, considering that it had been forced to raise its bid – and thereby reduce its return expectations — by 14.4 percent. And I received emails from six Blackstone LPs – all of whom agreed (although my guess is […]

General Atlantic today announced that it has acquired Network Solutions, a Herndon, Va.-based provider of online solutions for small businesses, from Najafi Cos. (f.k.a. Pivotal Private Equity). So let’s play 5 Questions with Anton Levy, a managing director with General Atlantic and head of the firm’s media and consumer practice. 1. Network Solutions provides services […]

Am I the only one who’s beginning to think it’s in Blackstone’s best interest to lose the Equity Office deal? It has now raised its bid to $55.50 per share, which is 14.4% higher than its initial offer. So assume for a moment that Blackstone was originally expecting a 25% ROI from the deal – […]

I received an email earlier today from someone asking “Where has private equity gone? It seems that deal-flow has slowed just as we expected an onslaught of deals.” The reader and I share mutual expectations, but a different premise: I also expect that buyout volume will increase, but my research shows that the uptick already […]

Private equity is not, nor has it been, in the midst of a bubble. Its recent boom-times have been driven by legitimate market factors, and risk has been so mitigated – via debt securitization, among other techniques – that today’s private equiteers are unlikely to suffer the same fate as venture capitalists circa 2001. But, […]

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 […]