peHUB First Read

Some links to kick off your Friday…

* GSO Capital Partners seemed to have its take-private buyout of Reddy Ice all wrapped up, but now comes word that sole underwriter Morgan Stanley may walk. Read it here.

* Vinod Khosla offers up some harsh words for the hybrid vehicle market over at VentureBeat, in saying that hybrid purchases are “mostly about personal guilt trips.” He also likens them to wealthy investors giving money to “art museums instead of to starving people.”

Vinod is brilliant, visionary, blah blah… But he is just wrong in this case. Or maybe he’s just trying to preemptively support his biofuel investments. Either way, wrong.

As a Prius owner, I can assure Vinod that hybrid vehicle purchases aren’t solely about environmentalism. They also are about economics and time-saving. Tax breaks, lower fuel costs, the ability to drive in car-pool lanes, fewer “congestion” fees in London and (coming soon) New York. Not a week goes by where someone doesn’t ask me or my wife about how the Prius performs, because they want to buy one for their next car.

* Blackstone Group ramps up its Congressional lobbying efforts.

* Guy Hands sees no end to the credit crunch. In fact, he thinks it may get worse.

* On the other hand, it seems that there are buyers for the Alliance Boots bonds.