peHub Second Opinion

***GE’s realignment makes the NBC Universal divestiture I’ve been hoping for less likely. I’m really crossing my fingers for it so that (A) I can cover it and (B) some of you can bid on it. And maaaaaybe so (C) Bain and Blackstone will buy it and fully merge The Weather Channel with it, making all my baseless speculations come true!

***SemGroup’s PE backers (Carlyle, Riverstone, and Ritchie Capital Management) had no idea it was nearing bankruptcy. This must be an example of the “fire drill bankruptcies” I heard about a few months ago from KPMG’s Lorie Beers. I’m fascinated by this Reuters story, which reports:

“As late as June a banker at Bank of America, one of SemGroup’s main lenders, described the fast-growing company as one of his best clients, two sources said this week.”

Creditors will only recover about half of $7 billion they were owed. Wow.

***And on non-private equity related news, as I’m sure you’ve all heard, Microsoft is so over Yahoo.

***peHub.com’s parent company, Thomson Reuters, will apparently be hitting the television world.