Having spent an inordinate amount of time, money, and resources on rescuing the financial system from itself, the politicians are once again turning their attention to that other notable constituency: You.This week, both Sen. McCain and
Having trouble understanding the credit crisis? The comic strip “Sinfest” would like to proffer an explanation:
The startup environment of the last few years has had a breathless excitement about fast growing Web 2.0 businesses that were poised to become the next Google. In other words, a startup that could become the next great advertising platform. …
If you needed a more parched audience of investors, you need look no further than the Super Return private equity conference in Dubai. On the other side of the world from all that mayhem on Wall Street, with no hint of winter in the air and minders of some of the world’s biggest mounds of cash looking for the right moment to get into a deeply discounted market.
Enter Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. He told the gathering there are cheap financial assets to be had and said banks and insurance companies seeking to sell assets are probably going to sell them at distressed prices. Some smaller banks and financial service companies that need equity injections could also be attractive. “Right now there’s an enormous opportunity for private equity to get into the financial service industry and invest in banks, insurance companies, other organizations that are heavily hit … by the credit crunch.”
Where does the money come from? Private equity firms have been hammered by the lack of availability of financing for leveraged buyout deals and have largely been waiting on the sidelines for debt markets to return to some normality. Rubenstein said the U.S. government’s actions could help free up availability of leveraged buyout debt in the coming months.
So here’s the subtext for sovereign wealth funds and other cash-rich investors listening in Dubai: opportunity is knocking, and the only thing from keeping private equity titans at bay is a soon-to-be thawed credit squeeze, so you better get in while the getting is good. In other words… you first.
* Piraeus Bank, Greece’s fourth-largest lender, said it will offer to buy all of Proton Bank’s shares at the same share-swap ratio offered to Proton’s main shareholders.
* U.S. private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings and a Russian investor have made bids for South Korean appliance and TV maker Daewoo Electronics, put up for sale for the third time, a leading creditor for Daewoo said.
* Australian property developer Stockland Group is set to own up to 13 percent of FKP Properties and get first rights on a takeover of FKP’s retirement villages, aiming to expand in the fast growing sector.
Hoping to restore confidence and avoid a collapse of the U.S. financial system, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. announced a government bailout plan, describing it as “extensive, powerful and transformative.”Paulson also said, “We re
We all know about YouTube and NBC-News Corp owned Hulu, but Boston-based Brightcove may be the next most pedigreed online video company on the horizon. …
Steve Jobs hosts the latest Apple product launch in Cupertino shortly, and rumors are flying about what’s in store:$1,000
MacBooksPossible Blu-ray option in notebooksNVIDIA graphics chipsets to replace Intel chipsetsA possible tablet computer à la
Picking up where they left off Monday, stocks soared around the world Tuesday and the Dow burst higher to start the session – although soon began to lose altitude.The convention wisdom on Wall Street is
From ClusterStock.com, Oct. 14, 2008: We like the new bailout. We think it will ease the credit crisis and get banks lending to each other again (if not to consumers). The Treasury is finally focusing on the equity side of the balance sheet: The tax
When it comes to newspapers, there’s nothing like the thrill of defeat. Scott Sperling, co-president of private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, sounded anything but disappointed on stage Tuesday at the Dow Jones Media and Money conference when he told Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Lattman about dropping out of the bid for the Knight Ridder newspaper chain in 2006.
THL avoided the newspaper beat early on, Sperling said, after deciding that newspapers were just too expensive. “We looked at Knight Ridder more recently,” he said. “But we weren’t able to approach the price.”
So what does he think of the amazing advertising revenue plunge that has smacked newspaper publishers silly since then? “I would have predicted a lesser decline than what we’ve seen… We were probably too kind in our assessment of the industry three years ago.”
To drive home the point, Sperling told Lattman about reading the Journal on its website.
Lattman: You read the hard copy too, I hope?
Sperling: [pause] Sometimes.
[cue audience laughter]
H.J. Heinz makes no secret of the fact that acquisitions are part of its strategy, especially in areas like emerging markets and health and wellness.
Most recently, the company said earlier this month that it would buy Australian canned fruit and juice maker Golden Circle Ltd for about $220 million.
The company is still looking at “strategic acquisitions,” CFO Art Winkleblack told an investor conference. And the buffet of brands that Heinz can search from may never be larger.
“In the past few months, the pipeline of potential acquisitions has risen to unprecedented levels,” Winkleblack said.
“It would appear that the pipeline of potential acquisitions has risen because there are less private equity buyers in the market due to the current financial situation,” he said later through a spokesman.
The acquisitions Heinz cited were smaller ones that mostly added to existing categories. No reference was made to anything larger, like the comment Heinz CEO William Johnson made in August that Campbell Soup Co would be a “nice fit.”
From Clusterstock, Oct. 13, 2008 Well, now we know why the heads of the nine families were summoned to Washington today: To have capital shoved down their throats. The Treasury will be taking preferred equity stakes in the nation’s biggest banks, th
