Mergers & Acquisitions: The Dealmaker's Journal articles from February 2007

Mergers & Acquisitions: The Dealmaker's Journal archives from February 2007

M&A Newcomers Can Be Hard to Handle.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Based on deal pros' predictions of another banner year in 2007, most of us expect a lot of new entrants in the M&A market, both on the buy side and the sell side. This always happens after a long string of high-volume years amid some...

"One ACG Community" in 2007.(Association for Corporate Growth)(Conference news)
February 1, 2007... We witnessed some overwhelming successes within our organization in 2006 - a year of record-breaking attendance at InterGrowth 2006; growing attendance of more than 1,000 at chapter and regional "Capital Connections" in Los Angeles, Boston,...

Who's Who.
February 1, 2007... ACG Board 0f Directors Paul Stewart* Chairman pstewart@pscapitalpartners.com Daniel A. Varroney* President & CEO, ACG dvarroney@acg.org T. Patrick Hurley Jr.* ACG Immediate-Past Chairman ...

Private Equity, the Old-Fashioned Way.(G.L. Ohrstrom & Co.)(Company overview)
February 1, 2007... In today's frothy private equity market in which investment periods are measured in months and hedge funds are jumping into the business with an equally short-term focus, it's refreshing to see a tenured private equity firm continue to...

Valassis and ADVO Avoid Showdown on a MAC Clash: The merger partners salvaged their deal pact, leaving the Tyson/IBP decision as a key standard for breaking off deals.(Valassis Communications)
February 1, 2007... The key legal standard for aborting a deal because post-agreement developments went sour at the target remained firmly in place after a court showdown flamed out in a closely watched Delaware case. Acrimonious litigation between acquirer...

PE Funds Are Cleared For New Investments.(Private equity)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Private equity funds and hedge funds can widen their fundraising net and tap new sources of investment from pension funds under 2006 revisions in U.S. pension laws. The newly granted powers were a relatively quiet feature of the Pension...

Sellers gain an edge on MAC effects.(material adverse change)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Sellers have been winning important concessions from buyers in making sure that their deals reach completion, according to the fifth annual survey of material adverse change (MAC) clauses in purchase contracts by Nixon Peabody. The...

Tax-Free Deal Delivers Business to a PE Firm.(Windstream)
February 1, 2007... Restructuring architects have devised a new option for private equity firms to participate in tax-shielded corporate spin-offs. In a novel development, telecommunications firm Windstream agreed to transfer ownership of its Yellow Pages...

DOJ Sets Limits On Antitrust Reviews.(Justice Department)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The U.S. Justice Department has cut back its antitrust screening system in an effort to trim time and costs for examining the knottiest mergers and acquisitions. The changes involve deals that go into the second-request stage - when...

Biotech Firms Install Rights Plans.(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Two small biotech firms - SciClone Pharmaceuticals and Medivation - accounted for the only new adopters of shareholders' rights plans in December. But a much larger pharmaceuticals firm, Schering-Plough, moved in the opposite direction....

Firms Snag Top-Level Talent.(CBS Broadcasting Inc. appointed Michael Marquez as VP )(Blue Wolf Capital Management appointed Joshua Gotbaum)(Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher appointed Selina Sagayam )(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Gearing up for another hot M&A year, a number of firms did some heavy-duty recruiting to entice top-flight professionals onto their staffs. CBS snagged former Yahoo! exec Michael Marquez as VP of strategy and corporate development for...

The Changing Scene.(Banc of America Securities appointed Christopher Wofford)(Bear Stearns Merchant Banking appointed Richard Markee)(Bingham McCutchen appointed Newton Davis and Glen Openshaw)
February 1, 2007... Banc of America Securities - Christopher Wofford has joined the firm's global industries group as a managing director and global head of transportation and logistics, based in New York. Backed by 12 years of investment banking...

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.(Selina Sagayam appointed)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Selina Sagayam joined the firm's London office as a partner. Sagayam, who had been a U.K. corporate finance and capital markets partner in the London office of Simmons & Simmons, served as Secretary to the U.K. Takeover Panel in 2004 and 2005...

Lovells.(former Simmons & Simmons partner Wolfgang Hess recruited)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... International law firm Lovells strengthened its corporate practice in Germany, recruiting former Simmons & Simmons partner Wolfgang Hess as a corporate and media partner in its Frankfurt office. Hess, who joined Simmons & Simmons as a...

RSM EquiCo Capital Markets.(Jerome Merchant appointed as managing director)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Global investment bank RSM EquiCo recently named Jerome Merchant as a managing director. Merchant, who is based in Costa Mesa, provides M&A and capital raising advisory services. Prior to joining the firm, he had held senior-level...

Money, Money Everywhere for Chasing Deals: Financial and strategic buyers will be squaring off in the M&A market.
February 1, 2007... Enormous amounts of money are looking for a home and might very well find it in the mergers and acquisitions marketplace. The 2007 M&A market is shaping up as an arena for a clash of well-heeled titans eager to put their funds into a wide...

Abundant credit and acquisition ardor drive prospects for lively european M and A.
February 1, 2007... Europe's rush to consolidate may have pushed the Continent and its offshore cousins ahead of the United States in deal volume for 2006. But regardless of which side of the Atlantic secured bragging rights, all indicators point to an even more...

PE giants target more mid-sized buyouts: returns look promising, but large private equity firms may venture into unfamiliar turf, mid-market veterans warn.
February 1, 2007... For the past few years, the middle-market buyout industry has gotten a bad rep. You know the old song and dance - too many firms chasing too few deals. So megadeals stole the show. It was hard not to pay attention to the mega-funds as large...

Warm Welcomes Turn Chilly for PE Firms.(private equity)
February 1, 2007... Some huge private equity bets have been made in the name of globalization in recent years, but even as investment levels increase, many dealmakers are discovering that the world may not be as flat as promised. Across the globe, there are...

Lone Star Profit at Risk in Korean Deal.(investigation of Lone Star Funds acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank)
February 1, 2007... Late last year, South Korean prosecutors issued the preliminary results of their investigation into Lone Star Funds' 2003 acquisition of Korea Exchange Bank, concluding that the investors had conspired with government and bank officials to...

Pension Fund Roundup: San Fran Fund Enlists Hellman & Friedman.(San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System invests in private equity funds)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The board of the $15.2 billion San Francisco City & County Employees' Retirement System (SFERS) approved a $40 million commitment to Hellman & Friedman Fund VI, a private equity fund that will focus on the acquisition of companies in markets...

CalPERS seeks new consultants.(California Public Employees' Retirement System)
February 1, 2007... The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), with nearly $230 billion in assets, has issued an RFP to refresh its spring-fed pool of general investment consultants. According to the RFP, the new consultants may be asked to...

Texas TRS Mulls Investments.(Teacher Retirement System)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The board of the $100 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRST) is considering several additions to its list of pre-approved funds. According to the agenda from a December 2006 meeting, the board is considering private equity...

Orange County eyes more private equity.(Orange County Employees' Retirement System)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The private markets committee of the $6.5 billion Orange County Employees' Retirement System (OCERS) is scheduled to select a private equity fund-of-funds manager to oversee a $50 million mandate. The committee is expected to select from...

Returns encourage more PE for PSERS.(Public Employees' Retirement System)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Spurred by the strong performance of its real estate and private equity portfolios in 2006, the Pennsylvania Public Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) authorized more than $250 million worth of new commitments to those asset classes. ...

Indiana PERF Hires Private Equity Firms.(Indiana Public Employees' Retirement Fund)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The $15.6 billion Indiana Public Employees' Retirement Fund (IPERF) recently added four new private equity investments to its portfolio. The Indianapolis-based plan committed $30 million to Oaktree Capital Management's Asia Principal...

Management changes in Gotham City.(Joe Haslip, Stewart Dier appointed)(New York, New York)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Joe Haslip has been named Deputy Comptroller of Pensions for New York City, according to an industry source familiar with the situation. Haslip replaces Horatio Sparkes, who resigned from the position in September to take a job in the...

San Diego Fund Weighs Private Equity.(San Diego City Employees' Retirement System)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The $4.6 billion San Diego City Employees' Retirement System (SDCERS) is considering its first allocation to private equity, according to published reports. A change in asset allocation could be good for the problem-plagued fund, which...

2006 M&A PROFILE.(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... Statistics in this issue have been supplied by Thomson Financial and are based on completed mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures priced at $10 million or more and acquisitions of 5% or more of a company's stock, if a $100 million price...

MOST ACTIVE ACQUIRERS.
February 1, 2007... 25 Acquisitions General Electric In a familiar position atop the M&A leader board, GE mixed deals across the financial services spectrum with a handful of major transactions in some of its newer and growing industrial businesses. The...

Serving up breakfast and advice on assembling a top-notch management team.(Association for Corporate Growth has plans of forming a management team)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... ACG Philadelphia held its December Breakfast Series Meeting, which focused on building a world-class management team. Featured panelists included: Alan Kaplan, President and CEO of Kaplan & Associates; George MacKenzie, Non-Executive Chair of...

The power of relationships.(a note on Association for Corporate Growth)(Column)
February 1, 2007... When I was asked to write this column and describe what ACG has meant to me, I was initially hesitant. Recently, I started my own firm, Westshore Capital Partners, and was crunched for time. But as I reflected on my career, I realized that...