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Top Stories
Feds Probe Allied Over Hedge Fund’s Phone Records
After denying any involvement in the leak of Greenlight Capital’s phone records, Allied Capital said in a statement issued Wednesday that it has since learned that a contractor to the company in fact obtained the phone records of David Einhorn and Greenlight, the hedge fund he manages. Allied also acknowledged that it was subpoenaed in December by the Justice Dept. The two companies have traded increasingly vehement charges over the past few weeks, Mr.Einhorn saying that Allied knows more than it has admitted about the operations of Business Loan Express, a portfolio company under investigation for falsifying loan information, and Allied accusing Greenlight of selling its shares short. Allied recently made public comments suggesting that Greenlight ought to disclose its equity stakes in other companies.
Morgans, DLJ Merchant Buy Vegas Hard Rock
The Morgans Hotel Group Co.(Nasdaq: MHBC), synonymous with  cooler-than-thou boutique hotels, took ownership Tuesday of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, a venue flaunting a rock ‘n roll attitude that seems of late to have lost some of its sass. The price was $770 million. Morgans is funding one-third of the equity, approximately $57.5 million, and DLJ is funding the remaining $115. DLJ will also fund a planned expansion up to an additional $150 million. Golden Gaming will operate the casino for a management fee and pay an annual $21 million lease. The deals give the upscale hotelier a Vegas foothold. Said Ed Scheetz, Morgans chief executive: “We now have a strong foothold in … one of the largest and fatest growing hotel markets in the U.S., which is consistent with our strategy of expanding our presence in key markets.”
Buyout: Jimmy Choo, footwear brand, for $364M
TowerBrook Capital Partners will buy Jimmy Choo Ltd., known for such celebrity clients as Jennifer Lopez, for $364 million. Tamara Mellon, the company’s founder, and Robert Bensoussan, its chief executive, fronted the deal. Mr. Bensoussan said in a statement he expects to use the funds to go acquisition-shopping in the luxury goods sector, but did not elaborate. Lion Capital owned the business for about two years, extending the brand’s retail presence to over 60 shops globally from 23. Annual sales are about $128 million.
McDermott Buys Marine Mechanical Corp. for $75M
HOUSTON – McDermott International has agreed to acquire Marine Mechanical Corp. for approximately $75 million through its subsidiary, BWX Technologies. The acquired company, based in Euclid, OH., generated revenues of approximately $50 million last year and finished 2006 with a backlog of approximately $165 million. McDermott intends to operate the company as a unit of BWX’s Nuclear Operations division.
Wellco, a Bootmaker to Military, Goes Private for$17.8M
WAYNESVILLE, N.C. – Golden Gate Capital, a private equity firm in San Francisco, and Integrity Bands, a Boston boutique investment shop, provided the $17.8 million financing needed to take Wellco Enterprises public, the company, a footwear manufacturer, said Tuesday. Terms were $14 a share, a 30 percent premium over the stock’s recent trading level. Wellco, founded in 1941, designs and manufactures boots and other footwear for U.S. military procurement as well as for retail channels.
Nationwide Financial Gets NWD Investment for $225M
Columbus, OH – The Nationwide Corporation, a subsidiary of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, and Nationwide Financial Services, Inc (NYSE: NFS) will sell the Philadelphia-based retail operations of NWD Investment Management to Nationwide Financial Services, Inc., the seller announced Tuesday. The buyer will pay $225million cash plus the value of shareholders’ equity at closing. NWD Investment was formerly known as Gartmore Global Investments, Inc.
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Akamai Acquires Netli in Stock Swap
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM),  whose services help companies maximize their online revenues, will acquire Netli, Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., both companies said Monday. The acquisition is expected to enhance Akamai’s application acceleration software, which improves Internet-based applications. Under terms of the agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding equity of Netli in exchange for approximately 3.2 million shares of Akamai common stock. The transaction, which is expected to be neutral to Akamai’s earnings in 2007, is to close later this quarter.
Parallel Investment Partners Acquires Mealey’s Furniture Chain
DALLAS - Parallel Investment Partners, a private equity firm, has  sponsored a buyout of Mealey’s Furniture and Mattress, a 3-store furniture retailer in Philadelphia area. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Network Solutions Announces Ownership Change
HERNDON, Va - Network Solutions, a leading provider of online  solutions for small businesses, announced today that General Atlantic, a leading global private equity firm, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Network Solutions from Najafi Companies (formerly Pivotal Private Equity). Champ Mitchell, chairman and CEO of Network Solutions, and the current Network Solutions management team will continue to lead the company. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Say the word “immigrant,” and many people reply “illegal.” Yet two out of three immigrants are here legally, by Census Dept. count. This highly entrepreneurial population starts businesses that often become  investment or acquisition possibilities. Their companies often start out small, catering to ethnic needs, but can grow by moving into the American mainstream with some outside help, according to a study just published by a think tank in New York City called The Center for an Urban Future.
The center paints a generally upbeat portrait of immigrant economic vitality. “During the past decade,” the report says, “immigrants have been the entrepreneurial sparkplugs of cities from New York to Los Angeles—starting a greater share of new businesses than native-born residents, stimulating growth in sectors from food manufacturing to health care, creating loads of new jobs, and transforming once-sleepy neighborhoods into thriving commercial centers. And immigrant entrepreneurs are also becoming one of the most dependable parts of cities’ economies.”
Immigrant success stories include Sbarro’s Pizza, Delgado Travel, the Fortunoff retail chain, and the Lams Group, a hotel developer.
Popular categories include food manufacturing, food service, import-export, funeral homes, health care products, and apparel. Not surprisingly, immigrants often succeed by marketing specialized products to their countrymen or others of the same language group or taste preferences.
Immigrant entrepreneurs grow in diverse ways. Some exploit ties with business contacts in their home countries, becoming outsource brokers. Other times they repackage their products for the U.S. mainstream. Sometimes they stay the same and the broader market discovers them.
Pizza, anyone?
The New York Times reported this story Tuesday, interviewing a second-generation entrepreneur running the business his parents started 25 years ago, baking arepas (cornbread) in their kitchen and selling them out of the trunk of their car. Today the company employs 16 workers and produces 10 million arepas a year.
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March 18-19, 2007:
Middle Market Distressed Investing, Palm Beach, FL.
June 25 - 26, 2007:
Middle Market Financing, Chicago |
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We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This
M&A Alerts speaks with Stuart R.  Levine, chief executive of Stuart Levine & Associates LLP, a consulting and leadership-development firm. Cut To The Chase, Mr. Levine’s second book, tells how to get more done in a day. It’s published by Doubleday/Currency.
M&A: Your first book, The Six Fundamentals of Success, became a Wall Street Journal best seller. It focused on career-management issues. This one focuses on time management. How did Cut To The Chase come about?
S.L.: My last book listed six rules. One was Cut To The Chase. I went on the Today Show to discuss the book and that was the rule Matt Lauer  mentioned. He said, ‘It makes me nuts when people ask for a five-minute meeting and an hour later they’re still sitting there.’
M&A: So, don’t let people waste your time.
S.L.: Wasting time is a personal  choice. If there’s no defined purpose to a meeting, I’m not at that meeting. Not just every meeting, but every conversation. What information do I need going into the meeting, what information do I need to share? Meetings need to be focused and structured.
M&A: You encourage managers to schedule ten-minute meetings – and stick to the time limit. Your book points out how doctors routinely share life-and-death information with patients in ten minutes, yet executives can spend over two hours discussing relatively trivial matters.
S.L.: There’s much you can do to focus your meetings. Start with the end in mind; convey the meeting’s purpose to everyone. If people go off target, remind everyone briefly of the meeting’s purpose.
M&A: You point out that many hours are spent explaining the obvious to the initiated.
S.L.: A common mistake is failing to focus on what participants specifically need. Instead we clarify points they already understand and repeat stories they’ve already heard. We get so wrapped up in what’s we’re saying that we ignore the fidgeting body language that says, ‘Okay, I got it, let’s move on.’
M&A: And the remedy is…?
S.L.: Say, ‘I got it.’ Just cut in and say that. ‘I got it’ is shorthand for, ‘You don’t have to spend more time going through this discussion. Just move on.’
M&A: That doesn’t always work. People bloviate.
S.L.: Laugh and say, ‘You’re killing me.’ That can do it.
M&A: You’re saying we all need to tighten up our meetings?
S.L.: Yes. You don’t need a 10-minute lead in to say, ‘Here’s some information that might change your opinion of this company’s value.’ Prepare so the presentation is tighter. Make your 22 PowerPoint slides, but just show the two most important. Distribute the other 20 as hand-outs. There’s only so much oxygen in the room.
M&A: You suggest other ways to safeguard your time. Scheduling when the meeting will end, as well as begin, is one of them.
S.L.: Absolutely. If someone is trying to sell me a service over lunch, I might suggest, ‘Why don’t you come in for a cup of coffee for 15 minutes and tell me why I need this service?’ You don’t burn two hours this way. You also don’t burn bridges.
M&A: You point out that doctors convey life-and-death information to patients in ten minutes, while executives can spend two hours discussing minutiae. What’s the biggest reason meetings fail?
S.L.: Failing to follow up. What happens to all those notes people are always taking? Following up on what you’re asked to do, or what you’ve volunteered to do, is definitional in a professional’s career. If you said you’d get back to the chairman with additional research, do it.
Visit Stuart Levine online at StuartLevine.com |
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Kansas? He’s already marketing a toaster-ready version. And after all, didn’t bagel bakers do this a generation ago?
Thousands of deal-makers must have read that article. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts – or pesos to arepas – that the fellow is now taking meetings and making plans. Either he’ll soon roll out his arepas to a national supermarket chain, or sell out to a company that can.