Monthly Archives: April 2007

Remember that list of banks involved in KKR’s bid for First Data? Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch are all going to be lending KKR money to lever up the target company. And … Continue reading →

What was the biggest US IPO of 2007 so far? You don’t know off the top of your head? No matter — you can just pop over to MarketWatch, which has a whole story on Q1 IPOs, headlined “IPOs fatten … Continue reading →

Are all private markets slowly being eclipsed? Private equity shops are buying up public companies faster than ever, with today’s KKR-First Data deal being only the latest. But it’s not only equities which are moving into the privately-owned twilight: it’s … Continue reading →

Coca-Cola. Great company. Must have great executives, right? The Carlyle Group certainly thinks so: Carlyle Group is on Monday expected to announce the hiring of Coca-Cola’s most senior executive in Asia to spearhead regional investments across consumer-related businesses. I wonder … Continue reading →

The WSJ has a big article today on the demand in investment banks for big NYC trading floors. Apparently the new Goldman Sachs tower in Battery Park City will have no fewer than six trading floors, each of a very … Continue reading →

The NYT’s David Carr can certainly provide a punchline: Last summer, I needed some gadgets for a multimedia project, so I walked in to a Best Buy. A young man walked me around the floor, assembling a bag of components … Continue reading →

It’s not just Sam Zell who’s throwing the leverage around. If you think his $11 billion in new debt is excessive, just you wait until you see the size of the credit line that KKR will have lined up for … Continue reading →

Sam Zell wanted to buy the Tribune Company for $33 a share, putting in $300 million of his own money. But somehow Tribune managed to engineer a bidding war — an impressive feat, given that virtually nobody really wanted to … Continue reading →

A large part of the cachet of the Hamptons is that the money there is quieter, more understated, than in other well-heeled enclaves. The houses are ridiculously expensive, to be sure, but the architecture is low-key, and the interior decoration … Continue reading →

Steve Jobs has never been a normal CEO. He’s best known for running Apple, of course, but that hasn’t stopped him from starting up enormous side projects like NeXT and Pixar. He’s now the single largest individual shareholder in Disney, … Continue reading →

Most of my blog entries are prompted by something I read. If I think it’s wrong, I’ll put up a blog saying why. That’s all fine as far as it goes, but it does mean that if you just went … Continue reading →