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Strategies & Market Trends : Speculating in Takeover Targets -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: richardred who wrote (2575)	11/30/2010 1:25:08 AM
From: richardred	Respond to of 7256

The Explosive Growth of Middle Market M&A Published: Monday, 29 Nov 2010 \| 11:44 AM ET Text Size By: John Carney Senior Editor, CNBC.com Jupiterimages \| Brand X Pictures \| Getty Images Although deal volume is still running at less than half of the 2007 peak of nearly $1 trillion, M&A is making a comeback this year. A good portion of the growth has come not from the headline grabbing mega-mergers but from middle market deals ranging from $50 to $500 million, according to the independent research firm Accordion Partners. From Accordion’s website: Accordion’s analysis reveals that middle market deals—transactions with enterprise values ranging from $50 million to $500 million—so far this year accounted for 17 percent of M&A total dollar volume, compared to 12 percent in 2009, and 45 percent of the total number of deals versus 38 percent in 2009 That translates into more than $1.5 billion in investment banking fees estimated for middle market deals; an increase of approximately 44 percent over last year. December will skew the middle market’s percentage of the M&A pie even more. There will be a rush of private-equity firms unloading portfolios to beat the expiration of Bush era tax-cuts at year-end. Instead of a 15 percent tax, business owners next year will be taxed at 20 percent on capital gains, and the tax on dividends—commonly used by private equity firms to recoup investments—will almost increase three-fold to almost 40 percent from 15 percent. Accordion estimates that middle-market M&A dollar volume in December will top $7 billion; if that happens, middle market dollar volume will be up 60 percent over 2009. Of course, the question that follows from this is whether we’re seeing a middle-market M&A bubble. Sixty percent year-over-year growth is pretty explosive. No doubt much of it is fueled by cash-heavy corporate balance sheets and historically low interest rates. Many of these deals may turn out to be malinvestment, hurting the buyers when cash and credit become scarce. In the meantime, however, it may fuel a surge in the price of likely buyout targets in the middle market range. Accordion thinks that banks will likely add to their headcounts in groups that handle middle market deals, expecting even more volume next year. cnbc.com\|headline\|other\|text\|&par=yahoo

To: richardred who wrote (2575)	11/30/2010 1:27:09 AM
From: richardred	Respond to of 7256

The Boom in Hedge Fund Mergers By ANITA RAGHAVAN Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Amid a lackluster merger market, one sector is shining: marriages between hedge funds. Bankers expect these deals will continue to be a sunny spot over the next year. Announced global mergers have totaled $2.46 trillion so far this year, a 6.7 percent increase from the $2.3 trillion for all of 2009, according to Dealogic, which tracks corporate finance activity. But slice out mergers and acquisitions among hedge funds and asset managers and a far prettier picture emerges. So far this year, M.&A. volume in the hedge fund and asset management space is up to $7.75 billion, a 44.4 percent gain from $5.37 billion for all of 2009, according to Dealogic. This year’s deals include the MAN Group’s move to buy GLG Partners of London for $1.6 billion, Credit Suisse’s move to buy a minority stake in York Capital for $425 million and TPG-Axon Capital Management’s merger with Montrica Investment Management. Both TPG and Montrica were run by former star traders at Goldman Sachs. To be sure, hedge fund and asset management acquisition activity represents an infinitesimally small part of overall merger volume. However, it is drawing the interest of bankers because it is the one area that is growing and expected to expand. At a recent presentation in London for senior officers of hedge funds, Joe Hershberger, the global head of asset management investment banking at Credit Suisse, and Andrew Laurino, head of the hedge fund advisory business, said they expected more strategic activity in the hedge fund industry. This could include full-blown mergers; so-called convergence type trades where managers who take long positions, or bullish bets on the market, are looking to buy alternative asset managers like hedge funds; and the purchase of minority stakes in hedge funds. Among the buyers of such stakes could be securities firm or banking boutiques that are seeking to build up their asset management expertise and private equity-type vehicles that have been created to take interests in hedge funds. Goldman Sachs, for instance, has Petershill, and Neuberger Berman, the money manager that was part of Lehman Brothers, put together an in-house team this year of former Lehman executives to invest as much as $1 billion in firms that run hedge funds. The investments will be made through a new private equity fund called Dyal Capital Partners, which is in the midst of raising money. A number of trends are driving consolidation on the hedge fund landscape. Hedge funds that once represented the entrepreneurial verve of the financial services industry are increasingly morphing by necessity into big institutions with their own well-developed legal and compliance departments among other features. In addition, since the financial meltdown of 2008, more and more assets have been flowing to the biggest hedge funds, making it harder for the minnows of the business to survive. Of course, not everyone will be gripped by the consolidation craze. For example, Eric Mindich, a former Goldman Sachs arbitrager who manages Eton Park Capital Management, is more likely to be focused on running his own fund even though his firm has the heft and infrastructure to be an acquirer, according to people close to Eton Park. The Fortress Investment Group, by contrast, is likely to be a buyer of assets as part of a bid to build businesses across the investment spectrum. This year, Fortress acquired Logan Circle Partners, a long-only fixed-income manager based in Philadelphia with about $12 billion in assets. During its quarterly earnings conference calls, Fortress has been open about seeking to expand its global platform of products selectively. A slew of hedge fund deals, while exciting for the industry, is not likely to produce big paydays for bankers. Many of these deals are negotiated by the principals, and bankers are often brought in at the 11th hour to bless the transactions. dealbook.nytimes.com

To: richardred who wrote (2575)	12/12/2010 11:21:25 PM
From: richardred	Respond to of 7256

Microsoft Twitter Takeover Gossip Rises A few years ago, Microsoft tried to buy Facebook from Mark Zuckerberg but ultimately, that was an unsuccessful attempt. This hasn’t stopped Microsoft and their CEO Steve Ballmer from looking and on Friday, Ballmer and his Twitter counterpart Dick Costolo were spotted having breakfast. This of course has sparked a new round of gossip with a possible acquisition in the works or maybe another type of deal. Although the exact conversation that took place between these CEOs is unknown, neither companies were prepared to comment on the subject which just adds more fuel to the fire as to why the two met in the first place. Microsoft has always been a fan of the micro-blogging site and has incorporated Twitter into the XBox 360 Dashboard as well as creating Twitter apps for its mobile platform Windows Phone 7 and also for the Zune HD music player. For now, Twitter is more an added feature into the various Microsoft platforms, but if an acquisition were to take place, it could pave the way to direct integration of the software which could then be used as the upper hand against its arch rival, Goggle Inc. as Google does index Twitter searches, but could potentially lose access to this functionality. coated.com