leveraged buyouts news stories on Newser

Tribune Company Files for Bankruptcy

Harry Kimball — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:09:25 CST

The Tribune Company filed today for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to mounting debt and an inability to pay interest in the floundering economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. Tribune’s profits declined 83% in the third quarter, making it difficult to finance $12 billion in debt. The company has employed...

Credit Crisis Spells Disaster for Private Equity Firms

Nick McMaster — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:30:04 CST

After a nearly 3-year buyout spree, private equity firms are facing tightened credit conditions just as slumping consumer spending squeezes many of their acquisitions, the New York Times reports. The leveraged-buyout bubble that culminated in $796 billion in deals in 2007 is bursting, leading to a grim reckoning as firms...

Clear Channel, Buyers Sue Banks Over Soured Deal

Nick McMaster — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:02:26 CDT

The two private-equity firms set to buy Clear Channel sued the group of banks they had engaged to fund the deal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Joined by Clear Channel, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners accused the consortium—including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and Wachovia—of breaching contract by...

Credit Crunch Rocks LBOs

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:27:35 CDT

Leveraged buyouts, which have fueled Wall Street booms with offers of huge premiums on shares of target companies, are sputtering to a halt, the Wall Street Journal reports. Private equity firms, which just weeks ago were predicting acquisitions worth $100 billion and more, are now finding large-scale borrowing too expensive...

SEC Opens Subprime Probe

Caroline Zimmerman — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:17:53 CDT

The feds are investigating the controversial bundles of financial services that have recently shaken the market and sparked a spate of leveraged buyouts, the Journal reports. SEC chief Christopher Cox told a congressional panel yesterday that "about 12 investigations" were under way into CDOs, shared debt packages reliant on faltering...

Hot LBO Market Takes Hit

Sam Gale Rosen — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:40:14 CDT

The red-hot market for LBOs may be hitting a long-awaited rough patch. Several big deals—including Apollo's $1.3 billion Linens 'n Things buy and the multigroup $17.6 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor Holdings—have turned sour, with the companies struggling to generate enough cash to pay down debt...

Private Equity Binge Goes Wireless

J. Kelman — Mon, 21 May 2007 10:18:06 CDT

A consortium led by the Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs yesterday snapped up the nation's fifth-largest wireless provider for $27.5 billion, the largest telecom buyout ever. The $71.50 per share offer for Alltel awaits shareholder and regulatory approval and comes weeks before a scheduled auction for the...