The M&A Beat: January 31, 2008

DJIA	-171.63	11,543.55
NASDAQ	-44.12	2,367.52
S&P 500	-17.85	1,282.83

Posted Jan 31st 2008 12:05PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: The Blackstone Group, Texas Pacific Group, Bain Capital, Warburg Pincus

There are still a lot of good things happening at private equity firms:

You think buyouts are dead? Bain Capital just closed on a $20 billion fund raising for another global buyout fund.
Invesco also just closed on a $4 Billion distressed fund.
The Midwest Air Group (AMEX: MEH) is set to close today after all approvals have been met. TPG Capital is the acquirer.

There is still activity going on in pending deals and the earnings releases:

MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) is lucky. Even after their dismal earnings it still got funded at much higher prices than the current market prices.
Alliance Data Systems Corp. (NYSE: ADS) received numerous upgrades after beating earnings last night, and that is after suing Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) over the likely failed merger. What a rally!

As far as public investing and private equity in IPO's, there is more:

SeaCastle Inc. has pulled its IPO due to market conditions. This one was supposed to be a $2.2 Billion company after the IPO, and Fortress Investment Group owns almost the entire company.
After earnings today, Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) confirmed that it is spinning off its Folgers Coffee Company operations.

Interesting trading activities abound:

A hedge fund has sent notice to Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) that it is selling too cheap and it aims to make the firm seek a higher price. I bet this fund loves Doug McIntyre's "Make Mozillo Take The Bonus" piece.
We have noted some scared traders worrying about Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU) on whether or not its buyout was coming. Yesterday we saw 32,315 options contracts trade in the April-2008 $30 Call options, which is 3.2 million shares on a fully leveraged basis.

This is interesting and definitely worth a quick read. DealBook, from The New York Times, asks "Could M&A Help Save The Economy?"

Jon Ogg is an editor of 247WallSt.com.

Tags: CCU, CFC, Clear Channel, Countrywide, MBI, MBIA, SeaCastel IPO

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