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☆ Kevin Mitnick: Legendary computer hacker Kevin Mitnick dies at 59
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Andy Rose | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

“I was an old-school hacker, doing it for intellectual curiosity,” Mitnick told Wired magazine in a 2008 interview. Mitnick and federal prosecutors agreed to a plea deal in 1999 to seven criminal counts, including wire fraud and causing damage to computers. Mitnick published a memoir on his hacking career, “Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker,” in 2011. Following his prison term, Mitnick became a white-hat hacker, using his expertise to legally help businesses track people trying to break into their systems. “I made some really stupid mistakes in the past as a younger man that I regret,” Mitnick told CNN in a 2005 interview.

Persons: Kevin Mitnick, Matthew Broderick, Mitnick, “, ” Mitnick, ”, Stu Sjouwerman, ” “ Kevin, ” Sjouwerman, Kevin, Kimberley Organizations: CNN, North American Aerospace Defense Command, Digital Equipment Corporation, Wired Locations: KnowBe4, Las Vegas

Kevin Mitnick, a hacker who was once one of the most wanted computer criminals in the United States, died on Sunday, according to a statement shared Wednesday by a cybersecurity training company he co-founded and a funeral home in Las Vegas. After his release from prison in 2000, Mr. Mitnick began a new career as a security consultant, writer and public speaker. Mr. Mitnick, a convicted hacker, was best known for a crime spree during the 1990s that involved the theft of thousands of data files and credit card numbers from computers across the country. He used his skills to worm his way into the nation’s phone and cell networks, vandalizing government, corporate and university computer systems. Investigators at the time named him the “most wanted” computer hacker in the world.

Persons: Kevin Mitnick, Kathy Wattman, Mitnick, King David Memorial Organizations: KnowBe4, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, King David Memorial Chapel & Locations: United States, Las Vegas

☆ Private equity firms lend less as demand cools
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Chibuike Oguh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The amount of loans disbursed by direct lenders so far in 2023 has not shown any pickup, the Refinitiv data shows. Also weighing on deal volumes is the cost of borrowing from private equity firms. This has dampened demand for loans from private equity firms. For their part, private equity firms have also become more risk-averse when it comes to lending, as the economic slowdown and sticky price inflation erode the credit worthiness of some borrowers. To be sure, major deals using private equity firms as lenders are still getting done as banks have continued their retrenchment from risky debt.

☆ Buyout barons reach deep into their bags of tricks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Debt necessity is proving to be the mother of private equity invention. With the cheap borrowing that fueled record-breaking years of leveraged buyouts gone, firms are digging deeper into their bags of tricks. Private equity firm Silver Lake, which bought a stake alongside the IPO, said it might take control. Besides putting private equity firms into weaker negotiating positions, the competing incentives also threaten conflicts of interest with limited partners. ...THERE’S A WAYIf the U.S. Federal Reserve avoids engineering a recession, private equity should be able to revert to its tried-and-true formula soon enough.

☆ A stock trader who returned 440% in 2022 explains the software program he built to automatically buy and sell risky penny stocks for optimal profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

He fed the computer 20 years worth of stock data to determine the relationship between data points. And I certainly would not suggest to people that you can just easily make 440% in the stock market. The program trades stocks ranging from pennies priced under $1 a share to large-caps and makes about 20 to 50 trades a day. About 20 minutes later, the market price rose and hit the sell order price of $0.3449 and the position closed. About 17 minutes later, the market price declined and hit the buy order price, and the position closed.

☆ Former hacker: 6 email 'red flags' that can mean someone's trying to scam you over the holidays
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

'To'Look closely at any other recipients of the email: Scammers will sometimes spam multiple email addresses at once to save time, Mitnick says. Hyperlinks and attachmentsIf you're suspicious of an email, be wary of clicking on any links contained in the message. Another red flag: if the email contains an unexpected attachment, or an attached file that seems unrelated to the subject of the email. 'Subject'Be suspicious if the email's subject line is irrelevant or doesn't match the message in the body of the email. Be extra suspicious if the email is unexpected or unusual looking, perhaps with poor grammar and spelling mistakes.

☆ Crowdstrike Holdings warning sparks selloff in cybersecurity stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 30 (Reuters) - A warning from Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (CRWD.O) that clients were cutting back on spending and delaying purchases due to an economic slowdown slammed cybersecurity stocks on Wednesday, inflicting fresh pain on the battered sector. "Increased macroeconomic headwinds elongated sales cycles with smaller customers and caused some larger customers to pursue multi-phase subscription start dates," Crowdstrike Chief Executive Officer George Kurtz said. The results are the latest in a series of dour reports from cybersecurity firms, whose business boomed during the pandemic but is now seeing a slowdown, making them a hot target for private equity buyouts. "Resilient, but not immune is a theme that will likely dominate the narrative during our October quarter-cohort earnings cycle," Piper Sandler analysts said. Still, some analysts see long-term benefits from the rising demand for cybersecurity as more businesses take to the web and high-profile hacks force companies to be more cautious.

Weber , which went public in August 2021 and is trading at half its offering price, is the latest example of a recent IPO to attract a bid to go private. Recent IPOs ducking for the door First, to understand why we selected these criteria, let's look at the recent deals. Kennedy Lewis' $4 per share cash offer was an 83% premium to F45's closing price ahead of the deal announcement, even though it was far below the stock's $16 IPO price. Even with the lift from the deal news, shares are only trading at less than half its $14 IPO price. Private equity company AEA Investors had a 28.4% stake in the company, and CEO Jeremy Andrus owns an 11% stake, according to FactSet.

☆ Vista Equity Nears Roughly $4.5 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Provider
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Laura Cooper | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners is near a deal to purchase the cybersecurity provider KnowBe4 for about $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, a rare leveraged buyout as financing for such deals has become harder to secure. The deal, which is expected to be unveiled Wednesday assuming the talks don’t drag out or fall apart, values KnowBe4 shares at nearly $25 each. The stock closed at $21.59 on Tuesday.

☆ Vista Equity Strikes Deal to Acquire Cybersecurity Provider
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Laura Cooper | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KnowBe4, based in Clearwater, Fla., is a platform for security-awareness training and simulated phishing. Private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners has struck a deal to purchase cybersecurity provider KnowBe4 for $4.6 billion in an increasingly rare leveraged buyout as financing for such deals has become harder to secure. The company unveiled the news on Wednesday, confirming an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal.

☆ Cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 to go private in $4.6 bln deal with Vista Equity Partners
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 12 (Reuters) - KnowBe4 Inc (KNBE.O) on Wednesday agreed to go private in a sweetened $4.6 billion deal with Vista Equity Partners, the latest cybersecurity firm to be snapped up by private equity in this year's market downturn. Private equity firms have been scooping up technology companies whose shares have taken a beating this year from worries over rising interest rates and an economic slowdown. The KnowBe4 deal, expected to close in the first half of 2023, will be financed through a mix of debt and equity financing. Morgan Stanley & Co LLC was serving as financial advisor to KnowBe4's special committee and Guggenheim Securities LLC was financial advisor for Vista. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: PepsiCo, Intel, Philips and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Peter Schacknow | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Intel (INTC) – Intel added 1% in premarket trading following a Bloomberg report that the chip maker was planning to cut thousands of jobs to deal with a slumping personal computer market. Philips (PHG) – Philips shares slumped 8.1% in the premarket after the Dutch health technology company said its third-quarter core profit would be down about 60% from a year ago. Diamondback Energy (FANG) – Diamondback Energy announced a deal to buy energy producer FireBird Energy for $1.6 billion in cash and stock. El Pollo Loco (LOCO) – El Pollo Loco shares rallied 15.2% in premarket action after the restaurant operator announced a $1.50 per share special dividend and a stock repurchase program worth up to $20 million. Lyft (LYFT) – Lyft gained 4.3% in the premarket after Gordon Haskett upgraded the stock to buy from hold.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Moderna, Pepsi, Lyft and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Pepsi products are displayed for sale in a Target store on March 8, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday Wednesday:Moderna — Shares of Moderna surged 10% after the drug maker announced it will partner with Merck to jointly develop and sell a cancer vaccine. It reported preliminary month-end assets under management of $1.23 trillion as of Sept. 30. Pepsi also raised its guidance for the year as it was able to successfully raise prices on its products. Lyft — Lyft shares gained 5.8% following an upgrade from Gordon Haskett to buy from hold.

☆ Wall Street ends choppy session higher with focus firmly on Fed
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( David French | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Focus will also be on new economic projections, due to be published alongside the Fed's policy statement at 2 p.m. A majority of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose. read moreIndustrial stocks (.SPLRCI) rebounded 1.4% after a sharp drop on Friday, while banks (.SPXBK) gained 1.9%. Tech heavyweights Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) rose 2.5% and 1.9%, respectively, to provide the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. read moreThe S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 28 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 29 new highs and 378 new lows.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterUnexpectedly hot August inflation data last week also raised bets on increased rate hikes down the road, with the terminal rate for U.S. fed funds now at 4.46%. It's a lower volume market, which means that folks are probably just sitting tight at this point waiting to see the next step." Focus will also be on new economic projections, due to be published alongside the Fed's policy statement at 2 p.m. Four of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were lower. Tech heavyweights Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) rose more than 1% each to provide the biggest boost to S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

☆ KnowBe4 gets $4.22 billion go-private offer from Vista Equity Partners
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Sept 19 (Reuters) - Cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 Inc (KNBE.O) said on Monday that Vista Equity Partners had offered to take it private for $4.22 billion in cash, the latest sign of private equity interest in a sector whose valuations have declined in this year's downturn. The offer of $24 per share represents a premium of nearly 39% to KnowBe4's closing price on Sept. 16. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterKnowBe4 provides security awareness training with simulated phishing attacks on its platform. KnowBe4, whose shares surged 25% in the morning hours on Monday, said it had formed a special committee to review the offer. The bid from Vista comes amid a string of large investments by the Austin, Texas-based fund this year.

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