DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ 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.

☆ 14 top private equity firms investing in sports, as a swell of funding enters the sector and helps teams, leagues, and stadiums build businesses beyond game day
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Colin Salao | Claire Atkinson | Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Private equity firms are investing more in sports teams, leagues, and other ancillary businesses. From Apollo to Sixth Street, here are 14 private equity firms betting on sports. A few factors are drawing private equity firms to the sector. And sports betting has hastily altered the landscape, opening a new sector for media, leagues, teams, and other businesses to tap. Below are 14 private equity firms — listed alphabetically by company — that have made prominent investments in sports through 2022.

☆ Insight Partners to acquire stake in software firm Aptean
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 10 (Reuters) - New York-based private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners will acquire a minority stake in Aptean, the business software firm said on Monday. Existing investor TA Associates has also invested, Aptean said, making the investment firm its largest shareholder. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterVista Equity Partners, previously equal partners in Aptean with TA Associates, will fully exit its stake in the company. Charlesbank Capital Partners, a private investment firm that joined TA Associates and Vista Equity as stakeholder in 2020, will continue to be a shareholder, Aptean said. The investment firm then merged CDC Software with Consona Corp to form Aptean.

☆ The fate of Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter now comes down to the money
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

What everyone is now waiting on: Musk needs to actually have the money to hand over. Much of the sticking point between Musk and Twitter (TWTR) now appears to be over uncertainty around the status of those financing arrangements. Many legal experts think Musk really is planning to close the deal this time, the most certain anyone has sounded since he first said the deal was “on hold” in May and moved to terminate the agreement in July. Musk is likely trying to help Morgan Stanley market the debt to other investors before telling them to hand him the money to close the deal, according to Lipton. According to the merger agreement, Musk could in theory walk away from the deal with a $1 billion breakup payment to Twitter if his debt financing were to fall through.

☆ Ticktock starts on Twitter’s board, too
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of Twitter (TWTR.N) board members’ jobs. If he doesn’t close by Oct. 28, the judge will set a new trial for November. Investors in the social media firm are arguably worse off than they were last week. The delay gives Musk time to finance his $44 billion deal for the social media company. If Musk doesn’t close the deal by Oct. 28, the judge will schedule a trial for November.

☆ Vista Equity Partners is exploring a deal to take Compass private, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-05 | by ( Ben Bergman | Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vista Equity Partners is exploring taking the real-estate brokerage private, sources say. A Compass rep said "no private-equity firm has contacted Compass expressing any interest in taking the company private." Vista Equity Partners is exploring a deal to take the residential real-estate brokerage Compass private, according to three people familiar with the discussions. The chief technology officer Joseph Sirosh, who left Microsoft to run Compass' tech operations, was let go shortly after the call. Vista has taken numerous tech companies private this year, including an $8.4 billion deal for the tax-software company Avalara and a $16.4 billion deal for Citrix.

☆ Meet 9 top media bankers transforming the M&A landscape as streaming video reshapes entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

2022 kicked off with some huge transactions, from AT&T's WarnerMedia spin-off to private equity scooping up content players. Company valuations are set to fall back to earth in 2023, and private equity and strategics are lying in wait. Not surprisingly, WarnerMedia was at the heart of the richest transaction fee waterfall for big banks in 2022. Joshua Grode's Legendary Entertainment, backed by Dalian Wanda and now Apollo Group, which took a stake in the studio in January. There's lots of dry powder still in private equity, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, co-founder and co-president at investment bank Moelis, told Insider.

Insider asked 12 top VCs what ad and marketing tech companies excited them the most this year. Check out the 19 most promising adtech startups, and what they do that makes them unique. It hopes to raise a Series A funding round in the coming months. Emperia is currently raising its next funding round. Why it's on the list: Tech companies are being scrutinized for their wasting energy consumption, and the digital advertising industry is no exception.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Planet Fitness, PG&E, Las Vegas Sands and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:Planet Fitness — Shares of the gym franchise jumped nearly 3% in premarket trading after Raymond James upgraded the stock to strong buy from market perform. The Wall Street firm said the company has a resilient and recession-resistant business with no interest rate risk and very little near-term debtmaturities. PG&E — The utility stock climbed more than 5% premarket after S&P Dow Jones Indices on Friday said PG&E will replace Citrix Systems in the S&P 500, effective prior to the opening of trading on Monday, October 3. Lyft — Shares of the ride-hailing company fell nearly 4% premarket after UBS downgraded the stock to neutral from buy. The Wall Street firm cited its driver survey that indicates drivers prefer Uber and Lyft is not their main app.

"Today, there's much stronger appetite for India and Southeast Asia," Joel Thickins, co-managing partner at TPG Capital Asia, told Reuters. The enthusiasm persists despite due diligence for startups that requires many months while valuations are under pressure, investors said. But although funds were diversifying, investors said the region's vastly different markets meant a uniform investing strategy was not ideal. One area that I constantly notice that everybody is very interested in is Southeast Asia. "There are still individual U.S. cities where startups are raising more money than all of the startups in Southeast Asia," said Julie Ruvolo, managing director of venture capital at Global Private Capital Association, which says its 300 members manage assets of more than $2 trillion.

☆ 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.

read moreThe COVID-19 related suspension of Tesla's Shanghai factory, the costs of ramping up new factories in Berlin and Texas and rising supply chain costs are likely to have weighed on its first-quarter earnings, analysts said. read moreTesla navigated the global supply chain crisis better than other rivals, posting record deliveries and earnings for several quarters. But its factory in Shanghai was shut for more than three weeks, after the city rolled out lockdown measures to combat a surge in COVID-19 cases. Tesla resumed production at its Shanghai plant on Tuesday, according to a news report, but a source said this may not mean a return to full production. Reuters GraphicsMusk delivered Tesla's first Texas-made Model Y vehicles at a glitzy event earlier this month, but no Texas vehicles are listed on Tesla's order website yet.

Search resuls for: "Equity Partners"

16 mentions found