Category: News

We’ve written about projects like Matter, which used Kickstarter to fund the creation of a new magazine for science writing, and high-profile bloggers like Andrew Sullivan who go directly to readers for financial support — but could a relative unknown in a small town use crowdfunding to build a business covering city hall and other local news?

Joey Coleman says yes. He has done not one but two successful Indiegogo campaigns to raise money to cover his home town of Hamilton in Canada, where he writes about everything from the local elections to fires and other breaking news.

In a multi-part podcast series leading up to our paidContent Live conference on April 17 in New York, we’ve been talking to people who are doing innovative things in media, and Joey Coleman is definitely one of those. He doesn’t have a background as a journalist — he is just a tech-savvy resident of a town where he believes that not enough is being done to cover local stories. After starting a blog and having a number of readers offer to pay him for his reporting, he decided to do some crowdfunding.

In our podcast interview, Coleman told me that he hopes to turn his crowdfunding efforts into a regular subscription model, and potentially even hire other reporters and photographers to help with the job of covering the news, streaming local council meetings, etc. — but unlike some of those with paywalls (including the major media outlets in his home town), Coleman says his content will always be free to the public. For more on Joey and his project, please have a listen.

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UK dwellers keen to get their hands on BlackBerry’s new Q10 smartphone will have to wait until the end of the month when it goes on sale officially, but they can start pre-ordering it today.

Vodafone, which describes the new handset as a “classic in the making” has opened its pre-order page so you can choose a tariff and place your order.

The handset is available in any color — so long as it’s black or white — and as always there’s a choice of plans to pick from. If you don’t want to shell out anything upfront, you can sign up for a 24-month Vodafone Red contract which will cost you £37 a month and give you unlimited texts and calls, as well as 1GB of data.

While the phone’s stable mate, the Z10, comes with a 4.2-inch touchscreen display, the BlackBerry Q10 has a 3.1-inch touchscreen and the traditional BlackBerry physical keyboard.

Specs-wise, the Q10 rocks a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM, and a rear-facing 8-Megapixel camera.

SugarSync, Inc has released SugarSync for iOS 4.0, a major new release for iPad and iPhone owners wishing access to their SugarSync cloud storage on the move. Version 4.0 features a major redesign designed to simplify syncing and sharing, plus integrates with other apps through the “Open in” feature.

The update also adds support for Device Filtering, a feature recently introduced in the SugarSync 2.0.9 desktop app for Windows and Mac, along with Cloud Search, and promises future support for folder labels.

The redesign in SugarSync 4.0 mirrors that found in the desktop and Android apps that were released in February. The aim is to streamline the app’s look and make it easier to navigate. In particular, the design is geared towards simplifying access to recently synced content from other devices, plus makes it easier to both share and view shared content from others thanks to new Shared by Me and Shared with Me tabs.

The iOS app also introduces support for the recently implemented Device Filter, which allows users to sync only specific folders to the cloud from their devices. This feature allows users to view all synced folders or restrict browsing to those shared with a specific computer or mobile.

The new feature has also inspired the Cloud Search tool, which makes it possible for users to search across their entire online storage, not just those folders synced with the iPad or iPhone. From here users can then choose to sync, share or view individual files.

SugarSync now fully supports the iOS “Open in” feature, which allows users to save content to their SugarSync storage from other apps such as Mail or Pages, plus open documents already stored on SugarSync’s servers in compatible apps on the iPad or iPhone.

The desktop update introduced folder labels, and support for this feature is promised in a future version. SugarSync for iOS 4.0.0 is available now as a free download, as are SugarSync 2.0.9 for Windows and Mac, and SugarSync for Android 4.0.1. SugarSync offers a free 5GB storage plan, as well as paid-for plans, with prices starting from $7.49 a month ($74.99 a year) for 60GB.

U.S. securities regulators on Monday charged a Denver businessman with reaping “substantial” profits using inside information from the former chief executive of Delta Petroleum Corp about an impending investment in the company, Reuters reported. Scott Reiman, founder and president of investment firm Hexagon Inc, agreed to pay nearly $900,000 to settle the civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency said. The case against Reiman comes five months after the SEC charged Delta’s former chief executive, Roger Parker, with leaking the news that Beverly Hills-based private investment firm Tracinda Corp had agreed to buy a 35 percent stake in Delta for $684 million.

(Reuters) – U.S. securities regulators on Monday charged a Denver businessman with reaping “substantial” profits using inside information from the former chief executive of Delta Petroleum Corp about an impending investment in the company.

Scott Reiman, founder and president of investment firm Hexagon Inc, agreed to pay nearly $900,000 to settle the civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency said.

The case against Reiman comes five months after the SEC charged Delta’s former chief executive, Roger Parker, with leaking the news that Beverly Hills-based private investment firm Tracinda Corp had agreed to buy a 35 percent stake in Delta for $684 million.

In October, the SEC also charged Parker’s friend, insurance executive Michael Van Gilder, with trading based on tips he received from Parker.

Van Gilder is also facing a parallel criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of insider trading.

Attorneys for Parker and Van Gilder were not immediately available for comment on Monday evening.

As part of his settlement, Reiman neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. He will be barred from the securities industry and from acting as an officer or a director of a publicly traded company for a minimum of five years.

“It takes time and money to fight the government, and that detracts from the other goals that Scott wanted to accomplish,” said his lawyer, Cliff Stricklin. “He decided to use his energy in a positive way instead of getting involved in a lengthy battle.”

He agreed to pay $398,000 in disgorgement, $93,567 in interest and $398,000 in penalties.

According to the SEC, Reiman bought Delta stock or option contracts on three occasions in late 2007, each time shortly after speaking with Parker.

In November, the Van Gilder Insurance Corp announced that Van Gilder was taking an “indefinite leave of absence.” He also stepped down as CEO of the company.

The post Reuters – SEC Charges Businessman in Tracinda-Linked Insider Trading Plan appeared first on peHUB.

Google has changed many aspects of our mundane digital lives including how we search online, use an email service, communicate with folks around the world, and interact with our mobile devices. Now the company even wants to change how we talk about glasses.

Who could have imagined that in 2013 we would be discussing the hardware specifications of a pair of spectacles? Before Google Glass this was unimaginable, but as the search giant has just released the specs of its specs, things just got real. So what is the search giant’s forthcoming device packing?

Let’s talk about the display first. Google Glass comes with a high resolution panel which the company says is the “equivalent of a 25 inch high definition screen from eight feet away”.

The device features a 5 MP camera that is capable of 720p video recording and sports adjustable nosepads and a durable frame that is designed to fit “any face”. There are also “extra nosepads in two sizes”.

Google Glass comes with 16 GB of internal storage, 12 GB of which are user-accessible and “synced with Google cloud storage”. Presumably that means owners can access and upload files from the cloud using their smart glasses.

In terms of audio, Google Glass features a “bone conduction transducer”, which basically means that sound is conducted to the inner ear through the bones of the skull. This is certainly not your run of the mill pair of glasses, that’s for certain.

On the connectivity front, Google Glass packs Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth. It is worth noting that the former implies speeds of up to 54 Mbps, nowhere near as fast as the chipset inside a modern day smartphone, tablet or laptop, for instance.

The battery should last around an entire day with typical usage, but Google says that using Hangouts or recording video might sip more power and make the battery life significantly shorter. To top things off, Google Glass comes with a microUSB cable and adjacent charger.

On the subject of charging Google Glass, the company says: “While there are thousands of Micro USB chargers out there, Glass is designed and tested with the included charger in mind. Use it and preserve long and prosperous Glass use”.

You might imagine a smart device like this needs some sort of app to control it. And it does. The companion app is called MyGlass and is available to download from Google Play now.

MyGlass allows users to “configure and manage your Glass device” through a Google Now-like UI (User Interface). Judging by the provided screenshots, the app works with Google+ and Gmail, as well as other Google services.

Google is testing its sense of humor with the description of MyGlass. The company says: “If you don’t have Glass, then downloading this will be a waste of time. Sorry about that. But if you swipe the screenshots to the right you’ll see there’s a picture of a puppy in pajamas. So not a total waste of time after all”.

Investment firm Vintage Capital Group LLC offered to buy Anaren Inc for $23 per share in a deal that values the telecommunication components maker at about $300 million. The offer represents a premium of 17 percent to Anaren’s Monday close of $19.61 on the Nasdaq. Anaren shares rose 10 percent in extended trading. Vintage Capital holds 12.8 percent in East Syracuse, New York-based Anaren.

(Reuters) – Investment firm Vintage Capital Group LLC offered to buy Anaren Inc for $23 per share in a deal that values the telecommunication components maker at about $300 million.

The offer represents a premium of 17 percent to Anaren’s Monday close of $19.61 on the Nasdaq. Anaren shares rose 10 percent in extended trading.

Vintage Capital holds 12.8 percent in East Syracuse, New York-based Anaren.

Private equity firm Discovery Equity Partners, which holds a 5.9 percent stake in Anaren, urged the company’s board last week to solicit offers from “certain parties”.

The post Reuters – Vintage Capital Offers to Buy Anaren appeared first on peHUB.

The TV remote control will not die. And that’s a good thing. Try as they might, startups have yet to provide a true remote control replacement. A dedicated remote is like a trusty pickup truck: It might not be the best looking vehicle but it gets the job done with little fuss. But even though dedicated remotes probably won’t be replaced, that doesn’t mean smartphone apps can’t supplement their existence.

Harmony Ultimate, packs the standard Logitech’s Harmony brand has long turned out some of the very best universal remote controls. Their latest, the affair of hardware including a multitude of buttons, touchscreens, and easy setup through Harmony’s web-based interface. However Logitech also made this $349 system compatible with its Logitech Harmony Smartphone apps, allowing smartphones to fill in when the remote control inevitably goes AWOL.

Or, if you just prefer to use a smartphone altogether, the company also just announced the $129 Logitech Harmony Smart Control, a system that puts the smartphone as the primary controller (like the old Harmony Link) but also includes a small physical remote for backup (below left).

Both systems are compatible with nearly every home entertainment device ever made including game systems and the Philips Hue lighting system. Using IR blasters and your home’s WiFi network, devices can be controlled from the remote or smartphone even when they’re packed away out of sight.

With the rise of the smartphone, many technology pundits put the venerable remote on death watch. But it’s still here. Many smart TVs can now be controlled through a smartphone, but most cable boxes and entertainment systems require extra hardware like the Harmony Smart Control or Griffin’s Beacon.

I’ve owned and tested about a dozen high-end universal remote controls starting with an original Harmony before the company was purchased by Logitech. I’ve also tried most of the iOS remotes but find using my smartphone (or tablet) clunky and not nearly as intuitive as a physical remote. A remote control, while often a mind-boggling mess of buttons, is still the best way to control a complex home entertainment system and mindlessly channel surf on lonely Saturday nights.

The Harmony Ultimate will hit stores in the U.S. and Europe this month for $349. The Harmony Smart Control will drop in May for $129.

Prospect Partners has invested in Velocity Aerospace Group, a provider of aviation aftermarket services. Velocity Aerospace Group provides aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul services to a global customer base of commercial air transports, corporate business aircraft, regional airlines, and helicopters.

PRESS RELEASE

Prospect Partners, a leading private equity firm investing in smaller lower- middle-market companies, today announced that it has invested in Velocity Aerospace Group, Inc., a global provider of aviation aftermarket services.
Velocity Aerospace Group provides aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services to a global customer base of commercial air transports, corporate business aircraft, regional airlines, and helicopters. The company, which operates FAA-certified repair stations in California and Florida, is known for its strong management, highly-skilled avionics technicians, dedicated customer service, modern facilities, and broad range of test, repair, and overhaul capabilities.
“Velocity Aerospace Group is a niche market leader with exceptional potential for continued growth,” said Maneesh Chawla, a Principal at the Chicago, Ill.-based Prospect Partners. “We look forward to supporting management in building a larger aviation MRO services company that leverages Velocity Aerospace’s unique capabilities in avionics and in electronic instrumentation.”
Serving on the board of the holding company, Velocity Aerospace Holding Group, Inc., from Prospect Partners are Mr. Chawla, as Chairman, and Prospect Partners’ Vice President Brad O’Dell, as a Director.
About Prospect Partners, LLC Prospect Partners is a leading private equity firm investing in smaller lower-middle-market companies, managing $470 million across three funds. A highly experienced and active investor, Prospect Partners focuses exclusively on management-led leveraged recapitalizations and acquisitions of niche market leaders with revenues typically under $75 million. Since 1998, Prospect Partners has invested opportunistically nationwide in 100 companies in a broad range of niche manufacturing, distribution, and specialty service markets. Based in Chicago, Prospect Partners also has an office in Menlo Park, Calif.

The post Prospect Partners Backs Velocity Aerospace Group appeared first on peHUB.

Haltermann Holding GmbH has acquired Petrochem Carless Holdings Ltd, a UK-based refiner and producer of hydrocarbon chemicals. Haltermann is a portfolio company of H.I.G. Europe, the European arm of global private equity firm H.I.G. Capital.

PRESS RELEASE

H.I.G. Europe, the European arm of global private equity firm H.I.G. Capital, today announced that its portfolio company Haltermann Holding GmbH (“Haltermann”) has acquired Petrochem Carless Holdings Ltd (“PCL”), a leading UK-based refiner and producer of hydrocarbon chemicals with 2012 revenues of over £350m.
PCL has developed a strong reputation in refining niche hydrocarbon streams which it takes in as the condensate by-product from North Sea oil and gas producers as well as from other global suppliers. Its products are used in industries as diverse as downstream chemicals, agrochemicals, oil and gas, consumer goods, printing, and automotive. It has established itself as a pivotal and trusted supplier into these industries and has grown substantially during the past years.
Haltermann is a German based producer of specialty hydrocarbons with a particular focus on pentanes, high purity hydrocarbons and test and reference fuels. Together, Haltermann and PCL will form a significant player in the European hydrocarbon speciality landscape.
Following the acquisition, Haltermann Holding will be renamed H·C·S Group (“HCS”) and will serve as the Holding company of PCL and Haltermann. For 2012, HCS had sales of approximately €650m and operates out of four state-of-the-art production sites in the UK and Germany. Customers will benefit from the highly synergistic transaction through increased supply chain security, wider product offerings and stronger support for global partnerships. As a larger pan European speciality oil and chemicals group, HCS will target organic growth in the wider global chemicals marketplace.
Paul Canning, Managing Director at H.I.G. Europe, commented: “With this milestone follow-on investment, H.I.G. Europe brings together two strong players in the European speciality hydrocarbon landscape. It is our goal to ensure that both companies continue their growth trajectory. This investment underlines H.I.G.’s investment strategy which focuses on supporting its portfolio companies to drive significant value creation through various growth and efficiency improvement initiatives.”
PCL and Haltermann are an almost perfect fit. With their common technology and raw material markets, and yet complementary sales patterns with regard to products and regions, they together will have a significantly enlarged product offering and regional coverage which we intend to leverage to
generate strong growth and better serve our customers.”
Dr. Uwe Nickel, CEO of H·C·S Group, said: “This is a strong sign of trust from H.I.G. Europe in our development and in the growth prospects of the combined group. HCS aims to be a global partner for its customers. In building a true European player, we will use the best practices from both companies. The management teams and I are excited about the opportunities that this transaction offers to our companies.”
The acquisition of PCL is a follow-on investment for Haltermann which H.I.G. Europe acquired from Dow Chemical in July 2011. The H.I.G. deal team for this acquisition consisted of Paul Canning, Wolfgang Biedermann, Johannes Natterer, Alastair Mills, and Amer Khatoun.
—Ends—
About Petrochem Carless Holdings Limited
The company was founded in 1859 as Carless and quickly won its place in history by developing a new volatile substance which it sold under the name “petrol”. Today, PCL is a speciality oil and chemicals company running a specialist refinery in Harwich (UK) and blending sites in Gunness (UK) and Ghent (Belgium). PCL supplies condensate products like naphtha, kerosene and white spirit, it produces aromatic solvents, drilling fluids, process oils, performance fuels as well as antifreeze and brakefluid products. Its products find use in industries as diverse as downstream chemicals, agrochemicals, oil and gas, consumer goods, printing, and automotive. PCL enjoys longstanding and trusted relationships with global blue chip customers. www.petrochemcarless.com
About Haltermann
The company was founded more than 100 years ago as Johann Haltermann Mineralöl AG in the harbour of Hamburg. Today, Haltermann is one of the leading providers of specialty refinery products for use in the automotive, pharmaceutical, cosmetic as well as in the printing, laboratory chemicals and electronics industry and in plastics processing. Haltermann is a long-established brand for test and specialty fuels for the automotive industry, specialty hydrocarbons for use in pharmaceuticals and electronics and high-purity pentanes that are used as blowing agents for the production of polyurethane foams. Haltermann enjoys long and mutually successful customer relationships with leaders in their respective industries. Haltermann operates from two state-of-the-art production sites with excellent logistics in Speyer and Hamburg, Germany. www.haltermann.com
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. Capital is a leading global private equity investment firm with more than €8.5 billion of equity capital under management and a team of more than 225 investment professionals.
Based in Miami, and with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and San Francisco in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, H.I.G. specialises in providing capital to small and medium-sized companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. invests in management-led buyouts and recapitalizations of profitable and well managed businesses. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 80 companies with combined revenues in excess of €20 billion. www.higeurope.com
Media Contacts:
MHP Communications
Lucinda Kemeny T +44 (0) 203 128 8758 [email protected]
Rory King T +44 (0) 203 128 8564 [email protected]

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Fourth in a series. It seems to be fashionable at the moment to be negative about Windows 8. People like to whine about how the Modern UI gets in the way and how the rest of it is just Windows 7 with some of the furniture rearranged. Some analysts are even blaming Windows 8 for poor PC sales.

Well, I’m sorry Windows 8 deniers, you’re wrong. I’ve used every major version of Windows since 3.1, I’ve been using Windows 8 since the Developer Preview versions and I think it’s Microsoft’s best effort yet.

If you move beyond the culture shock of its different look, there are just so many things that Windows 8 does well. The first is how quickly it manages to boot up your PC. When I initially loaded the Developer Preview on the humble Intel Atom-powered machine I use as a test box I was startled to find it booted in less than half the time taken by my Windows 7 laptop with Pentium power and 50 percent more RAM. Okay, so this is down to a little conjuring trick which saves the system state on shutdown and allows the system to reload without starting core components one by one, but it’s still impressive.

Another feature that makes me a fan of Windows 8 is its reliability. When your day job involves the constant round of installs and uninstalls that comes with reviewing software and hardware you become no stranger to the blue screen of death. Not in Windows 8, in almost a year of use I haven’t seen the BSOD once. This is due to Windows 8’s ability to allow individual programs to crash without taking down the whole OS.

Some people bemoan the lack of a desktop Start button, but the Charms bar combined with the powerful search function more than compensates. I’m now reaching the point where using an older version of Windows feels quite alien and I automatically go to the bottom right corner of the screen expecting something to happen.

Which brings us to the controversial Modern UI. Yes it’s designed for touch screens and it works best with one. But it’s still perfectly usable on an old-fashioned mouse and keyboard setup. The apps look good, they work well and if you want a conventional desktop it’s only a click away. Honestly, I don’t understand why people have a problem with it.

I could go on about improved multi-monitor support, easy syncing of settings between machines, the quality of the built-in security, the ability to reset the system and more. There are many reasons why I love Windows 8, so let me end with an appeal. Don’t take my word for it, set aside your prejudices, curb your Luddite tendencies and take a fresh look, this really is a good operating system.

Little under three weeks ago, AT&T revealed that it would be offering the Galaxy S4 for pre-order starting April 16. And today Samsung’s latest Android flagship is indeed available at the US mobile operator for those who wish to purchase the smartphone before the official sales start.

What’s the damage? Similar to its predecessor, on a two-year contract with “qualifying voice and data plans”, the Galaxy S4 in 16 GB storage trim can be pre-ordered for $199.99. Should you choose to go with AT&T’s one-year contract, the same smartphone runs for $449.99, again with “qualifying voice and data plans”.

AT&T also offers the 16GB Galaxy S4 on a “month to month” plan for $639.99. Available color options, for all plans, include White Frost and Black Mist. AT&T says that the smartphone ships on April 30, presumably the date when sales officially start.

At the time of writing this article the 32GB Galaxy S4 is not yet available for pre-order. AT&T said this model runs for $249.99 on a two-year contract, $50 more than the 16GB version.

According to the results of the BetaNews poll, 20.77 percent of respondents say they will pre-order the Galaxy S4. A whopping 56.37 percent of the voters in the poll answered that they will also purchase the smartphone after it is available, a number not including those who will pre-order the Galaxy S4.

By contrast, only 14.7 percent of respondents answered that they will not purchase the Galaxy S4 and even fewer, 8.15 percent, are on the fence concerning the acquisition.

Less than a month after Flattr made it possible to leave virtual tips for tweeters by favoriting tweets, Twitter has told the Swedish micropayments company to cut it out.

Flattr, co-founded by The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde, is quite a simple system. The user signs up to donate a certain amount – $5 for example – each month, and then “flattrs” people for their content, with the recipient getting an amount equal to the monthly pot divided by the number of flattrs the user has made. It was originally for tipping bloggers who had Flattr buttons on their sites, but last month the company expanded the functionality to allow the automatic tipping of people posting on Twitter, SoundCloud, Instagram and other sites.

However, Flattr has now removed the Twitter functionality after Twitter asked it to desist. As Flattr co-founder Linus Olsson explained in a blog post on Tuesday:

“Recently Twitter contacted us and told us that we are violating their API terms citing the second part of a clause (IV. Commercial Use, 2C. Advertising Around Twitter Content) saying ‘Your advertisements cannot resemble or reasonably be confused by users as a Tweet. For example, ads cannot have Tweet actions like follow, retweet, favorite, and reply. And you cannot sell or receive compensation for Tweet actions or the placement of Tweet actions on your Service.’

“This is a quite logical clause as it would stop companies to sell e.g. retweets and followers. It’s an understandable rule to keep the Twitter network clean but in this case the rule is strangely stomping out innovation on their platform.”

Now, Flattr is a for-profit firm that takes a 10 percent cut of payments carried out over its system. But even after Flattr offered to forego that cut in the case of flattred tweets, Twitter apparently said no. So, from today, favoriting tweets won’t result in the tweeter getting money – although those using the Flattr browser extension can still flattr tweeters through this alternative mechanism.

I’ve asked Twitter whether it sees another way in which Flattr can operate on its platform, but am yet to receive a response.

On the face of it, this action of Twitter’s seems to tally with its recent shutting-down of Ribbon’s service, which used Twitter’s Cards technology to allow full-on payments to take place within tweets themselves. However, Ribbon and Flattr appear to have broken two different rules – in Ribbon’s case, it looks like the company wasn’t making the right kind of Cards access request, and in Flattr’s it was the contravention of the tweet action regulation.

It’s probably too early to tell whether Twitter has an ulterior motive here, but Olsson suspects it does. As he told me:

“I would speculate that they want to control all the ways that money is changing hands on Twitter – if they control that, they can control the flow and in future get a cut of it. That would be a logical business model for Twitter – if you use Twitter to sell something you need to pay Twitter for it. I’m just speculating here, of course.”

Flattr will now put this theory to the test, Olsson added, by building a system “where you can send a flattr to someone on Twitter by tweeting them instead”. In the meantime, the service continues to expand its reach by adding YouTube to the roster of services through which flattrs can be made.

I should probably add by way of disclosure that, since signing up for Flattr a month ago, I have received two flattrs for tweets of mine: one for €3 ($3.92 – I’m guessing the user didn’t favorite many tweets that month) and the other for €0.16. After Flattr took its cut, the remainder was €2.84, which is just less than the €3 that I have set as my monthly budget for flattring others.

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Texas power company Energy Future Holdings, formerly known as TXU Corp, has proposed a prepackaged bankruptcy that would restructure $32 billion of debt, but no deal has been reached, writes Reuters. The company is trying to restructure more than $30 billion in debt it was saddled with after the buyout by a consortium including KKR & Co, TPG Capital Management and Goldman Sachs Group Inc‘s private equity arm, writes Reuters.

Reuters – Texas power company Energy Future Holdings, formerly known as TXU Corp, has proposed a prepackaged bankruptcy that would restructure $32 billion of debt, but no deal has been reached, the company said on Monday.

Energy Future, taken private in 2007 in the largest-ever leveraged buyout, said in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing that it has proposed a restructuring deal to creditors that would exchange secured creditors’ claims for a combination of equity and new debt.

“The principals of the companies and the creditors are currently not engaged in ongoing negotiations,” Energy Future said.

It noted, however, that creditors have conveyed they would consider the restructuring if it increased distributions and better compensated them for the risk of taking on equity.

Energy Future is trying to restructure more than $30 billion in debt it was saddled with after the buyout by a consortium including KKR & Co, TPG Capital Management and Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s private equity arm. The $45 billion TXU buyout, which loaded the company with debt, is viewed as one of the most spectacular failures of the last decade’s buyout boom.

The company has a large and complex capital structure, and industry experts have speculated about which entities may be headed for bankruptcy and which could be spared.

Most of Energy Future’s debt sits on the unregulated side, at Texas Competitive Electric Holdings (TCEH), the holding company for its unregulated retail business, TXU Energy, and its unregulated merchant power unit, Luminant.

The company has ringfenced Oncor, its regulated power delivery business, in hopes of keeping it solvent, and the restructuring proposal revealed on Monday would not have included that unit or the holding company that owns its equity.

The proposed restructuring would have allowed TCEH creditors to trade in their senior claims for a combination of equity at the Energy Future parent and a share of $5 billion in cash or new TCEH debt. Under the company’s proposed restructuring, TCEH would pick up $3 billion of new loans and another $5 billion of long-term debt.

The company’s private equity backers proposed a restructuring in which the buyout firms and other equity holders would retain 15 percent of the equity in the reorganized company and creditors would end up with the remaining 85 percent, according to the filing.

The private equity firms also suggested that they could provide additional capital to Energy Future in exchange for a larger share of the company, the filing said.

But according to Monday’s SEC filing, creditors told Energy Future that they believe the company needs to address debt structure issues at its parent as well as at the holding company for ringfenced Oncor.

They said they would not accept the proposed prepackaged bankruptcy unless, among other things, it achieved “a sustainable debt capital structure” for the parent company and Oncor’s holding company “without reliance on TCEH’s cash flows.”

Some of Energy Future’s largest creditors include Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital Management, Centerbridge Partners, Fidelity Investments and Franklin Resources, according to a source close to the matter.

Energy Future is not necessarily up against the clock. Although it has about $270 million in interest payments due on May 1, it can easily afford to make them. It has around $2.7 billion in liquidity – plenty for it to survive on, at least until a $3.85 billion bank loan matures in October 2014, a U.S. regulatory filing from January shows.

The TXU takeover was built on hopes that natural gas prices would stay high. Instead, they dropped sharply and are still down 45 percent from February 2007 levels.

Energy Future Holdings is the largest power generator in Texas. Its merchant power unit, Luminant, owns more than 15,000 megawatts of nuclear, coal and gas-fired power plants.

KKR and TPG declined to comment on the matter. Goldman Sachs could not be immediately reached for comment.

The post Reuters – Energy Future Proposes Prepackaged Bankruptcy appeared first on peHUB.

Struggling Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings could offload its solar power generation assets in Italy, writes Reuters. The former green tech poster child, with a New York Stock Exchange listing and a market value of $16 billion at its peak, last month defaulted on $541 million of its dollar-denominated bonds and said its biggest subsidiary was bankrupt, writes Reuters.

Reuters – Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd could offload its solar power generation assets in Italy, a company spokesman said on Tuesday, as the struggling Chinese solar panel maker scrambles to trim debts of more than $2 billion.

The former green tech poster child, with a New York Stock Exchange listing and a market value of $16 billion at its peak, last month defaulted on $541 million of its dollar-denominated bonds and said its biggest subsidiary was bankrupt.

A source with direct knowledge of Suntech’s search for a cash infusion said last week it might consider selling its 88.15 percent stake in Global Solar Fund Sicar (GSF Sicar), a Luxembourg-based fund specialising in the development of solar power projects mainly in Italy.

“We intend to operate GSF for the time being and will consider all options to maximize the value for our stakeholders,” a Suntech spokesman said in emailed reply to Reuters.

Asked how it planned to use the proceeds of a sale and whether it had received any interest in the assets, he said Suntech would update investors “in the coming months”.

It is the first time Suntech has publicly acknowledged it could sell the GSF Sicar stake since its announcement last month that its biggest subsidiary, Wuxi Suntech, was bankrupt and would undergo a government-led restructuring.

By some estimates, the fund carries an enterprise value of up to $800 million, including more than $600 million in loans from China Development Bank, analysts say.

Suntech, one of the world’s largest solar panel manufacturers by capacity, is seeking to sell some assets and bring in a strategic investor to repay debt and revitalise the company, the source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last week.

Even if Suntech disposes of the stake in GSF Sicar, proceeds would not nearly be enough to repay creditors, analysts say.

Creditors would still have to accept a debt restructuring in which they might undertake a loss, convert some debt into equity stakes in Suntech or extend the maturities of parts of their debts.

Shares is Suntech, which peaked at $90 on the New York Stock Exchange in 2008, fell to 58 cents on Monday.

DISTRESSED ASSET

Analysts say the recent settlement of a dispute between Suntech and its former partner in the fund, GSF Capital, may have paved the way for a sale, which in theory could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.

Suntech said in November that it had contributed 156 million euros to the fund. Suntech’s founder and former chairman Shi Zhengrong, who holds the remaining 11.85 percent, had contributed 19 million euros.

But any potential buyer would seek to drive a hard bargain given that Suntech is under pressure to sell.

Suntech was struggling with a net debt-to-equity of around 200 percent and total debts of about $2.2 billion at the end of March 2002.

That included loans from the International Finance Corp (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, and Chinese lenders including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China .

“I put a big question mark on whether Suntech can sell off its stake in GSF soon,” said Glenn Gu, a China-based analyst for business information provider IHS. “It will not be a surprise if the stake in GSF is sold at a big discount at the end of the day.”

Suntech said last month it had settled a dispute with GSF Capital Pte Ltd, which sold its 10 percent stake in GSF Sicar to Suntech and a company owned by Shi as part of the settlement.

GSF Sicar owns 142-megawatt solar projects in Italy, 141 MW of which are now connected to the grid — including 118-MW capacity that has obtained Italy’s feed-in tariffs, the Suntech spokesman said.

Feed-in tariffs are government-subsidised power prices as incentives for clean energy development. The euro zone debt crisis has led to the world’s biggest solar power producers such as Germany and Italy slashing subsidies for renewable power, triggering a plunge in solar panel prices in the last two years.

There are no signs of recovery in demand for solar panels this year, according to top executives at several Chinese solar panel makers interviewed by Reuters this week. Chinese solar panel makers are also bracing for a decision to be made by the European Union in June on whether to slap anti-dumping duties on their products.

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Japan’s Panasonic Corp has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to sell a part of its healthcare unit in a deal that could raise as much as $1 billion writes Reuters. Merrill Lynch will begin providing information on the sale to potential bidders by May, including private equity funds Bain Capital and Carlyle Group, writes Reuters.

Reuters – Japan’s Panasonic Corp has hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to sell a part of its healthcare unit in a deal that could raise as much as $1 billion for the sprawling electronics conglomerate, two financial sources familiar with the deal said.

Merrill Lynch will begin providing information on the sale to potential bidders by May, including private equity funds Bain Capital and Carlyle Group, the sources said on condition they were not identified.

Panasonic’s president, Kazuhiro Tsuga last month said he would seek a partner “with medical knowledge and skills and capital for future growth” to invest in the healthcare unit as part of a wider company revamp to bolster profitability and shift Panasonic away from consumer electronics to supplying components and devices to other companies.

He did not say how big of a stake in the healthcare unit he planned to sell. Before the announcement analysts had expected Panasonic to announce the outright sale of the business, which makes blood-sugar monitoring devices and medical chart systems.

To maintain its cashflow, Panasonic is selling assets, including last month a Tokyo office tower for around $500 million. Tsuga last month also announced the sale of a majority stake in a logistics subsidiary to Nippon Express Co, Japan’s largest transportation company.

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Brookfield Asset Management has completed the spin-off of Brookfield Property Partners, a newly-created company which owns all of Brookfield’s commercial property assets. Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager with over $175 billion in assets under management. The company has over a 100-year history of owning and operating assets with a focus on property, renewable power, infrastructure and private equity.

PRESS RELEASE

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (“Brookfield”) (TSX:BAM.A)(NYSE:BAM)(EURONEXT:BAMA) today announced the completion of the spin-off of Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (“BPY”) (TSX:BPY.UN)(NYSE:BPY), a newly-created company which owns substantially all of Brookfield’s commercial property assets.
The spin-off was effected by way of a special dividend of units of BPY to holders of Brookfield’s Class A and B limited voting shares (the “Shares”) as of the record date, March 26, 2013. Each holder of Shares received one BPY unit for approximately every 17.42 Shares (that is, approximately 0.0574 BPY units for each Share). Shareholders of Brookfield now own 35,839,414 BPY units, or 7.56% of BPY, and Brookfield owns the remaining 92.44% of BPY (assuming the exchange of all of Brookfield’s redeemable partnership units, which it holds in an affiliate of BPY, for BPY units). The BPY units commenced regular-way trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange this morning under the symbols “BPY.UN” and “BPY” respectively.
“Brookfield Property Partners public listing opens an exciting new chapter in the growth of a leading global commercial property company, with the scale and expertise needed to deliver superior long term performance,” said Ric Clark, chief executive officer at Brookfield Property Partners and Senior Managing Partner and head of the global property group at Brookfield Asset Management.
“This final step in the launch of Brookfield Property Partners significantly furthers our asset management strategy, providing investors with access to our real asset platforms through three flagship listed entities which deliver income, growth and a portfolio of strongly performing private equity funds,” commented Bruce Flatt, Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield. “BPY joins our two other high dividend yield and growth entities, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners, which since their inceptions, have delivered annual compound returns in excess of 15%.”
Brookfield shareholders will receive a cash payment in lieu of any fractional interests in the BPY units. Brookfield will use the volume-weighted average of the regular-way trading price of the BPY units for the five trading days immediately following the spin-off to determine the value of the BPY units for the purpose of calculating the cash payable in lieu of any fractional interests. Payment of this cash amount will be made by check and mailed on or about April 24, 2013.
Prior to completion of the spin-off, BPY acquired from Brookfield substantially all of its commercial property operations, including its office, retail, multi-family and industrial assets, including approximately $157 million worth of ownership interests that Brookfield acquired on April 12, 2012 from fellow investors in the consortium that holds underlying common shares and warrants of General Growth Properties, Inc. and common shares of Rouse Properties, Inc. As consideration for these interests, the investors received approximately $110 million in cash and a note for approximately $47 million that was issued by one of BPY’s holding entities and matures on October 12, 2013. This transaction resulted in an increase in the value of the special dividend of BPY units to Brookfield shareholders from the $1.45 value per Share that was estimated upon declaration of the dividend to $1.47 per Share upon payment, or approximately $920 million dollars in the aggregate, based on International Financial Reporting Standards carrying values.
In order to satisfy Canadian withholding tax and U.S. “backup” withholding tax obligations on the special dividend, a portion of the BPY units otherwise distributable to non-Canadian investors will be withheld from registered shareholders. For non-Canadian beneficial owners of Brookfield shares registered in the name of a broker or other intermediary, these withholding tax obligations will be satisfied in the ordinary course through arrangements with the broker or intermediary. Beneficial owners should consult their brokers to determine how the withholding tax obligations will be satisfied for their units and on any questions they may have regarding fractional units.
As contemplated in BPY’s Form 20-F filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its Canadian Prospectus and U.S. Information Statement filed with the Ontario Securities Commission, on April 14, 2013 the existing board of directors of BPY’s general partner was replaced in its entirety and expanded to seven members, a majority of whom are independent of BPY and Brookfield. The seven members of the board of directors are Gordon E. Arnell, Omar Carneiro da Cunha, Stephen DeNardo, J. Bruce Flatt, Louis Joseph Maroun, Lars Rodert and José Ramón Valente Vías. For biographical information about BPY’s directors please refer to the section entitled “Governance” beginning on page 121 of the Form 20-F and page 123 of the Canadian Prospectus and U.S. Information Statement.
Further details regarding the operations of Brookfield Property Partners are set forth in regulatory filings. A copy of the filings may be obtained through the website of the SEC at www.sec.gov and on BPY’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is a global alternative asset manager with over $175 billion in assets under management. The company has over a 100-year history of owning and operating assets with a focus on property, renewable power, infrastructure and private equity. Brookfield has a range of public and private investment products and services, which leverage its expertise and experience and provide it with a competitive advantage in the markets where it operates.
Brookfield Property Partners is a commercial real estate owner, operator and investor operating globally. Its diversified portfolio includes interests in over 300 office and retail properties encompassing more than 250 million square feet. In addition, the company has interests in approximately 15,600 multi-family units, 29 million square feet of industrial space and an 18 million square foot office development pipeline. Brookfield Property Partners’ goal is to be the leading global investor in best in class commercial property assets.

Note: This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian provincial securities laws and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities regulations. The words “continue,” “expect,” “intend,” “believe,” derivations thereof and other expressions, including conditional verbs such as “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” and “should,” are predictions of or indicate future events, trends or prospects or identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements with respect to: our expectations for Brookfield Property Partners L.P.; the anticipated benefits of the spin-off; and other statements with respect to our beliefs, outlooks, plans, expectations and intentions. Although Brookfield Asset Management and Brookfield Property Partners believe that BPY’s anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information are based upon reasonable assumptions and expectations, the reader should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information as such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to differ materially from anticipated future results, performance or achievement expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated or implied by forward-looking statements include: economic and financial conditions in the countries in which we do business; the behaviour of financial markets, including fluctuations in interest and exchange rates; availability of equity and debt financing; strategic actions including dispositions; the ability to complete and effectively integrate acquisitions into existing operations and the ability to attain expected benefits; regulatory and political factors within the countries in which the company operates; availability of new tenants to fill property vacancies; tenant bankruptcies; acts of God, such as earthquakes and hurricanes; the possible impact of international conflicts and other developments including terrorist acts; changes in accounting policies to be adopted under IFRS; and other risks and factors detailed from time to time in BPY’s Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other documents filed by BPY with the securities regulators in Canada and the United States.
We caution that the foregoing factors that may affect future results are not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make decisions with respect to Brookfield Asset Management or Brookfield Property Partners, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. Except as required by law, the companies undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether written or oral, as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact Information
Media: Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
Andrew Willis
SVP, Communications & Media
(416) 369-8236
(416) 363-2856 (FAX)
[email protected]

Investors: Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
Katherine Vyse
SVP, Investor Relations
(416) 369-8246
(416) 363-2856 (FAX)
[email protected]

Brookfield Property Partners
Melissa Coley
Vice President, Investor Relations & Communications
212-417-7215
[email protected]

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Biotechnology company Tauriga Sciences has appointed Stella M. Sung to the position of chief operating officer effectively immediately. Sung is currently business development officer of Avita Medical, a public regenerative medicine company, and managing director of Pearl Street Venture Fund, a life science venture fund.

PRESS RELEASE

Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) or (“The Company” or “Tauriga”) has today announced the appointment of Stella M. Sung, Ph.D. (“Dr. Sung”) to the position of Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) effectively immediately. In assuming this position, Dr. Sung will oversee the evaluation process and structuring of potential biotech transactions, including: due diligence, valuations, DCF modeling, and capital requirements.
Tauriga CEO Seth M. Shaw commented, “The addition of Dr. Stella Sung to the Company’s core management team as Chief Operating Officer is a major achievement for the Company. Her outstanding rolodex of institutional investors and access to intriguing opportunities in the life sciences space are of great importance to the Company moving forward.”
Newly appointed Tauriga Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Stella Sung stated, “I am enthusiastic about building Tauriga’s portfolio of diversified assets in the health care space. Serving as the Company’s COO enables me to source and structure transactions with the goal of maximizing shareholder value, and Tauriga is already creating a pipeline of potential deals.”
Please see below Bio for Dr. Stella M. Sung, Chief Operating Officer — Tauriga Sciences, Inc.:
Dr. Stella M. Sung brings almost 20 years of leadership experience in the healthcare sector as both a senior operating executive and an early stage life science venture capitalist. Dr. Sung is currently Business Development Officer of Avita Medical, a public regenerative medicine company, and Managing Director of Pearl Street Venture Fund, a life science venture fund. She previously held the position of Chief Business Officer of Cylene Pharmaceuticals, a venture-backed oncology company. Dr. Sung has served as a Managing Director or General Partner for several life science venture firms, including Coastview Capital (founded by former Amgen CEO Gordon Binder) and Oxford Bioscience Partners. She has led venture rounds of financing for seven transactions, co-founded two biotechnology companies, served on 7 Boards of Directors and served as Chairman of the Board for four biotechnology companies. Previously, she focused on life science and health care investments at Advent International, a global private equity firm that has raised over $6 billion in cumulative capital to date. Dr. Sung received her B.S. in chemistry from The Ohio State University and her Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University, where she was a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow. She earned her Harvard Ph.D. under the guidance of Professor Dudley Herschbach, the 1986 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. (http://www.psvf.com/stella-m-sung.asp)
About Tauriga Sciences, Inc.:
Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (“the Company”) is a holding company that operates in the biotechnology space, which includes medical devices and development of proprietary drug compounds. The mission of the Company is to acquire a diversified portfolio of medical technologies with the aim of providing financial and human capital resources, to unlock significant value for the shareholders. The Company’s business model entails the acquisition of licenses, equity stakes, rights on both an exclusive and non-exclusive basis, and entire businesses. Management is firmly committed to building lasting shareholder value in the short, intermediate, and long terms. The Company’s new corporate website can be found at URL address (www.taurigasciences.com).
DISCLAIMER:
Forward-Looking Statements: Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain “forward-looking statements” as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation expectations, beliefs, plans and objectives regarding the development, use and marketability of products. Such forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on IMUN’s predictions with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences and timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, and are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to fund operations and other factors over which IMUN has little or no control. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and IMUN assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and other factors are discussed in documents filed from time to time by IMUN with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact Information
Contact:

For more information please contact:

Mr. Seth M. Shaw
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Tauriga Sciences, Inc.
New York: +1-917-796-9926
Montreal: +1-514-840-3697
Email: Email Contact

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Middle-market mergers and acquisitions firm Woodbridge International is opening its Pune, India office. The new office will serve Woodbridge clients throughout India and will be led by senior M&A advisors Darshan Rathod and Vaibhav Sundecha, along with Woodbridge vice president Jitender Chopra, who is based in New York.

PRESS RELEASE

Woodbridge International, a leading middle-market mergers and acquisitions firm, is pleased to announce the opening of its Pune, India office. The new office will serve Woodbridge clients throughout India and will be led by Senior M&A advisors Darshan Rathod and Vaibhav Sundecha, along with Woodbridge Vice President Jitender Chopra, who is based in New York.
Woodbridge International is an M&A firm focused on selling privately-held, middle-market companies with transactional values ranging from 25 Crore to over 500 Crore ($5 million-$100 million).
Woodbridge recently closed several cross-border deals in a variety of industries. In March of this year, Labor Import, a Brazilian distributor of medical supplies, was sold to Bunzl, a London-based distributor traded on the London stock exchange.
In 2012 Woodbridge completed four cross-border transactions: U.S.-based A&A Manufacturing Company, Inc. was acquired by Halltech Gmbh, a leading German specialty OEM; Panama-based Hidrotenencias S.A., a hydroelectric power company, entered into a capital transaction with ACON, a private equity investment fund based in the U.S. and Latin America; U.K.-based Private Equity Group Permira through their portfolio company, Genesis, located in the U.S. and Brazil, acquired Woodbridge’s Brazilian client, LM Sistemas; and Woodbridge’s Japanese client, Yamada, entered into a joint venture with LOM, a Scandinavian company with a division in Manaus, Brazil.
Woodbridge’s innovative process for marketing companies globally to strategic and financial buyers is unique — and includes the production of a dynamic 2-minute company video buyers can watch on their screens, wherever they are in the world.
Vaibhav specializes in transaction advisory for midsize companies and has worked for Ernst & Young and PwC. Darshan specializes in lead advisory and previously worked for RREEF (Deutsche Bank Real Estate Private Equity), Ernst & Young and PwC.
Vaibhav and Darshan will work closely with Jitender Chopra and the entire Woodbridge team in serving Woodbridge’s clients in India. Prior to joining Woodbridge, Jitender worked in the Credit Risk division of J.P. Morgan’s Investment Banking line of business. He also previously worked at Fidelity Investments and AXA Equitable.
Woodbridge welcomes Vaibhav and Darshan to its team and looks forward to bringing India-based sellers to buyers around the globe.
Woodbridge International, founded in 1993, is an innovative M&A firm headquartered in New Haven, CT. The firm serves clients from its 10 North American offices and locations in the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil and Honduras.

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Pine Tree Equity has closed its third private investment fund on $100 million. The firm’s capital raise was executed in less than 90 days. This brings the firm’s total committed capital base to nearly $200 million.

PRESS RELEASE

Pine Tree Equity III, LP (“Pine Tree Equity”), a private equity firm based in Miami, FL, is pleased to announce that it has closed its third private investment fund of $100 million in April 2013. The firm’s capital raise was executed in less than 90 days, and it brings the firm’s total committed capital base to nearly $200 million. Due to its differentiated approach in the small capitalization space and strong returns despite the challenging market, Pine Tree Equity III was materially oversubscribed beyond its $100 million cap.

“We are extremely thankful to have received great support from existing investors and significant demand from new investors,” said Jeff Settembrino, Pine Tree’s Managing Partner. “Although we were oversubscribed, we wanted to keep our third fund at $100 million in order to remain dedicated to the small capitalization space where our committed capital and proven experience has helped transform entrepreneurial success stories into institutional platforms positioned for continued growth.”

Pine Tree Equity III will continue to execute its successful strategy of investing in and expanding small capitalization companies – with revenue of $10 million to $50 million or EBITDA of $2 million to $6 million – in partnership with founding management. Since its founding in January 2007, Pine Tree Equity has closed 21 acquisitions with founding entrepreneurs in a variety of industries, including business, consumer and financial services.

Pine Tree Equity

Pine Tree Equity, based in Miami, FL, is a private equity firm with committed equity capital focused on the investment in and expansion of small capitalization companies – with revenue of $10.0 million to $50.0 million – in partnership with management.

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