Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Keeping up with the Joneses is a hard game to play in private equity — particularly when 18 PE professionals made it onto the 2015 Forbes list of billionaires. Steve Schwarzman topped the PE-specific list (by a long shot), with a net worth of $12 billion. He later admitted that hiring nice people helped him make his billions.

In other news, private equity firms may be able to help startups and VCs. In a profile in Bloomberg View, Katie Brenner explains, “The idea is to let a private equity firm buy out the VCs, wipe out all of the preferred stock and convert all shares to common.” The result is an appealing investment for PE, a good exit for VC, and happy start-up employees. However, many founders are still reticent to give up majority ownership.

Transactions:

• Wessanen to sell U.S. juice unit to Brynwood Partners
• High Road Capital buys York Wallcoverings
• PWP Growth Equity invests in MOD Pizza
• Cronus Partners advises 121 Point Breeze Terminal in sale to Kinder Morgan
• MML Capital invests in Luneau Technology
• Honeywell completes acquisition of Datamax-O’Neil
• Winona Capital invests in Fat Brain Toys
• North Branch invests in Motion Solutions
• BD acquires CRISI Medical Systems
• Apex Fund Services buys Pinnacle Fund Administration
• Clairvest Group invests in Winter Bros. Waste Systems of Long Island
• Cloud Equity Group buys Fresh Roasted Holdings
• Oaktree Capital Management to buy Pulse Electronics Corp
• Bertram Capital backs Clarus Glassboards
• Vector Capital sells Tidel to Graham Partners
• Spectrum Equity invests in Definitive Healthcare

Events:

• Monday: 27th Annual ROTH Conference
• Tuesday: Family Offices Winter Forum
• Tuesday: 21st Mid-Atlantic Growth Conference Tech Showcase
• Thursday: Trends in Retail M&A Roundtable

Opinions:

• The MBA courses that are most likely to lead to investment banking jobs
• What net neutrality means for Comcast-Time Warner Cable and other mega mergers
• Tech company M&A activity hit $1 trillion last year
• Shipping industry faces shake up as PE unwinds bets
• Africa’s PE outlook remains positive for 2015
• A costly side effect of hospital mergers
• What would a Yuan devaluation mean for PE investors?
• A warning from Buffett about banks
• Biotech buys get pharma M&A off to flying start in 2015
• Equity firms are lending to landlords, signaling a shift
• 3 tips for companies evaluating insurance coverage in M&A
• The unhappy intersection of hospital mergers and antitrust laws
• Computing, telecom industries set on collision course
• U.S. has most middle market companies, though segment can be overlooked
• PE to play larger role in feeding energy sector’s capital needs
• Eight takeaways from the Etsy IPO

This week in history… Coca-Cola and Boeing become part of the DJIA (1987).