Middle Market Weekly Outlook

Good morning, all. The Wall Street Journal reports on hesitancy in the Greek private equity markets, as uncertainty looms large. Although it seems like the time for buying low and later selling high, few private equity investors are making the leap into Greek investments.

Meanwhile, Forbes discusses what startup founders wish they’d done before the M&A deal. The biggest mistakes were in preparation, which often led to messy deals. Founders most often failed to document and equity organize all NDA/IP transfers.

Transactions

• Terra Firma and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management sell Tank & Rast
• Shamrock buys audiobook publisher Recorded Books
• Blue Point Capital acquires two German companies as add-ons
• Blackstone, Fortress among bidders for Japan’s Simplex
• Berkshire Partners, New Balance Holding buy The Rockport Company
• Battery Ventures buys NICE Systems’ Physical Security Business unit
• Symphony Technology exits Consilio
• Palisade Capital exits Shoe Sensation
• Atlantic Street Capital buys leading Jimmy John’s franchisee
• Vista acquires PowerSchool Group from Pearson
• BelHealth buys Geritrex
• Isqft and CMD Group merge
• Odyssey Investment Partners buys Integro
• Thoma Bravo buys iPipeline
• Wincove Capital sells GI Plastek to Gladstone Investment
• OPIC partners with Atlas Mara in $300 mln Africa lending project
• H.I.G Capital-backed ACG Materials acquires Art Wilson Company
• Littlejohn sells Latham International to Wynnchurch

Opinions

• M&A boom being driven by strategics
• Zombie private equity funds sit on $127 billion asset pile
• What startup founders wish they’d done before the M&A deal
• Gold’s M&A wave to roll on as bullion falls to five year low
• Pharma execs say to expect more M&A
• Remembering the grandfather of private equity in an era of ‘Barbarians at the Gate’
• Private equity industry sees more federal regulation
• Private equity’s ‘Golden Age’ is finally coming to an end
• Rush of dividend loans for US private equity firms
• Greece may be open for business, but private equity firms are wary
• 2015 M&A volume will hit an all-time high — is this a bubble?
• Energy losses cut into private equity returns in 2014
• Private equity is finally getting ready to cash in
• Logistics M&A wave to continue
• M&A borrowing hits a fresh record amid deal splurge
• A golden goose for investment bankers has stopped laying eggs
• A man’s world: women in private equity
• An outburst of outrage about private equity fees

This week in history…Netscape, developer of Navigator, popular software for cruising around the World Wide Web, goes public with what turned out to be the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Wall Street history. The California-based company issued five million shares of stock, which were slated to trade at $28. By the close of the trading day, Netscape’s stock had zoomed up to $72 a share, which left the company with a tidy market value of $1.96 billion (1995).