The summary of a study by National Bureau of Economic Research: The past two decades have seen a rapid increase in Private Equity (PE) investment in healthcare, a sector in which intensive government subsidy and market frictions could lead high-powered for-profit incentives to be misaligned with the social goal of affordable, quality care. This paper studies [PDF] the effects of PE…
Tag: Private equity
‘Meme Stock’ Rally Rescues AMC Theaters From $600 Million Debt
This week’s bizarre “meme stock” rally, which has delivered lottery-like windfalls for holders of GameStop stock, also wiped out $600 million in debt owed by the AMC theater chain. Polygon reports: That’s because, on Wednesday, a private equity firm named Silver Lake — and private equity firms are popularly considered the “bad guys” in this snobs-versus-slobs drama — elected to convert…
Carbon Engineering’s Tech Will Suck Carbon From the Sky
“It’s not enough to slash greenhouse gas emissions,” warns a new article in IEEE Spectrum (shared by schwit1). “Experts say we need direct-air capture of atmospheric carbon.” West Texas is a hydrocarbon hot spot, with thousands of wells pumping millions of barrels of oil and billions of cubic feet of natural gas from the Permian Basin. When burned, all that oil…
EFF Reveals Behind-the-Scenes Account of the Fight to Save .ORG
As part of its “Year in Review” series, the EFF shares their dramatic behind-the-scenes details about 2020’s fight over the future of .org domains. It begins when the Internet Society (ISOC) announced plans to sell the Public Interest Registry — which manages the .org top-level domain (TLD) — to private equity firm Ethos Capital. “If you come at the nonprofit sector,…
US Fertility Says Patient Data Was Stolen in a Ransomware Attack
U.S. Fertility, one of the largest networks of fertility clinics in the United States, has confirmed it was hit by a ransomware attack and that data was taken. From a report: The company was formed in May as a partnership between Shady Grove Fertility, a fertility clinic with dozens of locations across the U.S. east coast, and Amulet Capital Partners, a…
$6 Billion Linux Deal? SUSE IPO Rumored
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: According to Bloomberg, EQT is planning an IPO for German Linux and enterprise software company SUSE. EQT is a Swedish-based private equity firm with 50 billion euros in raised capital. SUSE is the leading European Union (EU) Linux distributor. Over the years, SUSE has changed owners several times. First, it was acquired by…
Jack Dorsey Keeps Twitter CEO Job
A Twitter board committee reviewing the social network’s leadership and management structure concluded that Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey should maintain his role at the helm of the company. From a report: The committee was asked to formally review Twitter’s leadership as part of an agreement in March with activist investor Elliott Management and private equity firm Silver Lake, which took…
Billionaire CEO of Software Company Indicted For Alleged $2 Billion Tax Evasion Schemes
The billionaire chief executive of Ohio-based Reynolds and Reynolds Co, Robert Brockman, has been indicted on charges of tax evasion and wire fraud conducted over “decades.” ZDNet reports: The scheme, in which roughly $2 billion was hidden away in offshore accounts and through money laundering, took place between 1999 and 2019, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Thursday. According…
Francisco-Backed Sandvine Cancels Belarus Deal, Citing Abuses
Sandvine, the technology company backed by private equity firm Francisco Partners, canceled a deal with Belarus, saying the government used its technology to violate human rights. From a report: The company’s technology, which is used to filter and manage internet networks, was used by a state-run internet agency in Belarus to block thousands of websites in the country amid nationwide protests…
AT&T, Ready For Your $30 Billion DirecTV Haircut?
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: AT&T is once again looking to sell its DirecTV unit, a business that has lost billions of dollars in value since the wireless carrier acquired it in 2015. The sooner it waves goodbye, the better. The question is, who wants it? DirecTV has faded into the background at AT&T, a company now entirely…