The Boston Business Journal reports that TD Bank Financial Group, the parent of TD Bank, said Monday it has struck a deal to acquire a money-losing South Carolina-based bank with an elevated amount of problem loans on its balance sheet. Editor’s note: TD Bank is a DDIFO Sponsor.
Read More »Monica Mehta writes at Bloomberg BusinssWeek that business sellers are using creative financing to command better prices or close deals.
Read More »Emily Maltby reports in the Wall Street Journal that Arthur Romanov and Irina Salgan opened their sixth Edible Arrangements fruit-basket shop recently to take advantage of low real-estate prices and easy-to-negotiate contractor bids.
Read More »Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that CKE Restaurants Inc., operator of the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food chains, said it will sell itself to an affiliate of Apollo Management LP for $12.55 a share in cash, or about $694 million.
Read More »CNN Money.com reports that a new player is charging into the arid landscape of banks willing to lend to franchise operators. Bancorp Bank, based in Wilmington, Del., said this week that it will launch a new program specifically targeting startup and expanding franchises.
Read More »The operator of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s restaurants said Wednesday it may have received a better takeover offer than the one it already has from a private equity firm.
Read More »Kent Bernhard of Portfolio.com reports that you ask just about any venture capitalist in California’s Silicon Valley about the market for taking companies public, and they’ll tell you it’s been horrible for nearly a decade and needs to improve for them to make money and create a healthy environment for investing in new companies.
Read More »David Cho of the Washington Post writes that in March 2009, President Obama vowed to address the drought of bank lending to small companies and announced an initiative to use $15 billion from the federal bailout to unfreeze the markets that finance Small Business Administration loans
Read More »New York-based private equity firm Lee Equity Partners has signed a definitive agreement to purchase the nearly 1,200 unit Papa Murphy’s Take ’N’ Bake pizza chain from its current majority owner, Charlesbank Capital Partners. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Lee Equity Partners is one of consortium of global private equity firms including Bain Capital Partners LLC, The Carlyle Group that own Dunkin’ Brands, Inc.
Read More »Jaclyn Trop reports in the The Detroit News that when Debi Scroggins needed investors to grow her Bearclaw Coffee Co. franchise, she looked to the Middle East. The founder of the Ann Arbor-based coffee company has recruited nearly a dozen Iranians — with more to follow — to open mobile coffee carts in the United States at $180,000 a pop.
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