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GE: Imagination at Work (But Not So Much In the U.S.)
In England, they shipped all their troublesome people to Australia. At General Electric, apparently they ship them to London. In another blow to U.S. pride and corporate tax revenues, the conglomerate is packing up its consumer finance division from its current Stamford, Conn. headquarters and sending it to London, England. But can the unit flee [...]

The Winners & Losers From the Week that Was
Lehman Brothers: Clearly a week does not a year make, but after the first seven days of February, the New York firm deserves recognition. Lehman Brothers has won assignments on $61 billion worth of announced deals since Feb. 1. That propelled Lehman to the top spot on the global league tables of investment-bank advisory work [...]

Breaking News: Dennis Hersch To Leave J.P. Morgan
Dennis S. Hersch, the chairman of M&A at J.P. Morgan, is leaving the firm to work for the family office of billionaire Les Wexner, according to people familiar with the matter. Hersch has been with J.P. Morgan since January 2006, when he joined as chairman of M&A from law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. Hersch [...]

One Solution to the Blackstone-ADS Tussle
Blackstone and Alliance Data Systems, which once threatened to end their deal, are back in couple’s counseling since Alliance Data dropped its lawsuit against the private equity firm. But can arbitrageurs – who have already been badly burned by this deal– be sure that this time the two bickering firms can make their $6.6 [...]

China: A Cure for the Private Equity Blues
China is again showing love to the U.S. private equity industry just when it could use a pick-me-up. China Investment Corp. is nearing a commitment to put $3 billion to $4 billion in a J.C. Flowers & Co. fund focusing on distressed financial institutions, as reported in today’s Journal. That comes even though CIC got [...]

Once Bitten, Twice Bitten? Banks Return to Subprime
The big-haired hard-rock band Motley Crue once sang of a toxic relationship, “Girl, don’t go away mad; girl, just go away.” You would think Wall Street would take the same approach to its own failed relationship with subprime mortgage lending. The investment banks have taken $100 billion in writedowns – and nearly as much in emergency [...]

The Perils of a Google-Yahoo Blocking Move
If Jerry Yang is seriously considering cutting some kind of deal with Google to stave off Microsoft, he’d better make sure he’s got a good stable of lawyers. “Google has more than 50% of the search advertising market,” says Gary Miller, a corporate attorney with Eckert Seamans in Philadelphia. “I can’t see the regulators allowing [...]

How Does Private Equity Say Relief: Romney’s Out
Mitt Romney suspended his quest for the presidency today after a feeble Super Tuesday showing. He announced his plans at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where he said, “I must now stand aside, for our party and our country.” He might have added, “and for the private equity industry.” Though a former buyout king in [...]

BHP Billiton: We Are Not the World
We hear a lot at Deal Journal about the wonders of the global economy: the rise of Dubai as a financial center, the growth of government investment funds, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group booking vast swaths of their revenue last year from clients outside the U.S. It makes for inspiring talk. So why is [...]

Breaking News: Busted ADS Deal Sends Hedge Fund Packing
There’s a new credit-card bill coming due from Alliance Data Systems. Tisbury Capital, a U.K.-based hedge fund that until recently has assets of as much as $2.5 billion, is shutting its U.S. arm, two people familiar with the matter tell Deal Journal. Tisbury’s U.S. operation, based in Boston, consisted of a dozen people. Tisbury, traditionally [...]