Well, that didn't last long
Last March, Mike Cavanagh stunned Wall Street by stepping down as co-CEO of corporate and investment banking with J.P. Morgan Chase, where he was considered by many to be the heir apparent to CEO Jamie Dimon, in order to join The Carlyle Group in a newly-created role of co-president. Now, just 14 months later, Cavanagh is on the move again, this time agreeing to join Comcast Corp. as chief financial officer (replacing Mike Angelakis, who is leading a new $4 billion investment platform for the cable giant). Cavanagh also had served as JPM's CFO at one point.
Sources familiar with the situation say that Cavanagh only made the decision last week, informing Carlyle on Friday. It does not appear that the firm has any plans to replace him, instead pushing forward with Glenn Youngkin as its sole president.
In Comcast's statement announcing the hire, Cavanagh said: "The opportunity to work closely with Brian and one of the best management teams I’ve come across in any industry was something I could not pass up. Carlyle is a great organization with a bright future."
In its own brief statement, a Carlyle spokesman said: “Mike is going from one great company to another. We have a deep bench of talent.”
Two additional notes on this:
1. Paid out: According to Carlyle's most recent annual report, Cavanagh received a $5 million cash bonus last year from Carlyle (far more than anyone else at the firm). He also received just under $10 million in "make-whole" payments (leaving around 2/3 of the total package on the table), more than $300k in salary and was slated to receive over $500k in executive incentive program payments just 11 days ago. It's possible that Carlyle put some sort of clawbacks on the money, but it doesn't appear to have done so.
2. Succession planning pox: Speaking of the executive incentive program, it's worth noting that two of its five participants have now left Carlyle: Cavanagh and CFO Adena Friedman, who left last May after three years in order to rejoin NASDAQ (for a co-president role that is expected to lead to the CEO spot). Yes, the firm has a "deep bench." But Cavanagh and Friedman were supposed to be part of Carlyle's next generation of leadership -- so important that Carlyle created an entire financial structure to help keep them on board.
I am willing to believe these are one-offs rather than reflections of some sort of structural trouble -- Friedman returning "home," Cavanagh perhaps preferring giant company life -- although it doesn't change the fact that things are not going how Carlyle's co-founders had intended.
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THE BIG DEAL
• DTZ, a global commercial real estate services firm backed by TPG Capital, has agreed to acquire Cushman & Wakefield, a New York-based commercial real estate services firm, for around $2 billion. Cushman & Wakefield’s controlling Agnelli family had put the company on the block earlier this year, in a process managed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. www.dtz.com
VENTURE CAPITAL DEALS
• Uber is in “early talks” to raise $1.5 billion in new funding at a valuation of $50 billion or more, according to Bloomberg. www.uber.com
• Joule, a Bedford, Mass.-based developer of technology to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol, has raised $40 million in new equity and debt financing led by return backer Flagship Ventures. www.jouleunlimited.com
• Precision BioSciences, a Durham, N.C.-based genome editing company, has raised $25.6 million in Series A funding. VenBio led the round, and was joined by Fidelity Biosciences, Amgen Ventures, Baxter Ventures, Osage University Partners, the Longevity Fund and “two well-known public market investors.” www.precisionbiosciences.com
• ItBit, a New York-based global bitcoin exchange, has raised $25 million in new VC funding. Jim Pallotta was joined by return backers RRE Ventures, Liberty City Ventures and Jay Jordan II. www.itbit.com
• Cartiva Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga-based developer of products for the treatment of cartilage injuries and osteoarthritis, has raised $8.5 million in Series D funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round, and was joined by Windham Ventures Partners. www.cartiva.net
• CrediFi, a provider of big data and analytics to the commercial real estate finance sector, has raised $8 million in new VC funding. Battery Ventures led the round, and was joined by Carmel Ventures and OurCrowd. The company has dual headquarters in New York and Israel.
• aCommerce, a Thai provider of e-commerce logistics and services, has raised $5 million in new VC funding from return backers Ardent Capital, Simarmas and Inspire Ventures. Read more.
• Sky-Futures, a UK-based provider of drones for surveying oil rigs and gas pipelines, has raised £2.5 million in Series A funding from MMC Ventures. Read more.
• Wag, a Los Angeles-based on-demand dog-walking services, has raised $2.45 million in seed funding. Freestyle Capital led the round, and was joined by Greylock, Crunchfund, Slow Ventures, Social Leverage and RRE Ventures. www.wagwalking.com
• Bulu Box, a Lincoln, Neb.-based online retailer of health, nutrition and weight loss products, has raised $1.5 million in new VC funding. Flyover Capital led the round, and was joined by Dundee Venture Capital and Triompf. www.bulubox.com
• Eve, a London-based mattress e-commerce startup, has raised £600,000 in seed funding. Backers include Octopus Investments, DN Capital and FJ Labs. www.evemattess.co.uk
• Recoleta Digital Media, a Tucson, Ariz.-based provider of “digitally-driven” personalized grocery circulars, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A-2 funding from Desert Angels and Arizona Tech Investors. www.recoletadigitalmedia.com
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
• ABRY Partners has acquired Compusearch Software Systems Inc., a Dulles, Va.–based provider of acquisition and program management software to government agencies, from Arlington Capital Partners and JMI Equity. No financial terms were disclosed. www.compusearch.com
• H-D Advanced Manufacturing Co. has acquired Precision Aero Corp., a Kirkland, Wash.–based manufacturer of high-precision machined products for the aerospace industry. No financial terms were disclosed. H-D is a Pittsburgh-based portfolio company of The Riverside Co., Hicks Equity Partners and Weinberg Capital Group. www.precision-aerospace.com
• Platinum Equity has completed its previously-announced acquisition of PrimeSource Building Products Inc., an Irving, Texas-based building materials distributor, from ITOCHU Corp. (Tokyo: 8001). No financial terms were disclosed. www.primesourcebp.com
• Rural American Fund has invested in Aquatrols Corporation of America, a Paulsboro, N.J.–based provider of soil surfactant. No financial terms were disclosed. www.aquatrols.com
• The Salford Group, an Ontario-based portfolio company of GenNx360 Capital Partners, has acquired Valmar Airflo Inc., a Manitoba-based maker of seeding and granular application equipment for the agricultural industry. No financial terms were disclosed. www.salfordmachine.com
IPOs
• Baozun Inc., a Chinese brand e-commerce solutions provider, has set its IPO terms to 11 million shares being offered at between $12 and $14 per share. It would have a fully diluted market cap of around $704 million, were it to price in the middle of its range. The company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol BZUN, while Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and BofA Merrill Lynch are serving as lead underwriters. It reports a $9.6 million net loss on $255 million in revenue for 2014. Shareholders include Alibaba (23.5% pre-IPO stake). www.baozun.com
• Zoosk, a San Francisco-based online dating platform, has withdrawn registration for a $100 million IPO, due to “market conditions.” The company had planned to trade on the NYSE, with BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and RBC Capital Markets serving as lead underwriters. It has raised over $60 million in VC funding from Canaan Partners (32.4% pre-IPO stake), ATA Ventures (17%), Bessemer Venture Partners (16.3%), Amidzad Partners, Crosslink Capital and Keating Capital. For more on the company’s recent struggles and turnaround efforts, please go here.
EXITS
• Imperial Capital Group is seeking a buyer for Beefeaters, a North Bergen, N.J.–based pet snack maker, according to Dow Jones. www.beefeaters.com
• J.C. Flowers & Co. has hired Deutsche Bank to explore strategic options, including an IPO or sale, of Dresher, Penn.–based retirement plan provider Ascensus Inc., according to peHUB. Read more.
• KPS Capital Partners has agreed to sell WWRD, a group of luxury home and lifestyle brands that include Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Rogaška, to Fiskars Corp. (Helsinki: FIS1V). The deal is valued at $437 million. www.kpsfund.com
• Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity has sold its majority stake in Creative Circle, a Los Angeles-based professional staffing firm for advertising and marketing talent, to On Assignment Inc. (NYSE: ASGN) for upwards of $600 million (including a $30m earn-out). www.creativecircle.com
• Tribeca Asset Management, a Colombian private equity firm, has sold its 40% stake in Bogota Beer Co. to AmBev for an undisclosed amount. www.bogotabeercompany.com
• The Watermill Group has sold Global Tubes, precision metal tubing, to AMETEK Inc. (NYSE: AME) for approximately $200 million. www.watermill.com
OTHER DEALS
• Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) has acquired more than a 9% stake in Seattle-based e-commerce company Zulily (Nasdaq: ZU). Read more.
• Fosun International (HK: 656) is planning to raise around $1 billion via a new share sale that would be used to finance insurance industry acquisitions. Read more.
• Grindr, a Los Angeles-based dating app for gay men, has hired Raine Group to advise on a possible sale, according to Bloomberg. Read more.
• Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) may increase its takeover off for Swiss agribusiness Syngenta AG (Swiss: SYN), which last week rejected an unsolicited $45 billion approach, according to Reuters. Read more.
• Visa (NYSE: V) is in preliminary talks to buy former subsidiary Visa Europe in a deal that could be valued at upwards of $20 billion, according to Bloomberg. Read more.
FIRMS & FUNDS
• Rocketship.vc, an early-stage VC firm that leverages data science, is raising up to $25 million for its first fund, according to a regulatory filing. www.rocketship.vc
MOVING IN, UP, ON & OUT
• Robert Kaufman has joined FTV Capital as VP of communications and investor relations. He previously led investor relations for The JGB Cos. and, before that, worked in IR for Hellman & Friedman. www.ftvcapital.com
• Ganapathy Subramaniam, CEO of Cosmic Circuits Pvt Ltd., has joined VC firm Walden International as a venture partner. www.waldenintl.com
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