The Cheney Observer
Cheney five times richer than Bush - financial reports
WASHINGTON, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is five time richer than his boss George Bush, the two officials' financial reports indicate.
In financial disclosure reports for 2006, President Bush put his assets at between $7.5-20 million, while Cheney estimated his net worth five times higher at $21-100 million. Bush biggest asset is his Texas ranch valued at $1-5 million, while Cheney has $10.5 mln in defense bonds, and $5.1 mln in other equities.
Cheney was also given more expensive gifts than Bush with an approximate value of $21,764 against Bush's $12,354.
The financial disclosure reports are mandatory for all U.S. lawmakers, but the information they give is on a voluntary basis and is a rough estimate of their wealth.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20070516/65551738.html
Thomson Agrees to Buy Reuters for 8.7 Billion Pounds (Update6)
By Mark Herlihy
May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Thomson Corp., owner of the Westlaw Legal database and TradeWeb bond-trading network, agreed to buy Reuters Group Plc for 8.7 billion pounds ($17.2 billion) to become the biggest financial news and information company.
Shareholders of London-based Reuters will get 691 pence in cash and stock for each share, the companies said today. That's 40 percent more than the price on May 3, the day before Reuters, the dominant service for trading currencies, said it was in takeover talks.
The acquisition of Reuters, the 156-year-old news organization that has grown to 2,400 journalists in 131 countries, will increase Toronto-based Thomson's sales to $11 billion and triple its share of the financial data market to 34 percent. Reuters stock rose to 629.5 pence, trading below the offer price on concern that antitrust regulators will block the deal.
Regulatory approval is ``the remaining key hurdle,'' said Anthony de Larrinaga, an analyst at Societe Generale in London. ``There's probably a 75 percent chance of the deal going through,'' he said.
Reuters shares rose as much as 3.9 percent, and traded at 624.25 pence at 12:15 p.m. in London. Shares of Thomson, a former owner of newspapers including the London-based Times, fell 38 cents, or 0.8 percent, to C$46.36 yesterday in Toronto.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akFLDzwyxBHk&refer=home
KKR, Carlyle join race for Thomson unit: source
Reuters
Published: Monday, April 23, 2007
LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Carlyle Group have joined the race for the text book publishing unit of Canada's Thomson Corp. , a source close to the matter said on Monday.
KKR declined to comment, while Carlyle and Thomson officials weren't immediately available for comment.
The two private equity firms are competing separately against Apax Partners , Warburg Pincus and a team comprising Blackstone Group , Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, the Times newspaper reported on Monday without citing sources, and adding that bids could come in around $3.5 billion.
Sources close to the process told Reuters in March that Bain, Blackstone and Thomas H. Lee -- former owners of Houghton Mifflin Co. -- were bidding for Thomson Learning.
Germany's Bertelsmann is also mulling teaming up with that bidding group, according to a separate Reuters source.
http://www.ignitelearning.com/contact.shtml
Neil Bush's Ignite! Inc., which develops educational software, is hoping to raise a second round in the near future, says Pamela Richardson, chief operating and strategic officer for Ignite! The company raised more than $5 million in first-round funding last year, she says.Richardson declined to name previous private investors, but documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate the company raised $7.1 million from 53 investors and is seeking $10 million in additional funding, according to online newsletter Private Equity Week, which covers private equity filings with SEC.Ignite!, whose offices are at 11044 Research Blvd. in Northwest Austin, is developing multimedia software that lets students in kindergarten through 12th grade learn standardized curricula based on individual learning methods.
No Child Left Behind: Neil Bush cashes in too
Neil Bush has a colorful history, including failed S&Ls, insider stock trading scandals, and well, general Bush family corruption.
We already know that Armstrong Williams received a handsome payday from the taxpayer for pimping No Child Left Behind for Bush, but Neil Bush benefits directly from No Child Left Behind, picking pockets in all school districts as his software company preps students for the standardized tests required by NCLB.
pamindurham's diary :: ::
Neil Bush founded Ignite Incorporated, a software company that helps students prepare to take comprehensive tests required under the No Child Left Behind act. A phone call by one of the readers of my blog to Ignite's toll free number reached a company directory that was able to locate Neil Bush's extension -- so it's still his baby with the dough rolling in.
Here's a little more info on Neil's profiteering down in Florida. This was back in 2002, before Armstrong Williams got to belly up to the taxpayer's bar: Governor's Brother Marketing School Software (FlaNews.com):
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/1/8/125556/7027
Carlyle's Way
Making a mint inside "the iron triangle" of defense, government and industry.December 11, 2001
Like everyone else in the United States, the group stood transfixed as the events of September 11 unfolded. Present were former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci, former secretary of state James Baker III, and representatives of the bin Laden family. This was not some underground presidential bunker or Central Intelligence Agency interrogation room. It was the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C., the plush setting for the annual investor conference of one of the most powerful, well-connected, and secretive companies in the world: the Carlyle Group. And since September 11, this little-known company has become unexpectedly important.
That the Carlyle Group had its conference on America's darkest day was mere coincidence, but there is nothing accidental about the cast of characters that this private-equity powerhouse has assembled in the 14 years since its founding. Among those associated with Carlyle are former U.S. president George Bush Sr., former U.K. prime minister John Major, and former president of the Philippines Fidel Ramos. And Carlyle has counted George Soros, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia, and Osama bin Laden's estranged family among its high-profile clientele. The group has been able to parlay its political clout into a lucrative buyout practice (in other words, purchasing struggling companies, turning them around, and selling them for huge profits)--everything from defense contractors to telecommunications and aerospace companies. It is a kind of ruthless investing made popular by the movie Wall Street, and any industry that relies heavily on government regulation is fair game for Carlyle's brand of access capitalism. Carlyle has established itself as the gatekeeper between private business interests and U.S. defense spending. And as the Carlyle investors watched the World Trade towers go down, the group's prospects went up.
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=6793&hed=Carlyle
The ex-presidents' club
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger
Wednesday October 31, 2001
The Guardian
It is hard to imagine an address closer to the heart of American power. The offices of the Carlyle Group are on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, midway between the White House and the Capitol building, and within a stone's throw of the headquarters of the FBI and numerous government departments. The address reflects Carlyle's position at the very centre of the Washington establishment, but amid the frenetic politicking that has occupied the higher reaches of that world in recent weeks, few have paid it much attention. Elsewhere, few have even heard of it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,583869,00.html
Meet The Carlyle Group
http://www.hereinreality.com/carlyle.html
The Carlyle Group
Telecom & Media
Carlyle’s global network of telecommunications and media investment professionals spans both venture and buyout opportunities in North America, Europe and Asia.
http://www.carlyle.com/eng/industry/l2-industry494.html
REUTERS
To its Kondor+ trading and risk management application, Reuters has added additional instrument classes, including structured products, exotic options and interest rate derivatives, and integrated the NumeriX financial libraries and templates, while users can now input their own instruments using the OpenTrade module. A new release of the Trade@ccess web front end for Kondor+ includes compatibility with Kondor Global Limits limits management application, which has a new risk engine for Monte Carlo simulation-based potential futures exposures, and a Basel II regulatory capital module. In early 2005, the company plans to introduce back-office capabilities to Kondor+.Contact: Karen Schuppe T: +33 1 47 62 65 40E: karen.schuppe@reuters.com
URL: www.reuters.com/risk
http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?page=risk_1204_sr_tech_software
Thomson acquires TradeWeb
Thomson has struck a deal to acquire electronic fixed income network TradeWeb for an initial $385 million in cash plus a three-year earn out of $150 million.
The transaction, which is expected to close later this quarter, had been widely trailed. It pits Thomson into direct competition with Bloomberg, the market leader in fixed income information delivery.
TradeWeb, which is owned by a consortium of eight leading investment banks, is one of the few success stories in the competitive electronic fixed income marketplace. More than $43 trillion in bond trades have been executed over the TradeWeb network since its inception in 1998.
The deal with Thomson coincides with the release of first quarter trading figures which show that institutional investors traded a record $5.4 trillion in fixed-income securities over the platform, up 42% from the same period last year and a 15% increase on the fourth quarter of 2003.
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=11606
Thomson TradeWeb Announces Entry into Retail Fixed-Income Markets; Newly Acquired LeverTrade is Re-branded TradeWeb Retail JERSEY CITY, NJ 07/17/2006
Thomson TradeWeb, the leading online marketplace for Fixed Income and Derivatives, and part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), today announced the strategic acquisition of LeverTrade LLC, formerly Global Trade Technologies (GTT), a provider of web-based fixed-income management systems for the retail marketplace. Through LeverTrade's retail fixed-income marketplace, financial advisors and retail representatives from leading firms search commingled inventory from over 30 broker-dealers and generate orders that flow to their internal trading desks. LeverTrade will be re-branded TradeWeb Retail.
http://www.thomson.com/content/pr/tf/tf_fixed_income/2006_07_17_TW_Acquires_LeverTrad
Thomson, owner of the Westlaw legal database and TradeWeb bond-trading network, plans to acquire Reuters, the dominant service for currency trading, in an £8.77bn deal that would create the biggest financial news and information company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/05/10/cxbloom10.xml
Thomson to Sell Learning Assets for $7.75 Billion (Update5)
By Cecile Daurat
May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Thomson Corp. agreed to sell its textbook and educational testing for $7.75 billion in cash to fund its $17.5 billion offer for Reuters Group Plc and create the biggest financial news and information company.
Apax Partners, a London-based buyout firm, and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System agreed to buy Thomson Learning and Nelson Canada, Thomson said today in a statement.
The sale, which fetched more than analysts predicted, would fund almost all the planned cash portion of the offer for Reuters. Thomson, owner of the Westlaw legal database and TradeWeb bond-trading network, this week offered 8.77 billion pounds in cash and stock for London-based Reuters, a news organization founded 156 years ago by Paul Julius Reuter that now spans 131 countries.
``It's a very good price: That augurs well for the Reuters bid,'' said John Kinsey, a fund manager at Caldwell Securities Ltd. in Toronto, which oversees $900 million, including Thomson shares. Kinsey expected as much as $6 billion for the unit.
Shares of Toronto-based Thomson had their biggest jump in four years as investors became more confident the Reuters offer could be financed. The shares advanced C$1.74, or 3.9 percent, to C$46.74 at 4:10 p.m. New York time on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen 3.4 percent this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=a6Nseuimqmg4
KKR, Carlyle join race for Thomson unit: source
ReutersPublished: Monday, April 23, 2007
LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Carlyle Group have joined the race for the text book publishing unit of Canada's Thomson Corp. , a source close to the matter said on Monday.
KKR declined to comment, while Carlyle and Thomson officials weren't immediately available for comment.
The two private equity firms are competing separately against Apax Partners , Warburg Pincus and a team comprising Blackstone Group , Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, the Times newspaper reported on Monday without citing sources, and adding that bids could come in around $3.5 billion.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=fd4b8ec3-96ac-483d-a9a5-0fae5f63443b&k=69601
Zodiac makes the boats that the Navy Seals use in their operations. Carlyle is clearly a Bush-based company that will give Neal Bush a global career, with aspirations to more political influence rather than simply providing products to a market as a 'contract bidder.'
If Carlyle takes over Thomson it will serve as a threat to the best interests of the American people. The political powerhouses have to be dismantled to remove the country from chronic war and oppressive Right Wing influence putting American assets into huge negative digits and American lives chronically in the hands of powerbrokers.
The USA is currently being run by defunct CEOs that want still another advantage to make the markets work for them when they should have been out of business a long time ago. Part of what makes people like Cheney marketable in the private sector are 'connections' made while in government. There needs to be legislation that inhibit this runaway train. The USA is becoming a power broker clearing house as well as the "Country without Financial Borders" as the world through outsourcing is it's oyster and an illegal invader into small sovereign countries. It no longer is serving the needs and best interests of the people of the USA with Republicans using it as a runaway train to profits.
Power brokers post elected office are a conflict of interest. Companies like Carlyle are putting the worst of the worst in power positions globally allowing pressure to demise companies long standing as reliable and important to equitable consumer interests. The American electorate needs to get it's mind around the destructive nature of this aspect of our reality. People like Moore help, but, when elections favor the Right Wing Republicans adverse realities occur to the people of the country. Post Columbine did we ever think there would continue to be a problem with gun violence in this country? And after 9-11-01 did we ever think we would be mired in an illegal war in Iraq so much as destorying al Qaeda and being the world's hero.
Private business is allowed in the USA under the Consitution but isn't a focus of loyality, it is an issue of regulation. Businesses exploit the freedoms that are supposed to be guaranteed to all of us when they seek power over government policy by having their own political dream teams elected yielding in favoritism profits rather than benevolent policy.
Boat maker being sold as part of deal
Stevensville - Zodiac of North America, a Stevensville-based inflatable boat manufacturer, could be purchased as part of a $1.5 billion deal with a global private equity firm.
The Carlyle Group plans to buy a majority stake in Paris-based Zodiac S.A., parent of the Queen Anne's County company. Under the deal, the Carlyle Group would purchase a new entity that combines Zodiac with Waterpik Technologies, a manufacturer of pool products that Carlyle bought from the company last year. The new entity would be called Zodiac Marine.
J.J. Marie, president and CEO of Zodiac of North America, said it's too early to say how the deal will affect the local shop and its 40 employees.
The Washington-based Carlyle Group, which also is a financial partner in the $250 million Park Place project in downtown Annapolis, would own 72 percent of the new entity. Zodiac would own 28 percent. The deal is expected to close in September.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/05_13-64/BUS
KKR, Carlyle join race for Thomson unit: source
ReutersPublished: Monday, April 23, 2007
LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Carlyle Group have joined the race for the text book publishing unit of Canada's Thomson Corp. , a source close to the matter said on Monday.
KKR declined to comment, while Carlyle and Thomson officials weren't immediately available for comment.
The two private equity firms are competing separately against Apax Partners , Warburg Pincus and a team comprising Blackstone Group , Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, the Times newspaper reported on Monday without citing sources, and adding that bids could come in around $3.5 billion....
...A merger of Harcourt and Thomson's education assets would create a larger rival to compete with major global players such as UK-based publishing group Pearson and McGraw Hill Cos Inc.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=fd4b8ec3-96ac-483d-a9a5-0fae5f63443b&k=69601
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