PEU Investors Profit on One Medical Sale to Amazon

Amazon will pay nearly $4 billion for One Medical which is 7% owned by The Carlyle Group.  In 2018 Carlyle made a significant minority investment in One Medical for up to $350 million and held nearly 27% of the company when it went public.  One Medical priced at the low end of the range in January 2020 at $14 per share.  

Cheddar News reported:

Several rounds of investment from the likes Google Ventures and The Carlyle Group lifted One Medical's value to nearly $2 billion over the last two years, but an ambitious and expensive growth plan pushed the company to go public.

Last summer One Medical bought Iora Healthcare which does Medicare Direct Contracting.  The Biden administration renamed Medicare Direct Contracting, calling it ACO Reach.  Essentially, patients get enrolled without their choosing to be under ACO Reach.  Their doctor decides for them.  One Medical and the participating physician make more money as the patient uses less healthcare.  Sometimes that comes from providers denying healthcare tests and/or procedures.  Yikes.

Jeff Bezos does not seem to mind his employees having to piss in a bottle rather than take time away from fulfilling orders.  It's efficiency and helps make products more accessible and affordable.  That's the same language One Medical's CEO used to describe the deal.

“There is an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers and payers. We look forward to innovating and expanding access to quality healthcare services, together.”

One Medical's CEO may make enough money from his holdings to take a trip into space where Jeff Bezos can have him also piss in a bottle.  Will innovation enable it to run an instant urinalysis? 

Politically connected private equity underwriters making huge returns from flipping healthcare companies is not bringing healthcare costs down.  I'm not sure denying needed care is enjoyable from a patient perspective.  

Update 10-25-23:  A Bono, Bezos, Gates company intended to revolutionize trucking may be going under.  Convoy will "shut down core business operations immediately while some staff would be retained to wind down operations and for potential future strategic options."  What does this portend for patients counting on OneMedical should it encounter financial troubles?

Conflicted Trump Endorses LIV Greed

Former President Donald Trump's Bedminster and Doral Golf Clubs will host LIV golf events.  His son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm Affinity Partners received billions from LIV's owner, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund headed by the murderous Saudi Crown Prince.  

Trump wrote on his social media site:

"All of those golfers that remain 'loyal' to the very disloyal PGA, in all of its different forms, will pay a big price when the inevitable MERGER with LIV comes, and you get nothing but a big 'thank you' from PGA officials who are making Millions of Dollars a year," Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. "If you don't take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were."

Ethically challenged Trump ignored a letter from families of 9/11 victims urging him to cancel the tournament, citing LIV Golf's Saudi ownership. 

 

Ethics are passe and no one declares conflicts of interest anymore.  Trump sells LIV Golf to his and his family's benefit.  Thugs win. 

 

Update 7-20-22:  The field for LIV Golf's Bedminister event is set with three open spots for new players willing to take dirty Saudi money.

Update 8-3-22:  One story got the mean greed vibe but did not explore the possible role of Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners in LIV Golf.  Is Jared coaching Affinity Partners' affiliate LIV Golf alongside former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer? The Trump team's disregard for the law can be seen in its Mafia-like behavior according to a former FBI official.

 

Update 8-16-22:  Bad leadership world wide means lots more opportunities to get one's undies in a wad and resort to violence.  Trump's undies have a quick wad trigger that unleashes his ceaseless retaliatory impulse.  

 

A Saudi woman studying at Leeds University was sentenced to 34 years in prison for using Twitter to follow and retweet activists and dissidents.  The World Economic Forum ran a piece on using AI to reign in abuse on the internet:

By bringing human-curated, multi-language, off-platform intelligence into learning sets, AI will then be able to detect nuanced, novel online abuses at scale, before they reach mainstream platforms.

I imagine the Crown Prince would be most interested in such technology. 

Update 8-17-22:  The Saudi Crown Prince already has such an app.  Someone "reported her on the Saudi app, which is called Kollona Amn, or We Are All Security."

Her alleged crimes including using a website to “cause public unrest” and “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and by retweeting their tweets.

The World Economic Forum welcomed the Saudi Crown Prince in 2018 and now appears to endorse something similar to his security app.  

 

Update 9-14-22:  Trump's Sterling, Virginia golf course will host LIV Golf in May 2023.  It will be the third LIV event at a Trump owned course. 

PEU Donations for 2022 Elections

 

The greed and leverage boys continue sponsoring politicians Red and Blue.  Elected officials continue to express their love for the billionaire class, which includes many private equity underwriting (PEU) founders.

Common Dreams illuminated how 27 billionaires bought the Red Team.  Policy making billionaires is not a new term.  It's just gotten more shameless.

Young Rubenstein Appointed to Alaska Permanent Fund Board

The Carlyle Group manages $825 million for the Alaska Permanent Fund and Alaska Governor Dunleavy appointed the daughter of Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein to the Permanent Fund board.

The Anchorage Press article states Gabrielle "Ellie" Rubenstein made her way to success with a little help from her father along the way.  Really?

How many 25 year olds have the financial chops to start an Alaskan private equity fund?  PensionsInvestments reported:

Her resume also includes being a co-founder of Pt Capital LLC, an Anchorage-based money manager and a founding investor of the Alaska Angel Investor Network.

Pt Capital was established in 2013 not terribly long after the younger Rubenstein had finished her three degrees (Harvard, Purdue and Indiana Universities).

Pt Capital's founding documents with the state of Alaska show her mother Alice Rogoff Rubenstein with a stake.  There's no mention of any daughter.

Ellie is co-founder and CEO of Colorado private equity underwriter Manna Tree Capital.  That sounds like a different state than Alaska.  Fundraising and deal sourcing take quite a bit of time and travel.  NewPrivateMarkets reported on Ellie's 323 day, eighteen country fundraising tour prior to the pandemic.  I'm sure the Governor knows plenty about his new PF trustee and her connections to power.

Declaring conflicts of interest is so passe.  Avoiding them altogether is not the way our PEU world works.  The PEU Rubenstein family knows this very well as Carlyle was established to mine that very thing.

Update 8-3-22:  A NYPo story on David Rubenstein mentions the family's Alaska ties from the Great Eskimo Tax Scam to Ellie's appointment to the Alaska Permanent Fund board. 

Update 1-4-23:  Chief Investment Officer reported:

“I’m as bearish on private equity as I have ever been in my career,” Marcus Frampton, CIO of the Alaska Permanent Fund (assets: $78 billion), told his board at a recent meeting, per news reports. “We haven’t seen the correction in private equity as we have in public markets.”

He added that PE has become increasingly expensive and that many PE asset valuations were too high and needed adjusting. The fund has been overweight PE, but he plans to reassess that allocation in coming months, perhaps reducing it by four percentage points.

Update 9-9-23:  David Rubenstein took PBS viewers to Alaska for a history lesson   No he didn't cover his role in the Great Eskimo Tax Scam or the many times he saved private equity's preferred "carried interest" taxation. 

Carlyle Bets on Increased Bankruptcies, Distressed Debt

Seeking Alpha reported:

Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) and Permira are among bidders for Reorg Research, a Warburg Pincus-backed firm that provides bankruptcy and distressed debt data, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The same piece mentioned Carlyle's monetization of Unison, a government supply chain and contract management software provider.  The pig is moving through the government purchasing python so it's likely a good time to offload Unison.

The feral bankruptcy/distressed debt hog is just starting to root around in Wall Street's once low interest rate garden.  How many corporate zombies will it unearth?  Reorg Research may keep track of that total. 

Carlyle knows growth markets and is ready to pile increased bankruptices/distressed debt on its PEU plate.

Youngkin Played Rare Game of PEUNGO

Virginia Governor and former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin doesn't want kids playing "privilege bingo."  Red Team Glenn benefited from his years at Carlyle, a private equity underwriter (PEU).  

Very few people get to play PEUNGO.  This rarefied air is reserved for truly privileged, mostly white PEU founders.  Many of these billionaires stepped back from their active role and now run family offices.  

Family offices hold $6 trillion in wealth, up 20 fold in the last twenty years.

The investable assets of ultra-high net worth individuals are expected to double in almost every part of the world by 2030.

As for justice, the purview of government FT reported:

Archegos Capital Management, the family office whose collapse last year gripped Wall Street, transferred shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars to a charitable foundation that became a financial “escape pod” for founder Bill Hwang, according to a civil lawsuit filed in New York.

Every student should play PEUNGO so they can understand the man in the Governor's Office.  It would be basic civics.

Politicians Red and Blue love PEU and increasingly, more are one.

Update 7-18-22:   The Guardian reported:

The 2022 Democratic primaries have seen a surge of white billionaires, ostensibly Democrats, throwing their weight – and their money – around to try to boost the fortunes of hand-picked, under-qualified white men running against candidates of color.

Nationals Are Potential PEU Club Deal

Former Carlyle Group executive Michael Kim may bid on the Washington Nationals.  Kim founded MBK Partners, an Asian focused private equity underwriter (PEU).

Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein has already been mentioned as a possible bidder for the team.  It could be a PEU club deal. 

VRS Buys More Carlyle Stock

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is just beginning to turn the Virginia budget toward his former peers, private equity underwriters (PEU).  It may start with a trickle and later turn into a torrent.

Ignore the diversions and watch the money flows in Youngkin's game of privilege yatchzee.

Rubenstein Fighting Two Busts: Crypto and PEU

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein is an investor in Paxos, a cryptocurrency service provider, and holds a giant stake in Carlyle despite selling shares recently.  

Institutional Risk Analyst reported:

"...the wreckage in the world of private equity is building into a mountain of disappointment that could easily rival the crypto bust. “Over 140 VC-backed companies that went public in the US since 2020 had market capitalizations as of mid-June that are less than the amount of venture funding they raised,” according to PitchBook News. Add some leverage to that analysis and the PE market is yet another surprise waiting to happen."

Noted investment professional George Noble has been hammering private equity for rich affiliate valuations, i.e. not marking them down to reflect current value.   

Cryptocurrencies and private equity underwriters (PEU) are the least deserving entities for public bailout, however saving David Rubenstein far outweighs any needs the common citizen might have.  Right Chairman Powell?

Update 7-7-22:  Carlyle Group COO Christopher Finn plans to retire at the end of the year.

Update 7-10-22:  Canadian pension funds are losing big on crypto.  How long before PEU markdowns add to those losses?

Wolf Street writes:

Stuff blows up because of leverage and cascades through the crypto space because everything’s interconnected.

Update 7-11-22:  CalPERS sold $6 billion of PEU holdings at a 10% discount.  CalPERS once owned a stake in Carlyle.   It plans to compete with the greed and leverage boys by buying companies directly.

Update 8-2-22:  A number of FDIC insured banks ran with the crypto devils and may go under as a result.  How this is remotely OK is a question one should ask David Rubenstein and his former employee Jerome Powell.

Update 11-6-22:  Nouriel Roubini wrote:

"The bubbles of private equity, property, venture capital and cryptocurrencies will burst now that the era of cheap money is over.

Update 11-8-22:  Crypto run at FTX causes sale of FTX's non U.S. business to Binance.

Update 11-10-22:  Bloomberg reported FTX with an $8 billion hole is careening toward bankruptcy.

Update 12-3-22:  FTX is bankrupt.  The head of BlackRock Inc. said most digital-asset firms won’t survive.

Update 12-11-22:   Rich young people put their money into crypto, real estate and private equity, the three bubbles.