The Anatomy of Public Corruption

Showing posts with label Anthrax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anthrax. Show all posts

The Flawed Anthrax Investigation

PCB10019 The Anthrax Investigation

Bennett Customer

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Pete Bennett a resident of Contra Costa County since 1978 has left numerous requests for police reports. Behind Bennett is a meter reader, a Walnut Creek Police Car and the boot of an officer while he lay bleeding in the street. Bennett was taken to Kaiser for scans when did get the skull fracture, then she noticed the broken collar bone, then the rotator cuff, then she noticed this was the first assualt case based on my charts.

The Titan's Feel Good Story Bennett Public Poison Allegations HEAD of the FBI’s Anthrax Investigation Says the Whole Thing Was a SHAM Posted on The FBI head agent in charge of the anthrax investigation – Richard Lambert – has just filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit calling the entire FBI investigation bullsh!t: In the fall of 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, a series of anthrax mailings occurred which killed five Americans and sickened 17 others. Four anthrax-laden envelopes were recovered which were addressed to two news media outlets in New York City (the New York Post and Tom Brokaw at NBC) and two senators in Washington D.C. (Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle). The anthrax letters addressed to New York were mailed on September 18, 2001, just seven days after the 9/11 attacks. The letters addressed to the senators were mailed 21 days later on October 9, 2001. A fifth mailing of anthrax is believed to have been directed to American Media, Inc. (AMI) in Boca Raton, Florida based upon the death of one AMI employee from anthrax poisoning and heavy spore contamination in the building. Pete Bennett said "POISON" publicly Less than four days later my The Strack Family (Mormon) (Bennett relatives) were murdered in Springville UT. The COD was poison, methadone and cold medicine (codeine). There are stolen trust documents linked to this murder are with Alamo 1st Members linked to my former Employer Ivory Consulting , whose clients include GE Capital, Caterpillar and other companies that require leasing solutions. Chris took all my files with the help of the Mormon Church which economically devastated me financially. What I'm saying today will end up in a RICO lawsuit just Mr. Lambert's allegations which mirror my separate story. My former employer assisted with abducting, then brainwashing my sons into the Mormon Church.

When uncorvring a long list of suicides, accidents and fires near these people it was clear they are experts thieves. Alice Roberts estate was plundered by David Nearon is one of many examples. Exonerating Evidence for Ivins Agent Lambert won’t publicly disclose the exculpatory evidence against Ivins. As the New York Times reports : [Lambert] declined to be specific, saying that most of the information was protected by the Privacy Act and was unlikely to become public unless Congress carried out its own inquiry. But there is already plenty of exculpatory evidence in the public record. For example : Handwriting analysis failed to link the anthrax letters to known writing samples from Ivins No textile fibers were found in Ivins’ office, residence or vehicles matching fibers found on the scotch tape used to seal the envelopes No pens were found matching the ink used to address the envelopes Samples of his hair failed to match hair follicles found inside the Princeton, N.J., mailbox used to mail the letters No souvenirs of the crime, such as newspaper clippings, were found in his possession as commonly seen in serial murder cases

The FBI could not place Ivins at the crime scene with evidence, such as gas station or other receipts, at the time the letters were mailed in September and October 2001 Lab records show the number of late nights Ivins put in at the lab first spiked in August 2001, weeks before the 9/11 attacks As noted above, the FBI didn’t want to test the DNA sample found on the anthrax letter to Senator Leahy. In addition, McClatchy points out : After locking in on Ivins in 2007, the bureau stopped searching for a match to a unique genetic bacterial strain scientists had found in the anthrax that was mailed to the Post and to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, although a senior bureau official had characterized it as the hottest clue to date.

Anthrax vaccine expert Meryl Nass. M.D., notes : The FBI’s alleged motive is bogus. In 2001, Bioport’s anthrax vaccine could not be (legally) relicensed due to potency failures, and its impending demise provided room for Ivins’ newer anthrax vaccines to fill the gap. Ivins had nothing to do with developing Bioport’s vaccine, although in addition to his duties working on newer vaccines, he was charged with assisting Bioport to get through licensure. *** The FBI report claims the anthrax letters envelopes were sold in Frederick, Md. Later it admits that millions of indistinguishable envelopes were made, with sales in Maryland and Virginia. *** FBI emphasizes Ivins’ access to a photocopy machine, but fails to mention it was not the machine from which the notes that accompanied the spores were printed.

FBI Fudged the Science 16 government labs had access to the same strain of anthrax as used in the anthrax letters. The FBI admitted that up to 400 people had access to flask of anthrax in Dr. Ivins’ lab. In other words, even if the killer anthrax came from there, 399 other people might have done it. Moreover, even the FBI’s claim that the killer anthrax came from Ivins’ flask has completely fallen apart. Specifically, both the National Academy of Science and the Government Accountability Office – both extremely prestigious, nonpartisan agencies – found that FBI’s methodology and procedures for purportedly linking the anthrax flask maintained by Dr. Ivins with the anthrax letters was sloppy, inconclusive and full of holes . They found that the alleged link wasn’t very strong … and that there was no firm link . Indeed, the National Academy of Sciences found that the anthrax mailed to Congressmen and the media could have come from a different source altogether than the flask maintained by Ivins. Additionally, the Ft. Detrick facility – where Ivins worked – only handled liquid anthrax. But the killer anthrax was a hard-to-make dry powder form of anthrax.

Ft. Detrick doesn’t produce dry anthrax; but other government labs – for example Dugway (in Utah) and Batelle (in Ohio) – do. The anthrax in the letters was also incredibly finely ground; and the FBI’s explanation for how the anthrax became so finely ground doesn’t even pass the smell test Further, the killer anthrax in the letters had a very high-tech anti-static coating so that the anthrax sample "floated off the glass slide and was lost" when scientists tried to examine it. Specifically, the killer anthrax was coated with polyglass and each anthrax spore given an electrostatic charge , so that it would repel other spores and "float". This was very advanced bio-weapons technology to which even Ivins’ bosses said he didn’t have access. Top anthrax experts like Richard Spertzel say that Ivins didn’t do it. Spertzel also says that only 4 or 5 people in the entire country knew how to make anthrax of the "quality" used in the letters, that Spertzel was one of them, and it would have taken him a year with a full lab and a staff of helpers to do it. As such, the FBI’s claim that Ivins did it alone working a few nights is ludicrous. Moreover, the killer anthrax contained silicon … but the anthrax in Ivins’ flask did not . The FBI claimed the silicon present in the anthrax letters was absorbed from its surroundings … but Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories completely debunked that theory. In other words, silicon was intentionally added to the killer anthrax to make it more potent. Ivins and Ft. Detrick didn’t have that capability … but other government labs did .

Similarly, Sandia National Lab found the presence of iron and tin in the killer anthrax … but NOT in Ivins’ flask of anthrax. Sandia also found that there was a strain of bacteria in one of the anthrax letters not present in Ivins’ flask. (The bacteria, iron, tin and silicon were all additives which made the anthrax in the letters more deadly.) The Anthrax Frame Up Ivins wasn’t the first person framed for the anthrax attacks … Although the FBI now admits that the 2001 anthrax attacks were carried out by one or more U.S. government scientists, a senior FBI official says that the FBI was actually told to blame the Anthrax attacks on Al Qaeda by White House officials (remember what the anthrax letters looked like ). Government officials also confirm that the white House tried to link the anthrax to Iraq as a justification for regime change in that country. And see this People don’t remember now, but the "war on terror" and Iraq war were largely based on the claim that Saddam and Muslim extremists were behind the anthrax attacks (and see this and this ) And the anthrax letters pushed a terrified Congress into approving the Patriot Act without even reading it .

Coincidentally, the only Congressmen who received anthrax letters were the ones who were likely to oppose the Patriot Act . And – between the bogus Al Qaeda/Iraq claims and the FBI’s fingering of Ivins as the killer – the FBI was convinced that another U.S. government scientist, Steven Hatfill, did it. The government had to pay Hatfill $4.6 million to settle his lawsuit for being falsely accused. Ivins’ Convenient Death It is convenient for the FBI that Ivins died.

The Wall Street Journal points out : No autopsy was performed [on Ivins], and there was no suicide note. Dr. Nass points out : FBI fails to provide any discussion of why no autopsy was performed, nor why, with Ivins under 24/7 surveillance from the house next door, Garbage being combed through, the FBI failed to notice that he overdosed and went into a coma. Nor is there any discussion of why the FBI didn’t immediately identify tylenol as the overdose substance, and notify the hospital, A well-known antidote for tylenol toxicity could be given (N-acetyl cysteine, or alternatively glutathione). These omissions support the suggestion that Ivins’ suicide was a convenience for the FBI. It enabled them to conclude the anthrax case, in the absence of evidence that would satisfy the courts. Indeed, one of Ivins’ colleagues at Ft. Deitrich thinks he was murdered . Whether murder or suicide, Ivins’ death was very convenient for the FBI, as dead men can’t easily defend themselves.

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The Doc's Pharmacy Murder Case was dry run for Anthrax - Ask Fremont Group Attorney Rick Kopf

The Doc's Pharmacy Murder Case

The Deliberately Overlooked Local Connections to the Anthrax Investigation.

Steve Burd was CEO in charge of Safeway Stores

How does a Pharmacist get hired while simultaneously involved in Quasi Murder Investigation to be hired at the Safeway at 600 S. Broadway Walnut Creek Not many Safeway Pharmacists commit suicide with over 25 Morphine patches plus let me know if you can any shred of Mr. Sheets death records.  

Read about how Contra Costa Disctrict Attorney Mark Peterson was convicted, removed from office connects to former Southern Pacific Attorney Rick Kopf who moved to Fremont Group.  Learn about the Bin Laden and President Bush connection to 9/11.

This story begs for a DEA Records Review of their pharmacy procedures as the Strack Family of Springville Utah are distant nephews of Pete Bennett who allegations of drugging were repeatedly ignored by Contra Costa Law Enforcement.   









Party Name






Type






Case Name






Category






Case Number








Filed






SHEETS, JAMES


DEFENDANT


MORTAROTTI VS DOC'S PHARMACY


PRODUCT LIABILITY



CIVMSC01-02418



06/19/2001


SHEETS, JAMEY


DEFENDANT


MORTAROTTI VS DOC'S PHARMACY


PRODUCT LIABILITY



CIVMSC01-02418



06/19/2001


SHEETS, JAMEY PHILLIP


DEFENDANT


MORTAROTTI VS DOC'S PHARMACY


PRODUCT LIABILITY



CIVMSC01-02418



06/19/2001


SHEETS, JAMES


DEFENDANT


WRIGHT VS DOC'S PHARMACY


PRODUCT LIABILITY



CIVMSC01-04172



10/17/2001


SHEETS, JAMEY


DEFENDANT


GATTI VS DOCS PHARMACY


PRODUCT LIABILITY



CIVMSC01-04992



12/07/2001


SHEETS, JAMEY PHILLIP


DEFENDANT


ABRUZZINI VS. DOC'S PHARMACY


PRODUCT LIABILITY



CIVMSC02-01385



05/07/2002






Viewed


Date


Action Text


Disposition


Image




12/13/2012 5:05 PM DEPT. 09


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT WAS CHANGED FROM 17 TO 09.


Not Applicable






01/10/2010 2:40 PM DEPT. 17


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT WAS CHANGED FROM 06 TO 17.


Not Applicable






12/22/2008 4:56 PM DEPT. 06


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT WAS CHANGED FROM 07 TO 06.


Not Applicable






08/25/2008 11:14 AM DEPT. 07


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT WAS CHANGED FROM 06 TO 07.


Not Applicable






07/24/2006 5:09 PM DEPT. 06


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT WAS CHANGED FROM 05 TO 06.


Not Applicable






01/01/2004 11:11 AM DEPT. 05


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT WAS CHANGED FROM 06 TO 05.


Not Applicable






04/24/2002 8:30 AM DEPT. 19


CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE


VACATED






02/19/2002 7:00 AM DEPT. 19


CHECK FOR PROOF OF SERVICE


VACATED






01/23/2002


ACTIONS CONSOLIDATED WITH MASTER CASE CIV/MSC01-02418


Not Applicable






01/23/2002


THIS CASE CONSOLIDATED WITH MASTER CASE C01-02418


Not Applicable






01/23/2002


ORDER FOR CONSOLIDATION


Not Applicable






01/23/2002


CLERK`S CERTIFICATE OF MAILING OF ORDER FOR CONSOLIDATION
SENT TO ALL PARTIES


Not Applicable






01/08/2002 10:00 AM DEPT. 06


FURTHER CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE


VACATED






12/11/2001


FURTHER CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE WAS SET FOR 12/11/01 AT
9:30 IN DEPT. 06








12/11/2001


DEFAULT DEPARTMENT CHANGED TO 06








12/11/2001 9:30 AM DEPT. 06


FURTHER CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE -

Minutes



Complete






12/07/2001


CLERK`S TICKLER TO CHECK FOR PROOF OF SERVICE WAS SET FOR
2/19/02 AT 7:00 IN DEPT. 19








12/07/2001


CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE WAS SET FOR 4/24/02 AT 8:30 IN
DEPT. 19








12/07/2001


COLOR OF FILE IS PINK


Not Applicable






12/07/2001


CASE ENTRY COMPLETE


Not Applicable






12/07/2001


CASE HAS BEEN ASSIGNED TO DEPT. 19








12/07/2001


COMPLAINT FILED. SUMMONS IS ISSUED


Not Applicable





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July 1997 3 Employees Killed At D.C. Starbucks Solved

Connecting Success Factors to Bennett

The Dubious Phone Call and Time Wasting Project
The folks at TPG will have to answer to my Whistleblower Complaints on the truly odd collection of RFPs emanating from companies connected to Richard Blum, William McGlashan, CBRE, Regency Centers, Trammel Crow, Lennar, Catellus.

My story is about witness murders, private equity, mergers and acquisitions linked back to the Matter of Bennett v. Southern Pacific lost in 1989.  It was a winnable case as long the witnesses testified.  
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3 Employees Killed At D.C. Starbucks
By Steve Vogel and Cheryl W. ThompsonWashington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 8, 1997; Page A01
Three employees of a Starbucks coffee store near Georgetown were found brutally slain yesterday morning, sending shock waves through a community generally immune from such violence.
The bodies of night manager Mary Caitrin Mahoney, 25, Emory Allen Evans, 25, and Aaron David Goodrich, 18, were found at 5:15 a.m. in a back room of the store at 1810 Wisconsin Ave. NW, in Burleith, just north of Georgetown, police said. An employee arriving for work found the bodies. All three had been shot several times.
The distraught employee ran from the store and flagged down a passing Metro bus, screaming that people had been shot, according to a police supervisor. The driver of the bus notified police.
Evans started working at the store part time about three weeks ago, and Goodrich had been hired several months ago, friends and relatives said.
No money was taken from the store, police said.
A police source at the scene said detectives were working "a solid lead" and examining whether a former employee might be involved. "We are definitely checking that out," he said.
In response to the slayings, an official for Starbucks announced that security guards have been added to several local stores for an indefinite period.
Police believe the slayings took place about the time the store closed at 8 p.m. Sunday. Several bullet casings were recovered at the scene but no weapon was found, according to a homicide detective.
Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive of Starbucks Coffee Co., the Seattle-based chain, broke off a vacation and flew to Washington on a chartered jet, said Dean Torrenga, Starbucks regional director for the mid-Atlantic region. Schultz met with employees from the Wisconsin Avenue store. He is planning to remain in the area indefinitely.
Starbucks has 62 stores in the Washington area, including 10 in the city, said company spokesman David Schwab. The Wisconsin Avenue store has been open since the summer of 1994.
The slayings were the first for the chain, which has more than 1,200 locations around the world, Torrenga said.
D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) described the killings as "horrible."
"To have a triple homicide anywhere in the District of Columbia is an unusual event," said Evans, who represents the Georgetown area on the council. "To have a triple homicide in Georgetown is extraordinary. Georgetown has never been a place where crime has been a problem."
Jim Mauro, a resident of the Burleith neighborhood and a daily visitor to Starbucks, said the lights to the store were on when he passed by about 10 p.m. Sunday.
"I remember remarking that they were still open, and I was surprised," he said, adding that the store typically is dark after 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Homicide detectives and crime technicians pored over the scene for hours after the bodies were found, working inside and outside the building adorned with the familiar green-and-black Starbucks logo. They dusted doors for fingerprints, searched the store and talked with residents, hoping to piece together what happened.
A dozen blue-uniformed police recruits were bused to the scene yesterday morning to look for evidence outside the split-level, brown brick store.

Mahoney's silver 1994 Saturn sat alone in the parking lot adjacent to Starbucks, where she had left it the day before. The only possible indication that something had gone awry was a flat tire on the front passenger side of the car. Inside, the car was spotless, save for what looked like signs that Mahoney had recently spent time playing with a pet – a dirty tennis ball, a plastic chew toy, a dog's brush and a red towel.

Mahoney's grandmother had recently bought the car for her so she would be safer in the city.
"She was brave," her mother, Mary Belle Annenberg, said during a telephone interview from the family's home in Baltimore. "She did not want to live [her life] afraid."
As a young girl, Mahoney would check for the "bogyman" to make sure it was safe for her older brother, Patrick, to go upstairs to his bedroom.
While a high school student at McDonogh Preparatory School in Pikesville, Md., she traveled to the Soviet Union as a foreign exchange student.
And when she moved to Washington several years ago, she would jog alone an hour before daybreak, never worrying about being attacked or assaulted.
"Caity was special," her mother said. "She had an enormous heart. She probably would have compassion for the person who killed her."
Mahoney, who lived in Northwest Washington, was the youngest of three children and was looking forward to celebrating her 26th birthday July 22. She adored animals, particularly horses, and even took in Marlu, her sister Molly's toothless black-and-white alley cat.
Mahoney attended Fordham University and Ithaca College in New York before graduating with honors from Towson State University, near Baltimore. A loyal and active Democrat, she interned for President Clinton when he was first elected, arranging tours at the White House, her mother said.
But it was her managerial job at Starbucks that really excited her, her family said. She had been employed by the company for two years and enjoyed being the manager. She was often seen sweeping the sidewalk in front of the store.
What she didn't enjoy, though, was disciplining employees, her mother said, particularly one Mahoney recently dismissed for allegedly stealing several hundred dollars.
"She struggled with the issue before having to fire him," her mother said.
Last month, Mahoney was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her brother, and she spent the Fourth of July watching fireworks with her family in Baltimore.
"I hugged her goodbye," said her stepfather, Barnet Annenberg, who had raised Mahoney since she was 6 years old. "That was the last time I saw her.
"That's a heck of a way for a kid to go out of this world. She wasn't even in the prime of her life yet."
Emory Evans, who lived in Northeast Washington, worked part time at Starbucks. He was hired three weeks ago and had hoped to save enough money to attend Howard University, where he wanted to major in music.
"When he didn't come home from work [Sunday night], I got worried," said his father, David. "And then I heard about the shootings and I knew something was wrong. It turned out to be my son."
The six-foot-tall Evans, an only child, moved to Washington about 18 months ago from New Jersey. He was a graduate of Vineland (N.J.) High School and loved playing the horn.
"He was trying to do the right thing," his father said. "He was a very nice kid who was just trying to make extra money."
Aaron Goodrich, 18, was described as a "nice young man" by the people who worked in the building in Northwest Washington where he shared an apartment with his father, Larry.
"They're very close," said Marge Kelsey, a family friend. "He's just unbelievably proud of his son."
The father and son recently returned from a beach vacation, Kelsey said. And it was the youth's father who helped him get the Starbucks job several months ago, she said.
"His son meant everything to him," Kelsey said.
Two Starbucks employees who arrived at the store yesterday morning wept from across the street as the first body was loaded into the D.C. medical examiner's van.
Jillian Newton worked the noon-to-5 shift Sunday at Starbucks. She said Sunday is usually one of the store's busiest days.
"Throughout the day, there were probably 10 people working, and there are always three people who close the store," Newton said.
Wisconsin Avenue, normally a bustling commuter route, was closed in both directions at R and 34th streets until nearly noon yesterday as police continued their investigation. The Metro bus flagged down by the Starbucks employee sat on the street throughout the morning.
Rebecca Sinderbrand, the advisory neighborhood commissioner for the Burleith neighborhood, said she was a frequent customer at the coffee shop.
"It is a great meeting place," said the 20-year-old Georgetown University student. "Everyone knows Starbucks. I'd meet people there for ANC business or whatever."
The 1800 block of Wisconsin includes a variety of shops, including hair salons and a pottery store. Although there is continual pedestrian and car traffic, the block is fairly quiet on Sunday evenings, neighbors said.
There is normally little crime in the area, although there was a spate of armed robberies last summer, police said.
Several businesses were open when the Starbucks closed Sunday evening, including a Safeway food store and a bagel shop across the street.
The Starbucks store is popular both with residents of upper Georgetown as well as drivers on Wisconsin Avenue.
"They get a big crowd in the morning," Mauro said. "A lot of people commuting stop in. This is very, very sad stuff."
Staff writers Janina de Guzman, Jennifer Ordon~ez and Linda Wheeler contributed to this report.

© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
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Connecting The Dubious 1989 Safeway Richmond Warehouse - A perfectly timed loss for the investors

SAFEWAY CONSIDERS CALIF. WAREHOUSE SITE

Safeway Stores Inc. continues to mull Tracy, Calif., as the site for a new dry grocery distribution warehouse.

The supermarket giant needs a new dry grocery storage facility to replace its huge Richmond, Calif., warehouse, which burned to the ground last July. That facility, which was the size of nine football fields, was the largest of five facilities making up Safeway's Richmond distribution center.Safeway has until April to exercise an option to buy 180 acres on land in southwest Tracy from Union Pacific Realty Corp., according to sources.

Reportedly, Oakland, Calif.-based Safeway desires an additional 60 acres of Tracy land owned by another company, ostensibly for employee parking.

But observers noted the extra acreage at the Tracy site, about 60 miles southeast of Richmond, would be roomy enough for Safeway to build additional facilities. Richmond is a suburb of San Francisco, where Safeway stores are

concentrated.

Recently, a consultant recommended Safeway either build a grocery warehouse at a new location or create a new distribution complex at a new location.

The consultant, Cleveland Consulting Associates, recommended several locations, including Tracy and other existing Safeway facilities as potential new warehouse sites.

Safeway officials declined to disclose the company's plans other than to say an exhaustive traffic study is under way in the Tracy area.

But because land also is available for expansion at Sacramento, Deborah Lambert, a spokesman for Safeway in San Francisco, said, "We're also looking at expanding the Transco site."

Since the blaze, dry grocery products for most of Safeway's northern California stores have been supplied from a public warehouse operated by Transco Services in Sacramento, 90 miles away from Richmond.

Safeway officials have said the company requires "much more" than the 500,000 square foot storage space the company had at its Richmond warehouse.

Observers noted the company might be shy about its plans because of worries about angering its labor unions. Safeway furloughed personnel from its Richmond warehouse following the fire.

Both Southern Pacific and Union Pacific serve Tracy and officials from both carriers have talked with Safeway. But neither carrier cared to discuss specific traffic plans, citing sensitivity of negotiations.

SP has a 12-track switching yard at Tracy while UP's main line runs through the town to its yard at Stockton, 20 miles away.

Safeway's tentative plans at Tracy call for a 100-foot high facility with 1 million square feet of storage space, according to Don Simpson, vice chairman of the Tracy Chamber of Commerce's economic development commission.

If built, he said, the new facility would employ between 1,200 to 1,500 people.

Such a warehouse would more than replace Safeway's Richmond dry grocery center, the main dry grocery distribution center for its northern California division stores.

But any new facility would not be ready until 1991 at the earliest, according to Robert Bradford, a Safeway spokesman in Oakland.

The Richmond complex still has four facilities in operation, all handling fresh produce and meat products.

An official at Transco, who declined to be identified, said the Sacramento facility's volume "more than doubled" following the July blaze at Richmond. Transco's facility is a former Safeway warehouse.

Safeway decided not to rebuild at Richmond after a study conducted by CCA determined such a move wasn't economical.

The company has said rebuilding the Richmond grocery warehouse would involve the single largest capital expenditure in its history.

In its study, CCA stressed inadequate expansion space at Richmond, projected traffic congestion in the area and expectations of higher market and population growth outside the Bay Area.

In addition to offering a larger site than is available at Richmond, Tracy lies outside the area targeted for increased traffic congestion, Safeway officials said.

Safeway has 1,156 stores comprising six U.S. divisions and one in Canada, according to Brian Dowling, a corporate spokesman.

Safeway's northern California division operates from Richmond; the Seattle division serves Washington and Idaho from Bellevue, Wash., and the Portland division serves Oregon from Portland, Ore.

Safeway's Denver division serves Colorado from Denver; its Phoenix division serves Arizona and one New Mexico store from Phoenix, Ariz., and its eastern division handles a pocket of stores in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia from Landover, Md.
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Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and 1988 Safeway Murder

Safeway, Southern Pacific, IRS and San Francisco Police

The Murder Cover-up of Bennett v. Southern Pacific

How they pulled it off was concealed for 30 years from within Contra Costa Superior Courts, Pittsburg Police, and the Contra Costa County District Attorney.   
Cnetscandal.blogspot.com
Cnetscandal.blogspot.com
Cnetscandal.blogspot.com

KKR & Co. L.P. (formerly known as  Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

KKR & Co. L.P. (formerly known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.) (NYSE: KKR) is an American-based global private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts, based in New York. The firm sponsors and manages private equity investment funds. Since its inception, the firm has completed over $400 billion of private equity transactions and was a pioneer in the leveraged buyout industry. In March 2010, KKR filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with trading commencing on July 15, 2010.
The firm was founded in 1976 by Jerome Kohlberg, Jr., and cousins Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts, all of whom had previously worked together at Bear Stearns, where they completed some of the earliest leveraged buyout transactions. Since its founding, KKR has completed a number of landmark transactions including the 1989 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, which was the largest buyout in history to that point, as well as the 2007 buyout of TXU, which is currently the largest buyout completed to date. KKR has completed investments in over 160 companies since 1977, completing at least one investment in every year except 1982 and 1990.
KKR is headquartered in New York City with thirteen additional offices in the US, Europe and Asia. In October 2009, KKR listed shares in the company, through KKR & Co. an affiliate that holds 30% of the firm's ownership equity, with the remainder held by the firm's partners.

The firm

KKR is operated by its managing partners Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts and a team of approximately 140 investment professionals and 400 total employees, organized into industry focused groups. KKR is headquartered in the Solow Building at 9 West 57th Street in New York City and has offices in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, DC, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai, Dubai, Seoul and Sydney.
KKR invests primarily through leveraged buyouts as well as growth capital investments (including "PIPE" investments in public companies). It specializes in private equity investments with a focus on specific industry sectors where the firm has created nine dedicated investment groups. The industries in which KKR has developed a specialization include:
  • Chemicals
  • Consumer products
  • Energy & natural resources
  • Financial services
  • Health care
  • Industrial
  • Media and communications
  • Retail
  • Technology
The professionals in each of KKR's industry-focused groups are expected to have developed a proficiency in the respective industry.

Investment funds and other affiliates

Private equity funds

KKR has historically relied primarily on private equity funds, pools of committed capital that are raised from a broad array of institutional investors (e.g., pension funds, insurance companies, investment Banks, commercial Banks, endowments, fund of funds, high net worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds). As of the end of 2008, KKR had completed fund-raising for approximately 14 traditional investment funds in the US, Europe and Asia with total committed capital of approximately US$58 billion:
Fund Vintage
Year
Committed
Capital ($m)
KKR Fund 1976 1977 $31
KKR Fund 1980 1980 $357
KKR Fund 1982 1982 $328
KKR Fund 1984 1984 $1,000
KKR Fund 1986 1986 $672
KKR Fund 1987 1987 $6,130
KKR Fund 1993 1993 $1,946
KKR Fund 1996 1997 $6,012
KKR European Fund 1999 $3,085
KKR Millennium Fund 2002 $6,000
KKR European Fund II 2005 €4,500
KKR Fund 2006 2006 $17,642
KKR Asia Fund 2007 $4,000
KKR European Fund III 2008 €6,000
Source: Preqin, SEC Filings

KKR Financial

Type Public company (NYSE: KFN)
Founded 2004
Website www.kkrfinancial.com
KKR Financial (NYSE: KFN) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) and specialty finance company that invests in residential and commercial mortgage loans and mortgage-backed securities as well as corporate loans and debt securities, asset-backed securities and equity securities. KFN was founded in 2004 raising $795 million in a private placement and raised $849 million in a June 2005 initial public offering, increasing the size of the offering from an original $600 million target. KKR had initially considered structuring KFN as a business development company like Apollo Management's Apollo Investment Corporation but chose to pursue the REIT structure to capitalize on the strength in REIT valuations at the time.
KFN was an early casualty of the subprime mortgage crisis and in September 2007, Henry Kravis and George Roberts injected $270 million into the company. On February 20, 2008, KFN was once again forced to delay the repayment of billions of dollars of commercial paper, and began a new round of talks with creditors. In April, KFN sold a controlling interest in a real estate subsidiary to an investment firm to raise cash and entered an agreement with the noteholders of certain secured commercial paper issued by two asset-backed entities. Following the transaction, KFN converted from a REIT to a limited liability company. KKR Financial is a debt investment vehicle and does not invest in KKR's private equity transactions.

KKR Private Equity Investors

Type Public company (Euronext: KPE)
Founded 2006
Website www.kkrpei.com
KKR Private Equity Investors (Euronext: KPE) is a publicly traded private equity fund that invests as a fund of funds in KKR private equity funds. KPE also co-invests in transactions alongside KKR's private equity funds. KPE was founded in 2006. In May 2006, KKR raised $5 billion in an initial public offering for a KPE to serve as a new permanent investment vehicle listing it on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam. KKR raised three times more than it expected, as many of the investors in KPE were hedge funds seeking exposure to private equity but could not make long term commitments to private equity funds. Because private equity had been booming in preceding years, investing in a KKR fund was attractive to investors.
However, KPE's first-day performance was lackluster, trading down 1.7% and trading volume was limited. Initially, a handful of other private equity firms and hedge funds had planned to follow KKR's lead but shelved those plans when KPE's performance continued to falter after its IPO. KPE's stock declined from an IPO price of €25 per share to €18.16 (a 27% decline) at the end of 2007 and a low of €11.45 (a 54.2% decline) per share in Q1 2008.
KPE disclosed in May 2008 that it had completed approximately $300 million of secondary sales of selected limited partnership interests in, and undrawn commitments to, certain KKR-managed funds in order to generate liquidity and repay borrowings.

History

History of private equity
and venture capital
Early history
(Origins of modern private equity)

The 1980s
(LBO boom)

The 1990s
(LBO bust and the VC bubble)

The 2000s
(Dot-com bubble to the credit crunch)

Founding and early history

Running the corporate finance department for Bear Stearns in the 1960s and 1970s, Jerome Kohlberg and later with protégés Henry Kravis and George Roberts completed a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments beginning in 1964-65. They targeted family-owned businesses, many of which had been founded in the years following World War II which by the 1960s and 1970s were facing succession issues. Many of these companies lacked a viable or attractive exit for their founders as they were too small to be taken public and the founders were reluctant to sell out to competitors and so a sale to a financial buyer could prove attractive.
Their acquisition of Orkin Exterminating Company in 1964 is among the first significant leveraged buyout transactions. In the following years the three Bear Stearns bankers would complete a series of buyouts including Stern Metals (1965), Incom (a division of Rockwood International, 1971), Cobblers Industries (1971), and Boren Clay (1973) as well as Thompson Wire, Eagle Motors and Barrows through their investment in Stern Metals. Although they had a number of highly successful investments, the $27 million investment in Cobblers ended in bankruptcy.
By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear Stearns and Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts leading to their departure and the formation of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in that year. Most notably, Bear Stearns executive Cy Lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated investment fund within Bear Stearns and Lewis took exception to the amount of time spent on outside activities.
The new KKR completed its first buyout, that of manufacturer A.J. Industries, in 1977. KKR raised capital from a small group of investors including the Hillman Family and First Chicago Bank. By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA regulations, the nascent KKR was successful in raising its first institutional fund with over $30 million of investor commitments. In 1981, KKR expanded its investor base significantly when the Oregon State Treasury's public pension fund invested in KKR's acquisition of retailer Fred Meyer, Inc. Oregon remains an active investor in KKR funds more than 25 years later.
KKR closed out the 1970s completing the public-to-private buyout of Houdaille Industries in 1979, probably the largest take-private of a public company to that point. As the 1980s began, KKR was among the most prominent practitioner of leveraged buyouts and would prove the most prolific of the private equity investors in the 1980s. Among the firm's most notable acquisitions during the 1980s buyout boom were the following:
Investment Year Company Description Ref.
Malone & Hyde 1984 KKR completed the first buyout of a public company by tender offer, by acquiring the food distributor and supermarket operator together with the company's chairman Joseph R. Hyde III.
Wometco Enterprises 1984 KKR completed the first billion-dollar buyout transaction to acquire the leisure-time company with interests in television, movie theaters and tourist attractions. The buyout comprised the acquisition of 100% of the outstanding shares for $842 million and the assumption of $170 million of the company's outstanding debt.
Beatrice Companies 1985 KKR sponsored the $6.1 billion management buyout of Beatrice, which owned Samsonite and Tropicana among other consumer brands. At the time of its closing in 1985, Beatrice was the largest buyout completed.
Safeway 1986 KKR completed a friendly $5.5 billion buyout of Safeway to help management avoid hostile overtures from Herbert and Robert Haft of Dart Drug. Safeway was taken public again in 1990.
Jim Walter Corp.(later Walter Industries) 1987 KKR acquired the company for $3.3 billion in early 1988 but faced issues with the buyout almost immediately. Most notably, a subsidiary of Jim Walter Corp (Celotex) faced a large asbestos lawsuit and incurred liabilities that the courts ruled would need to be satisfied by the parent company. In 1989, the holding company that KKR used for the Jim Walter buyout filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Barbarians at the Gate - KKR's leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco

After the 1987 resignation of Jerome Kohlberg at age 61 (he later founded his own private equity firm, Kohlberg & Co.), Henry Kravis succeeded him as senior partner. Under Kravis and Roberts, the firm was responsible for the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. RJR Nabisco proved to be not only the largest buyout in history to that time, at $25 billion ($31.1 billion, including assumed debt) as well as a high water mark and sign of the end of the 1980s buyout boom. The RJR Nabisco, which would remain the largest buyout for the next 17 years, was chronicled in the book, Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and later made into a television movie starring James Garner.
In 1988, F. Ross Johnson was the President and CEO of RJR Nabisco, formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, a leading producer of food products (Shredded Wheat, Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Planters peanuts, Life Savers, Del Monte Fruit and Vegetables, and Snickers Chocolate) as well as Winston, Camel and Salem cigarettes. In October 1988, Johnson proposed a $17 billion ($75 per share) management buyout of the company with the financial backing of investment bank Shearson Lehman Hutton and its parent company, American Express.
Days later, Kravis, who had originally suggested the idea of the buyout to Johnson, presented a new bid for $20.3 billion ($90 per share) financed with an aggressive debt package. KKR also had the support of significant equity co-investments from leading pension funds and other institutional investors. Among KKR's investors included, the Coca-Cola, Georgia-Pacific and United Technologies corporate pension funds as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology endowment, the Harvard University endowment and the New York State Common Retirement Fund However, KKR also faced criticism from existing investors over the firm's use of hostile tactics in the buyout of RJR.
KKR proposed to provide a joint offer with Johnson and Shearson Lehman but was rebuffed and Johnson attempted to stonewall KKR's access to financial information from RJR. Rival private equity firm, Forstmann Little & Co. was invited into the process by Shearson Lehman but attempted to provide a bid for RJR with a consortium of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Procter & Gamble, Ralston Purina and Castle & Cooke. Ultimately the Forstmann consortium came apart and did not provide a final bid for RJR. Many of the major banking players of the day, including Shearson Lehman Hutton, Drexel Burnham Lambert, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Salomon Brothers and Merrill Lynch were actively involved in advising and financing the parties.
In November 1988, RJR set guidelines for a final bid submission at the end of the month. The management and Shearson group submitted a final bid of $112, a figure they felt certain would enable them to outflank any response by Kravis and KKR. KKR's final bid of $109, while a lower dollar figure, was ultimately accepted by the board of directors of RJR Nabisco. KKR's offer was guaranteed, whereas the management offer lacked a "reset", meaning that the final share price might have been lower than their stated $112 per share. Additionally, many in RJR's board of directors had grown concerned at recent disclosures of Ross Johnson' unprecedented golden parachute deal. TIME magazine featured Ross Johnson on the cover of their December 1988 issue along with the headline, "A Game of Greed: This man could pocket $100 million from the largest corporate takeover in history. Has the buyout craze gone too far?". KKR's offer was welcomed by the board, and, to some observers, it appeared that their elevation of the reset issue as a deal-breaker in KKR's favor was little more than an excuse to reject Ross Johnson's higher payout of $112 per share. F. Ross Johnson received $53 million from the buyout. KKR collected a $75 million fee in the RJR takeover.
At $31.1 billion of transaction value (including assumed debt), RJR Nabisco was by far the largest leveraged buyout in history. In 2006 and 2007, a number of leveraged buyout transactions were completed that for the first time surpassed the RJR Nabisco leveraged buyout in terms of nominal purchase price. The deal was first surpassed in July 2006 by the $33 billion buyout of U.S. hospital operator Hospital Corporation of America, in which KKR also participated, though the RJR deal was larger, adjusted for inflation. However, adjusted for inflation, none of the leveraged buyouts of the 2006–2007 period would surpass RJR Nabisco. The RJR transaction benefited many of the parties involved. Investment bankers and lawyers who advised KKR walked away with over $1 billion in fees, and Henry Kravis and George Roberts attracted unprecedented amount of publicity that turned the cousins into instant celebrities. Unfortunately for KKR, size would not equate with success as the high purchase price and debt load would burden the performance of the investment. KKR was able to overcome the RJR Nabisco investment, raising a new investment fund and continuing to invest throughout the 1990s.

Early 1990s: The aftermath of RJR Nabisco

The buyout of RJR Nabisco was completed in April 1989 and KKR would spend the early 1990s focused on the task of repaying the RJR's enormous debt load through a series of asset sales and restructuring transactions. After the RJR Nabisco deal, KKR did not complete a single investment in 1990, the first year with no new investment activity since 1982. In fact, KKR did not complete another major leveraged buyout transaction for over three years, due largely to the shutdown of the high yield bond market and the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert which filed for bankruptcy in February 1990. Instead, KKR focused primarily on its existing portfolio companies acquired in the late 1980s buyout boom. Six of KKR's portfolio companies completed IPOs in 1991, including RJR Nabisco and Duracell.
As the new decade began, KKR was immediately active in restructuring RJR. In January 1990, KKR completed the sale of RJR's Del Monte fruits and vegetables business to a group led by Merrill Lynch. KKR had originally identified a group of divisions that it could sell to reduce debt. Over the coming years, RJR would pursue a number of additional restructurings, equity injections and public offerings of stock to provide the company with additional financial flexibility. KKR contributed $1.7 billion of new equity into RJR in July 1990 to complete a restructuring of the company's balance sheet that appeased unhappy bondholders. KKR's equity contribution as part of the original leveraged buyout of RJR had been only $1.5 billion. Later, in December 1990, RJR announced an exchange offer that would swap debt in RJR for a new public stock in the company, effectively an unusual means of taking RJR public again and simultaneously reducing debt on the company. RJR issued additional stock to the public in March 1991 to further reduce debt, resulting in an upgrade of the credit rating of RJR's debt from junk to investment grade.
KKR would begin to reduce its ownership in RJR, when in 1994, its stock in RJR was used as part of the consideration for its leveraged buyout of Borden, Inc., a producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products, in a highly complex and unprecedented transaction. The following year, in 1995, KKR would divest itself of its final stake in RJR Nabisco when Borden sold a $638 million block of stock.
While KKR no longer had any ownership of RJR Nabisco by 1995, its original investment would not be fully realized until KKR finally exited the last of its investment in 2004. After sixteen years of efforts that included contributing new equity, taking RJR public, asset sales and exchanging shares of RJR for the ownership of Borden, Inc., KKR had finally sold the last remnants of its 1989 investment. In July 2004, KKR agreed to sell its stock in Borden Chemical to Apollo Management for $1.2 billion.

Early 1990s: Investments

In the early 1990s, the absence of an active high yield market prompted KKR to change its tactics, avoiding large leveraged buyouts in favor of industry consolidations through what were described as leveraged buildups or rollups. One of KKR's largest investments in the 1990s was the leveraged buildup of Primedia in partnership with former executives of Macmillan Publishing, which KKR had failed to acquire in 1988. KKR created Primedia's predecessor, K-III Communications, a platform to buy media properties, initially completing the $310 million divisional buyout of the book club division of Macmillan Publishing (publisher of The Weekly Reader) and the assets of magazine publisher Intertec Publishing Corporation in May 1989. Throughout the early 1990s, K-III continued to acquire publishing assets, including a $650 million acquisition from News Corporation in 1991. K-III went public, however instead of cashing out, KKR continued to make new investments in the company in 1998, 2000 and 2001 to support acquisition activity. Ultimately, in 2005, Primedia redeemed KKR's preferred stock in the company but KKR was estimated to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on its common stock holdings as the price of the company's stock collapsed.
In 1991, KKR partnered with Fleet/Norstar Financial Group in the 1991 acquisition of the Bank of New England, from the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In January 1996, KKR would exchange its investment for a 7.5% interest in Fleet Bank. KKR also completed the 1992 buyout of American Re Corporation from Aetna as well as a 47% interest in TW Corporation, later known as The Flagstar Companies and owner of Denny's in 1992. Among the other notable investments KKR completed during the early 1990s included World Color Press (1993–95), RELTEC Corporation (1995) and Bruno's (1995).

1996–1999

By the mid 1990s, the debt markets were improving and KKR had moved on from the RJR Nabisco buyout. In 1996, KKR was able to complete the bulk of fundraising for what was then a record $6 billion private equity fund, the KKR 1996 Fund. However, KKR was still burdened by the performance of the RJR investment and repeated obituaries in the media. KKR was required by its investors to reduce the fees it charged and to calculate its carried interest based on the total profit of the fund (i.e., offsetting losses from failed deals against the profits from successful deals).
KKR's activity level would accelerate over the second half of the 1990s making a series of notable investments including Spalding Holdings Corporation and Evenflo(1996), Newsquest (1996), KinderCare Learning Centers (1997), Amphenol Corporation (1997), Randalls Food Markets (1997), The Boyds Collection (1998), MedCath Corporation (1998), Willis Group Holdings (1998), Smiths Group (1999) and Wincor Nixdorf (1999).
KKR's largest investment of the 1990s, would unfortunately also be among its least successful. In January 1998, KKR and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst agreed to the $1.5 billion buyout of Regal Cinemas. KKR and Hicks Muse had initially intended to combine Regal with Act III Cinemas, which KKR had acquired in 1997 for $706 million and United Artists Theaters, which Hicks Muse had agreed to acquire for $840 million in November 1997. Shortly after agreeing to the Regal takeover, the deal with United Artists fell apart, ultimately impacting the strategy to eliminate costs by building a larger combined company. Just two years later, Regal encountered significant financial issues and was forced to file for bankruptcy protection and the company would pass to investor Philip Anschutz.

2000–2005

At the start of the 21st century, the landscape of large leveraged buyout firms was changing. Several large and storied firms, including Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and Forstmann Little & Company were dragged down by heavy losses in the bursting of the telecom bubble. Although, KKR's track record since RJR Nabisco was mixed, losses on such investments as Regal Entertainment Group, Spalding, Flagstar and Primedia (previously K-III Communications) were offset by successes in Willis Group, Wise Foods, Inc., Wincor Nixdorf and MTU Aero Engines, among others.
Additionally, KKR was one of the few firms that was able to complete large leveraged buyout transactions in the years immediately following the collapse of the Internet bubble, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Bell Canada Yellow Pages. KKR was able to realize its investment in Shoppers Drug Mart through a 2002 IPO and subsequent public stock offerings. The directories business would ultimately be taken public in 2004 as Yellow Pages Income Fund, a Canadian income trust.
In 2004 a consortium comprising KKR, Bain Capital and real estate development company Vornado Realty Trust announced the $6.6 billion acquisition of Toys "R" Us, the toy retailer. A month earlier, Cerberus Capital Management, made a $5.5 billion offer for both the toy and baby supplies businesses. The Toys 'R' Us buyout was one of the largest in several years. Following this transaction, by the end of 2004 and in 2005, major buyouts were once again becoming common and market observers were stunned by the leverage levels and financing terms obtained by financial sponsors in their buyouts.
The following year, in 2005, KKR was one of seven private equity firms involved in the buyout of SunGard in a transaction valued at $11.3 billion. KKR's partners in the acquisition were Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, The Blackstone Group, Providence Equity Partners, and Texas Pacific Group. This represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988. SunGard was the largest buyout of a technology company until the Blackstone-led buyout of Freescale Semiconductor. The SunGard transaction is also notable in the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largest club deal completed to that point. The involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross-holdings among firms to be generally unattractive.

Since 2005 and the Buyout Boom

In 2006, KKR raised a new $17.6 billion fund the KKR 2006 Fund, with which the firm began executing a series of some of the largest buyouts in history. KKR's $44 billion takeover of Texas-based power utility, TXU, in 2007, proved to be the largest leveraged buyout of the mid-2000s buyout boom and the largest buyout completed to date. Among the most notable companies acquired by KKR in 2006 and 2007 were the following:
Investment Year Company Description Ref.
HCA 2006 KKR and Bain Capital, together with Merrill Lynch and the Frist family (which had founded the company) completed a $31.6 billion acquisition of the hospital company, 17 years after it was taken private for the first time in a management buyout. At the time of its announcement, the HCA buyout would be the first of several to set new records for the largest buyout, eclipsing the 1989 buyout of RJR Nabisco. It would later be surpassed by the buyouts of Equity Office Properties, TXU and BCE (announced but as of the end of the first quarter of 2008 not yet completed).
NXP Semiconductors 2006 In August 2006, a consortium of KKR, Silver Lake Partners and AlpInvest Partners acquired a controlling 80.1% share of semiconductors unit of Philips for €6.4 billion. The new company, based in the Netherlands, was renamed NXP Semiconductors.
TDC A/S 2006 The Danish phone company was acquired by KKR, Apax Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Permira for €12.2 billion ($15.3 billion), which at the time made it the second largest European buyout in history.
Dollar General 2007 KKR completed a buyout of the chain of discount stores operating in the U.S.
Alliance Boots 2007 KKR and Stefano Pessina, the company’s deputy chairman and largest shareholder, acquired the UK drug store retailer for £12.4 billion ($24.8 billion) including assumed debt, after increasing their bid more than 40% amidst intense competition from Terra Firma Capital Partners and Wellcome Trust. The buyout came only a year after the merger of Boots Group plc (Boots the Chemist), and Alliance UniChem plc.
Biomet 2007 The Blackstone Group, KKR, TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs acquired the medical devices company for $11.6 billion.
First Data 2007 KKR and TPG Capital completed the $29 billion buyout of the credit and debit card payment processor and former parent of Western Union. Michael Capellas, previously the CEO of MCI Communications and Compaq was named CEO of the privately held company.
TXU (Energy Future Holdings) 2007 An investor group led by KKR and TPG Capital and together with Goldman Sachs completed the $44.37 billion buyout of the regulated utility and power producer. The investor group had to work closely with ERCOT regulators to gain approval of the transaction but had significant experience with the regulators from their earlier buyout of Texas Genco. TXU is the largest buyout in history, and retained this distinction when the announced buyout of BCE failed to close in December 2008. The deal is also notable for a drastic change in environmental policy for the energy giant, in terms of its carbon emissions from coal power plants and funding alternative energy.
Other non-buyout investments completed by KKR during this period included Legg Mason, Sun Microsystems, Tarkett and Seven Network. In October 2006, KKR acquired a 50% stake in Tarkett, a France-based distributor of flooring products, in a deal valued at about €1.4 billion ($1.8 billion). On November 20, 2006 KKR announced it would form a AU$4 billion partnership with the Seven Network of Australia. On January 23, 2007, KKR announced it would invest $700 million through a PIPE investment in Sun Microsystems. In January 2008, KKR announced that it had made a $1.25 billion PIPE investment in Legg Mason through a convertible preferred stock offering.
In addition to its successful buyout transactions, KKR was involved in the failed buyout of Harman International Industries (NYSE: HAR), an upscale audio equipment maker. On April 26, 2007, Harman announced it had entered an agreement to be acquired by KKR and Goldman Sachs. As the financing markets became more adverse in the summer of 2007, the buyout was on tenuous ground. In September 2007, KKR and Goldman backed out of the $8 billion buyout of Harman. By the end of the day, Harman's shares had plummeted by more than 24% on the news.
Selected Kohlberg Kravis Roberts 2006-2008 Investments
Hospital Corporation of America  
NXP Semiconductors  
Dollar General  
Alliance Boots  
TXU  
Sun Microsystems  
Legg Mason  

Initial public offering

In 2007, KKR filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $1.25 billion by selling an ownership interest in its management company. The filing came less than two weeks after the initial public offering of rival private equity firm Blackstone Group. KKR had previously listed its KPE vehicle in 2006, but for the first time, KKR would offer investors an ownership interest in the management company itself. The onset of the credit crunch and the shutdown of the IPO market dampened the prospects of obtaining a valuation that would be attractive to KKR and the flotation was repeatedly postponed, and finally called off by the end of August.
The following year, in July 2008, KKR announced a new plan to list its shares. The plan called for KKR to complete a reverse takeover of its listed affiliate KKR Private Equity Investors in exchange for a 21% interest in the firm. In November 2008, KKR announced a delay of this transaction until 2009. Shares of KPE had declined significantly in the second half of 2008 with the onset of the credit crunch. KKR has announced that it expects to close the transaction in 2009. In October 2009, KKR listed shares in KKR & Co. on the Euronext exchange, replacing KPE and anticipates a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010. The public entity represents a 30% interest in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. In October 2010, KKR acquired bout nine members of Goldman Sachs Group proprietary trading team after entertaining offers from investment firms such as Perella Weinberg and Blackrock. With Goldman shutting down its proprietary trading operations, its executives, led by Bob Howard, will help KKR expand beyond leveraged buyouts into areas such as hedge funds.

Notable current and former employees

Over the years, KKR has seen the departure of many of its original partners, the most notable being the most senior of its three co-founders, Jerome Kohlberg. After a leave of absence due to an illness in 1985, Kohlberg returned to find increasing differences in strategy with his partners Kravis and Roberts. In 1987, Kohlberg left KKR to found a new private equity firm Kohlberg & Company. Kohlberg & Company returned to the investment style that Kohlberg had originally practiced at Bear Stearns and in KKR's earlier years, acquiring smaller, middle-market companies.
As of 1996, general partners of KKR included Henry Kravis, George R. Roberts, Paul Raether, Robert MacDonnell, Jose Gandarillas, Michael Michelson, Saul Fox, James Greene, Michael Tokarz, Clifton Robbins, Scott Stuart, Perry Golkin and Edward Gilhuly. Among those who left were Saul Fox, Ted Ammon, Ned Gilhuly, Mike Tokarz and Scott Stuart who were instrumental in establishing KKR's reputation and track record in the 1980s. KKR remains tightly controlled by Kravis and Roberts. The issue of succession has remained an important consideration for KKR's future as an ongoing institutionalized firm.
  • Saul A. Fox left KKR in 1997 to found Fox Paine & Company, a middle market private equity firm with over $1.5 billion of capital under management
  • Clifton S. Robbins left KKR to join competitor General Atlantic Partners in 2000 and later founded Blue Harbour Group, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, CT.
  • Edward A. (Ned) Gilhuly and Scott Stuart left KKR in 2004 to launch Sageview Capital. Prior to this, Gilhuly was the managing partner of KKR's European operations, based in London and Stuart managed KKR's energy and consumer products industry groups.
  • Ted Ammon, started several new ventures including Big Flower Press, which printed newspaper circulars, and Chancery Lane Capital, a boutique private equity firm, before being murdered in October 2001.
  • Paul Hazen, served as chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo (1995–2001). Hazen would later return to KKR serving as chairman of Accel-KKR, a joint venture with Accel Partners and later as chairman of KKR's publicly listed affiliate, KKR Financial (KFN).
  • Clive Hollick, Baron Hollick, CEO of United News and Media (1996–2005)

Works about KKR

  • Anders, George (1992). Merchants of Debt: KKR and the Mortgaging of American Business. New York: BasicBooks. ISBN 978-0-465-04522-8.
  • Baker, George; Smith, George (1998). The New Financial Capitalists: KKR and the Creation of Corporate Value. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-64260-6.
  • Bartlett, Sarah (1991). The Money Machine: How KKR Manufactured Power & Profits. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-51608-2.
  • Burrough, Bryan (1990). Barbarians at the Gate. New York: Harper & Row
more: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/knowledge/Kohlberg_Kravis_Roberts.html#ixzz5FLLi1I5m
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