Venture capital firms IDG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and Founders Fund Management have agreed to sell their stake in Friendster, a US-based online social network company, to MOL Global. MOL Global is a Malaysia-based affiliate of online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad. MOL Global

Affiliates of Patriarch Partners have entered into an agreement to recapitalise and acquire a majority interest in Dura Automotive Systems. Under the agreement, Patriarch will invest up to USD125m of capital and will take a controlling stake in Dura. This transaction completes the transformation of Dura, a company that emerged

RPM Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture capital firm, has closed its second venture capital fund, RPM Ventures II. The firm reached its target goal of USD60m with commitments from a mix of foundations, fund of funds, large family offices, and partners from venture funds. Building on the success of

Gartmore Group, a traditional equity and alternative asset management firm, has priced its initial public offering of ordinary shares at 220 pence per share. Based upon the offer price, the market capitalisation of Gartmore at the commencement of conditional dealings will be approximately GBP676m.   The offer consists of 127.3

Electra Partners and its portfolio company Premier Asset Management have completed the acquisition from Aberdeen Asset Management of the management contracts for two Oeic fund umbrellas containing ten open-ended former Credit Suisse funds.  The fund management contracts comprise GBP910m of assets taking Premier’s total assets under management to approximately GBP2.5bn. 

Haymarket Financial, a specialty lending platform, has launched into the European financing markets.    Headquartered in London, HayFin is a privately owned, independent commercial lending institution funded by USD700m of permanent capital, led by TowerBrook Capital Partners. Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Omers Private Equity have invested alongside TowerBrook.  

Venture capital firms Montagu Newhall Associates, Balderton Capital Management (UK) and Scale Venture Partners have sold their stakes in ScanSafe, a provider of web security-as-a-service, to Cisco Systems. Cisco is a designer and manufacturer of communications, network and information technology related products. The acquisition will enable Cisco to build a

Syntaxis Capital has completed the first close of its second Central European mezzanine fund with aggregated commitments of EUR140m, just over half its targeted amount. SMF II follows on the firm’s maiden fund which reached final close at the end of 2008 collecting just under EUR120m in aggregate commitments and