GraphLab has closed a USD6.75m series A funding round led by Madrona Venture Group and NEA.   GraphLab is innovating on the popular open source distributed graph computation framework (graphlab.org) that is used millions of times per day to deliver recommendations through popular consumer services.   Founded by data scientist and entrepreneur Carlos Guestrin (pictured), who began the GraphLab open-source project five years ago, GraphLab is building a commercial product for applying advanced machine learning to massive graph datasets. The company is based in Seattle and will continue to actively support the open source GraphLab project.     "Data has

Carey Olsen has provided Channel Islands-specific corporate and regulatory advice to Silverfleet Capital in its GBP50m buyout of fund administration and private equity specialist Ipes, from RJD Partners.   The firm drew on its group expertise for the buyout field in a pan-Channel Islands legal team led by partners Tom Carey (pictured) in Guernsey and Guy Coltman in Jersey with support from associates John Scanlan and David Taylor. The team established the Guernsey acquisition structure, carried out due diligence and advised on the competition law and regulatory issues that were associated with the acquisition.   Silverfleet Capital is a private

The number and size of US sponsor-backed going private transactions were each lower in 2012 than in 2011 and 2010, according to a report by law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges.   However, when excluding the soft first quarter of 2012, deal activity was on par with such earlier years.   Specific performance “lite” has become the predominant market remedy with respect to allocating financing failure and closing risk in sponsor-backed going private transactions. Specific performance lite means that the target is only entitled to specific performance to cause the sponsor to fund its equity commitment and close the transaction

Petra Capital Partners has completed fundraising on Petra Growth Fund III with USD230m of capital available to invest.   The fund is structured as a small business investment company (SBIC) licensed by the US Small Business Administration.   “We are very pleased with the response from our existing investors and several important new investors for Fund III and the strong support we received from the SBIC programme,” says Mike Blackburn (pictured), partner at Petra.   On 3 May Petra closed on an investment in Denver-based Highstreet IT Solutions, representing the first investment for Fund III. Highstreet was recently formed by

Avista Capital Partners’ ACP Tower Merger Sub has commenced a cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of Telular Corporation at a price of USD12.61 net per share.   The tender offer is being made in connection with the agreement and plan of merger, dated as of 29 April 2013, among Telular, ACP Tower Merger Sub and ACP Tower Holdings, which Avista Capital Partners and Telular Corporation announced on 29 April.   The Telular board of directors unanimously approved the proposed acquisition by Avista Capital Partners and recommends that Telular’s stockholders accept the offer and tender their shares

High Road Capital Partners has completed the acquisition of The Crown Group. Based in Warren, Michigan with seven manufacturing facilities across the US, The Crown Group is a provider of coating services and solutions to the automotive, agricultural, heavy truck and other industrial end markets. High Road partnered with Charter Oak Equity on the transaction.   “Crown’s disciplined and systematic operational approach, including the ability to seamlessly integrate itself in its customer’s supply chain and provide value-added logistics services, is highly valued by its customers for whom avoiding business interruption or delays is paramount,” says William Connell, High Road partner. “We

Software developer Beyond Verbal has closed a USD2.8m round of funding led by angel investor Kenges Rakishev and Genesis Angels.   Following the investment, Rakishev (pictured) is joining Beyond Verbal’s board of directors.   Beyond Verbal has launched a patented technology that can extract, decode, and measure a full spectrum of human emotions from a person’s raw voice. The firm’s technology is founded on 18 years of research by physicists and neuropsychologists, who studied more than 60,000 test subjects in 26 languages. Bundled into the company’s software are emotional detection engines that allow devices and applications to understand an individuals’

Littlejohn & Co, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut, is to sell CTI Foods, a provider of custom food solutions to major chain restaurants in North America.   The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.   Littlejohn acquired CTI Foods in 2010 and shortly thereafter appointed Robert (Bobby) Horowitz as the new chief executive of the business.  Littlejohn, together with the company’s management team, expanded the company into a national provider of custom, value-added food products.  During Littlejohn’s ownership, CTI built a new state-of-the-art soup plant and R&D facility, completed two acquisitions and

LiquidSpace, the web and mobile platform that finds on-demand office and meeting space, has raised a follow-on of USD1.3m to the USD6m series B funding raised earlier this year.   The funding comes from two new investors – Steelcase and CBRE Group.   As companies increasingly re-evaluate their workplace strategies, demand for LiquidSpace’s enterprise solutions continues to grow. LiquidSpace is helping large enterprises turn underused real estate into a collaborative asset with a simple internal reservation solution, while simultaneously allowing their employees to tap into a network of on-demand publicly available work and meeting spaces. LiquidSpace enterprise customers are then