HBR Labs, a web-based collaboration services provider, has raised USD2m in funding from private equity investors. HBR Labs, a web-based collaboration services provider, has raised USD2m in funding from private equity investors. HBR Labs, a web-based collaboration services provider, has raised USD2m in funding from private equity investors. The capital will be used to accelerate the growth strategy for its web meeting, document sharing and multi-media collaboration solutions, ShowDocument and VeriShow. "We plan to build on the significant progress we’ve made in key industry verticals for both ShowDocument and VeriShow," says Yuval Moed, co-founder and chief executive of HBR Labs. 

Century Focused Fund II, a private equity fund sponsored and managed by Century Capital Management, has completed an investment in Torrent Technologies. Torrent plans to use the additional capital to support its growth and to recapitalise early investors in the company. Torrent is a technology leveraged business services company that provides back office policy and claims processing services to private insurance carriers that participate in National Flood Insurance Program. Century Capital provides growth capital to companies in the financial services industry. Century Capital Management’s partner Charles L. Kline says: "The flood market demands a high level of service and versatility

INgrooves, a provider of digital distribution, marketing and promotion services to the audio, video and publishing communities, has received growth capital investment from Shamrock Capital Growth Fund II, a private equity fund focused on media, entertainment and communications investing.  Financial terms were not disclosed. This capital injection will allow INgrooves to expand into ancillary media verticals such as eBooks and make acquisitions in the digital music industry.  With the closing of the Shamrock investment, both Shamrock and Universal Music Group will be minority shareholders in the company. INgrooves has extended the term of its distribution agreement with Universal Music Group

American HomePatient has completed a public-to-private transaction and filed documents with the SEC to deregister its common stock, resulting in the company becoming 100 per cent owned by a fund managed by Highland Capital Management.  This transaction is the culmination of a series of transactions, including (i) a self-tender of common shares by the company and (ii) a restructuring of the company’s senior debt of USD216m led by Highland and completed on 2 September 2010. Headquartered in Tennessee, American HomePatient is one of the nation’s largest respiratory and service providers to Medicare and Managed Care patients in 33 states.   Joseph

Standard Life Investments believes that the corporate sector will remain the strongest part of the world economy in the years ahead. Company managers in an effort to maintain this strength will alter their behaviour by deploying more of their accrued cash towards growth rather than dividend distribution policies.     In the latest edition of Global Outlook, Richard Batty, global investment strategist at Standard Life Investments, says: “Our analysis shows that investor behaviour is already altering, and the corporate sector may be in the process of changing the way it views dividends. In recent years, managers were keen to show their

LGV Capital has completed the secondary management buy-out of Amber Taverns. Amber Taverns is a community based pub company based in Preston, Lancashire.  It owns and operates 56 pubs, predominantly in the North West and North East under its operator agreements, which incentivise its pub operators by offering them a share of the pub’s takings. LGV has backed the existing management team of Clive Preston (chairman), James Baer (joint managing director), Bryan Wardman (joint managing director), Michael Norris (finance director) and Gary Roberts (operations director). LGV is a provider of private equity in the UK market and part of the

Octopus Investments has made an investment of GBP1.7m into Michelson Diagnostics, a medical equipment and scanner specialist. The investment in Michelson represents the 21st deal concluded by Octopus this year.   Chief executive Jon Holmes founded Michelson with four colleagues in 2006. The company’s first product based on its patented technology, the VivoSight scanner, targets the non-invasive diagnosis and treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer. The scanner enables clinicians to see under the skin surface in real time, to help them decide whether to treat a lesion, what treatment to use, and to show them how far a tumour has spread.