The kids are all right

Private equity firms scout for quality, reliability and smooth regulatory sailing in their China investments.

As the economy swoons, for-profit education sizzles. There has been a string of deals in post-secondary education. Expect consolidation to continue.

Middle-market M&A has come back from the abyss, but any sustained rebound depends on the banks.

PE investors had to get creative during the worst of the credit crunch, but take-privates and IPOs have picked up.

Hobbled by the financial crisis, banks and nonbanks alike have all pulled back from funding middle-market deals. Here's a look at who might fill the void.

Steven Burrill lends his peripatetic presence to unusual cross-border deals in biotech.

Jim Balsillie made a mess of trying to use the Bankruptcy Code to move Phoenix's hockey team to Hamilton, Ontario. But in the end, there's one less deep-pocketed sports nut out there to save a wilting franchise.

With the biggest banks busily digesting massive acquisitions and bumping up against deposit caps, midtier acquirers are gobbling up FDIC-seized banks. Haven't we seen this before?

As the crisis unfolded, private equity rushed to buy battered banks, only to discover this was one club they had difficulty getting into.

The banks are too big; the banks shouldn't gamble. There are many helpful hints about how they should be broken up and their activities curtailed, but so far, Washington's response seems to be 'subsidize, and muddle through.'

A surge of PE-backed offerings in September buoyed hopes that a once-vibrant market was on its way back. But fundamental changes have made the prospects, particularly for venture startups, still uncertain.

Meet Timothy Geithner's deputy: Neal Wolin, veteran of the national security apparatus, the Treasury Department and the insurance industry.

Jeffrey Goldstein, formerly of the World Bank, can use his skills with broken economies to help address problems in the United States.

Confirmed in May to be the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial institutions, Barr has spent most of his academic career examining how the financial services industry can better reach the poor and other underserved segments of society.

Despite the recession, we found eight young PE mavens worthy of notice.

Blackstone Group LP's Ivan Brockman

BC Partners' Justin Bateman

Irving Place Capital's Phil Carpenter III

On one side, Judge Jed Rakoff, defending shareholders' right to know. On the other, the SEC, Bank of America and some serious regulators, defending their actions in desperate times. This clash has everything but a smoking gun.

For decades, one of the heirs of the founder of Allen & Co. has been funding the machinations of a smooth-talking dealmaker. Now, as bankruptcy looms, the question arises: Was this just a rich man's whim or a con job?

The San Fernando city was once home to Countrywide and other subprime purveyors. But while the recession hit hard, there's a diversity of tech and middle-market companies to soften the blow. And a few Hollywood types, too.

FocalPoint Partners carves out an investment banking niche. Originally focused on M&A and capital raisings, with the great recession, it now has turned to distressed and restructuring work.

Participate in our second annual survey and help us identify the leaders in three sectors.

Creditors are increasingly eager to engage in credit bids — using debt owed to them to either buy companies out of bankruptcy or preserve their value. It's not for the fainthearted.

The right technology can transform your pedestrian bathroom into a 21st century, full-sensory immersion experience — if you're willing to pay for it. Mr. Bubble never had it so good.

The Daily Deal launched on Sept. 15, 1999, as an experiment in covering what we (hopefully) called the deal economy. Now, two bubbles and a terrorist attack later, we're still at it.

As deal volumes surged, so did the ability of corporations to handle M&A transactions all by themselves. What's an adviser to do?

Some of the most sophisticated minds in finance operate in private equity. Still, over the past decades, they've been drawn to overheated markets as easily as your Average Joe.

The JLL Partners managing director Paul Levy says PE is now dominated by assets under management.

In the late '90s, venture capital generated extraordinary returns on high-risk companies. Then came the collapse, and the industry has struggled to find its way since.

Richard Kramlich believes his firm's style of investing is the key to its success.

Bankruptcy has undergone a rapid evolution in the past decade, shaped by a financial system of tooth-rattling extremes.

Co-founder Tony Alvarez says his firm was 'in the right place at the right time' when Lehman came calling the night before it filed for bankruptcy.

The veteran Kirkland & Ellis bankruptcy lawyer says 'we've never seen a cycle like this before.'

Investment bankers Henry Miller and Kenneth Buckfire say preperation is the best way to avoid the worst-case scenario.

Disney paid a hefty premium for the comic book and movie house. But it's a complex deal with about 5,000 potential cash-flow-rich characters.

In the wake of the last banking crisis, regulators won a tough-sounding power, but "prompt corrective action" hasn't lived up to its name.

London administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers refuses to cooperate with its international counterparts.

The IPO market has been flattened. VCs are timid and possibly disappearing. Boutique advisories continue to do poorly. Will Silicon Valley's vaunted culture of innovation save the day, or are these doldrums a taste of what's to come?

From the local legends to the East Coast interlopers, law firms await better days in the mecca of technology.

Biotech powerhouse University of California, San Francisco, explores the frontiers of academic and corporate friendship.

Cross-border European dealmaking came of age under an Anglo-Saxon model. What happens if it's scrapped?

Denham Capital seemed like the perfect partner for Vulcan Power founder Stephen Munson. He's since been ousted from the company, and now he and other investors are suing the private equity firm and others for fraud.

The Smith brothers controlling Sinclair Broadcasting may be sincere about dealing with a debt problem at a closely held company, but no one really believes them. Could this be a dynasty-ending shenanigan?

judges in the trio of huge, crisis bankruptcies rushed the cases through to approve so-called section 363 sales. This has some lawyers worried about the future of creditors' due process rights

M&A activity may have stalled during the first half of the year, but deal lawyers still had plenty to talk about.

Geithner yells at bank regulators, but they keep opposing the administration's overhaul plans anyway.

A conversation with former Pfizer, now University of California, San Francisco, biotech veteran Corey Goodman.

In a complex maneuver, KKR wipes out debt in three CLO funds to improve liquidity and help itself.