Notable (Goldman Sachs, Puerto Rico, Lazy Media & More)

  • Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Better late than never, we guess. The firm has announced the acquisition/growth of its oil and gas team down in Houston. 
  • Goldman Sachs. Somehow its poor quarterly performance - largely due to poor distressed desk trades - is Morgan Stanley's fault. 
  • Lazy Media. Perhaps the folks at Fortune should call us because their research skills are soft. The other day Fortune reported on Quantum Partners' purchase of Violin Memory out of bankruptcy. Of note, QP is a fund tied to billionaire George Soros. The article - not particularly informative in any way whatsoever - doubled-down on its uselessness by noting that "terms of the deal were not disclosed," which, for those of us who know better, reeks of journalistic laziness. Why? Well, of course the terms needed approval by the bankruptcy court and so they were 100% publicly available. $25.6mm (including the DIP/exit facility rollup). Just saying.
  • Puerto Rico. Apparently it has been a distressed investing quagmire
  • Owl Creek Asset Management is shutting down its Asia fund, voluntarily (cough cough) chopping 10% of AUM off. An interesting move considering a general view that there'll be a lot of opportunity there...
  • Varde Partners, a $12b US-based buyout and distressed investing firm, is turning its attention to Asia.