Friday, June 16, 2006

Those High Dollar Democrats and Republicans

(AP) Two Bush longtime patrons, Sam and Charles Wyly are the Chair and Vice Chair of Michael’s Stores Board of Directors. The company is currently under SEC investigation for its granting of stock options for the last decade. Months ago it hired J.P. Morgan to solicit buyout offers. At least two consortia have expressed interest. One is composed of Bain Capital, the Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, and Thomas Lee Partners. Carlyle is the famous politically connected investment house with insider connections to the Bush White House.

The other potential bidder includes Apollo Management LP, KKR, and Texas Pacific Group. Former Senator Tom Daschle, in the Democratic ring for a Presidential nomination, serves on the Apollo board.

It is unclear how the SEC investigation will impact the company’s desirability in the eyes of potential suitors. If the past pattern of influence buying holds, the “investigation” will find no serious violations, freeing the company for a clean sale.

Charles Wyly owns over 6 million shares of Michael’s Stores while his brother Sam owns over 4.8 million shares. Today it closed at nearly $38 per share, making Charles’ holding worth nearly $230 million and Sam’s $182 million. With those sales proceeds the Wyly’s will be able to continue to fund the Republican money machine. Do I see some sibling Super Rangers in the near future?

P.S. The AP at the beginning of the post represents the author's initials

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Why is the Carlyle group in every mess?

Its a rhetorical question :p I know the answer..and its very disgusting.

PEU Report/State of the Division said...

Could it be that government is simply one big contractor and the Carlyle Group wants to be the one stop shop? This would only be for long enough to drive up its subsidiaries valuations and for Carlyle to "realize" their investments. Realize is Carlyle lingo for cashing out their stake with bonzo profits!