http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-21/yahoo-s-dot-com-premium-for-tumblr-tests-mayer-real-m-a.html By Tara Lachapelle Marissa Mayer is buying companies like it’s 1999. The Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) chief executive officer yesterday announced the company will acquire blogging network Tumblr Inc., part of a plan to restore the Web portal to its heyday as an Internet darling. With $13 million in sales last year, Tumblr’s $1.1 billion price tag represents the richest valuation for a dot-com company since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg on deals for which revenue figures are available. “Using any conventional metrics, the price is absurd,” said Scott Rostan, a former mergers and acquisitions analyst whose New York-based Training The Street teaches new hires at investment banks about deals. “That’s because this isn’t about the valuation per se. It’s about future value, it’s about potential, and therefore it’s going to go on Yahoo’s team and Mayer’s shoulders [...]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveschaefer/2013/05/01/bond-investors-line-up-for-a-parking-spot-in-apple-debt/ Steve Schaefer Apple launched its first debt offering in almost 20 years Tuesday and by all accounts demand for the new six-part issuance was so robust the iPhone-maker will pay interest rates near or below Corporate America’s lowest. The company reportedly raised $17 billion in a heavily-oversubscribed offering, with all six tranches at narrow spreads to their benchmarks: three-month Libor for three and five-year floating rate notes and the similar-maturity Treasuries for three, five, 10 and 30-year fixed-rate notes. In fact, at a reported 75 bps above the corresponding Treasury, Apple’s 10-year unsecured notes would carry a lower rate than the stock’s dividend yield (~2.40% vs. 2.75%). That might seem surprising, but it shouldn’t in a world where 280 members of the S&P 500 carry dividend yields above the current rate on the 10-year Treasury. And Apple is hardly the only [...]

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130423-910440.html Fundamental Subject for Finance Professionals is Another Addition to TTS’s Growing Library NEW YORK/PRNewswire/ – Training The Street (TTS), a leading corporate training provider for the majority of Wall Street firms and top business schools, today released their Relative Valuation Course Pack as a self-study product. Students and professionals in the financial industry can now use one of TTS’s most popular valuation courses independently on their own schedule. The new course pack supplements the material covered in live courses on the subject, giving students the ability to learn universal techniques in the valuation process freely. The Relative Valuation package, which includes the 360 page self-study book, Excel models (templates and solutions), step-by-step guides and six months of free access to TTS’s Online Companion, is helpful for research analysts, associates and bankers that need to learn the principals of valuation. The [...]

    http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2305819005001/what-is-holding-back-growth-in-ma-activity/

http://www.complianceweek.com/kpmg-fires-engagement-partner-fingered-in-insider-trading-scandal/article/288189/ Tammy Whitehouse Officials at KPMG and Skechers USA Inc. have fingered Scott London as the engagement audit partner at the center of an insider trading scandal that has put two companies in a scramble to find a new audit firm and has rocked the highest ranks of the audit profession. Skechers and Herbalife Ltd. said KPMG resigned as their audit firm and withdrew several years’ financial statements after KPMG learned the head of its Los Angeles audit practice was accused of insider trading. KPMG said in a statement the partner “was separated immediately.” Skechers said it learned from KPMG that the audit partner is under federal investigation for providing information in exchange for money, although no investigative agency so far has verified its involvement. David Weinberg, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for footwear company Skechers, said in [...]

By Tara Lachapelle, Brooke Sutherland & Miles Weiss Blackstone Group LP (BX) and Carl Icahn’s bids for Dell Inc. (DELL) are employing a rarely used deal tactic that has yielded both big payouts and big losses for shareholders. The offers allowing investors to retain stock in the floundering personal-computer maker may help them win over shareholders like Southeastern Asset Management Inc., who want the chance to make more money alongside buyers. Still, investors must be prepared to take on the risk of potential losses as the firms seek to turn the Round Rock, Texas-based company into a contender in tablets and cloud computing, said Scott Rostan, a former M&A analyst whose New York-based firm Training The Street teaches new hires at banks about mergers. So-called stub equity “may appeal to investors with a longer time horizon and a higher risk-reward tolerance,” Rostan said in a telephone interview. “But [...]

    Watch the Video – BNN: Scott Rostan on Dell Deal      

“Large deals are flashy and they get people’s attention,” said Scott Rostan, who once analyzed mergers at Merrill Lynch & Co. and now runs New York-based Training The Street, giving instruction on takeovers to new hires at banks. “But the large, transformational deals are really hard to pull off. Typically you have to pay a big price to convince the seller. Synergies are very hard to realize. There may be cultural differences. Put that all together and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.”

Instructor: Trevor Nelson teaching on Wednesday February 20 or 27, 8:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. TTS announces 2013 dates for the popular Private Equity Interview Training, a course specifically designed  for professionals who are considering private equity analyst and associate positions. Class will be taught by Training The Street’s lead PE interview instructor, Trevor Nelson. Trevor has years of experience in private equity investing.  In addition to his responsibilities at TTS, Trevor is currently a founder and managing partner at Alliance Consumer Growth, a NY-based consumer growth equity fund.  Previously, Trevor was a generalist at Texas Pacific Group (TPG Capital) and mid-market PE firm Harvest Partners.  Trevor began his career in the M&A group at Lehman Brothers.  Trevor is a graduate of Northwestern University where he studied political science and captained the men’s division-I varsity soccer team. PE Training Focus Best [...]