In what looks like a significant increase in investment in the space, this Business Journal piece notes that "Fidelity Investments has reorganized its little-known private equity affiliate by assembling a new management team, raising a $500 million fund and renaming the outfit Fidelity Equity Partners."
The Boston Herald notes:
The new operation has six principal employees [...]

ACG Boston welcomes the following new members from last week:
John Carlson System Change, Inc.
Constance FreedmanCue Ball Group
Russell PyleNorth Bridge Growth Equity
Carlos VillatoroOSO LLC

Click here to access the ACG Member Directory.

Congratulations to The Boston Globe's financial columnist Steven Syre, who recently launched "Boston Capital", a blog-format companion to his regular reporting in the print edition of the paper. Steven is one of the most respected voices in New England's dealmaking community and "Boston Capital" is a welcome addition to our industry's vibrant online discourse. 

ACG Boston's must-attend event – Growth Conference 2007 – is open for registration (here). Don't miss the East Coast's largest M&A event, one that draws regional, national and international attendees from every area of the industry.  
Last year, the ACG Boston Growth Conference 2006 pulled in more than 1,100 business managers across a wide range [...]

The AP reports here that the board of Clear Channel Communications Inc. on Friday accepted a sweetened offer from two Boston-based private equity firms trying to buy the radio and billboard company.
The two firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners LP and Bain Capital Partners LLC, made an offer ($39.20 per share) valued at about $19.45 billion, plus the assumption [...]

You should have been there and, if you had an Ace of any suit, you were a door prize winner at your table.
If you and your family – children included – are heading to Vegas or any other of Harrah’s 51 worldwide gaming locations, the CEO of Harrah’s would prefer you go elsewhere.  Vegas has [...]

Great Hill Partners purchased a controlling interest in SMART Business Advisory and Consulting, LLC, a provider of accounting-intensive consulting and business advisory services to Fortune 1000 companies, public sector institutions and other clients worldwide (details here).
In discussing the deal, both SMART and Great Hill Partners cited an analysis by Kennedy Information, a leading analyst of [...]

ACG Boston welcomes the following new members for this week:
Charles JacobsOne Eighty Partners Mario Laflamme
Jeffrey LevineThomas Capital Group
Justine ManneringHarris Williams & Co.
Matthew Mitchell Heritage Partners
Susan Pardus-Galland

Click here to access the ACG Member Directory.

Audax Private Equity, together with Winchester Electronics Corporation, acquired the assets of Advanced Interconnect (AI), a subsidiary of Molex Incorporated, and Kings Electronic Corporation, a privately held company (details here – pdf). Newstar Financial, Inc. and HighPoint Capital Management, LLC provided senior debt financing for both transactions; Gladstone Capital Corporation provided junior debt financing.
Franklin, Massachusetts-based [...]

Want to know how customers value national and regional brands, where they get valuable information and which channels they prefer?
AlixPartners recently completed leading research into consumer brand preferences and buying behavior across 11 consumer goods segments.  Surveying more than 5,000 consumers nationwide, the analysis focuses on brand preferences and buying behavior for Automotive, Alcoholic Beverages, [...]