It slipped by me at the time, but Constellation Software took itself off the market two weeks ago, having announced last April that it was considering strategic alternatives. With two large shareholders in OMERS and Birch Hill Equity Partners , most assumed that a sale would come to pass last summer.

At the time of the for sale press release, with the stock at $65/share, the market cap was around $1.385 billion; before any takeover premium. Thats a hefty MA bite for most software or service firms, leaving only big players such as INFOR as viable bidders. Im sure that Merrill and BMO did a good job on the sell-side, but with a tough debt market limiting PE options and an apparently unwilling management team, the outcome might not have been much of a surprise. At least with the benefit of hindsight. Just because it has been a great investment post-IPO doesnt guarantee a successful sale transaction, unusual as that is to say.

Now that the stock is over $84, thanks in part to a new 5% dividend that pushed the quote up despite being pulled off the market, perhaps theres still a deal to be done at CSU.

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With bank lending slowing and capital markets closed to all but large corporates, small and medium-size enterprises around the world are in desperate need of new sources of funding. Given how important SMEs are to the global economy, the credit crunch they are experiencing is more than one sector’s plight. Should financing continue to tighten, it could have a huge impact for SMEs themselves, for economic recovery and growth, and for the stability of global corporate supply chains.

A number of new investors and new funding avenues are beginning to take up the slack—from private placements to asset-based lending and from retail investors to dedicated SME investment funds. But whether these alternative financing channels can kick-start SME growth remains to be seen.

SMEs are well-recognized as the foundation for economic growth: Mom and Pop firms in the US and family-run Mittelstand companies in Germany both account for around 50% of their national GDP. The well

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Do you have change for a million-dollar bill? Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.   Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.   The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.   Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isnt clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.

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Free credit reports from 3 bureaus are important for a company or an individual as they help to get loans from the lenders. The lenders will check your credit report scoring thoroughly to make sure that you are eligible for the loan or not. Basically, you credit report tells about your payment history. Hence, it can be easily understood by the lenders that you are capable of paying the interest or not. Now, is there any option or scope to get a free credit report?

According to the federal and state law of USA, you can request a free credit report annually from the three main credit reporting agencies. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are the three major credit reporting agencies; from each of them you can get a free credit report. However, there is another way of getting a free credit score or report. Full article…

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