Free Republic

LAS VEGAS - Harrah's Entertainment Inc., the world's largest casino operator, said Monday it has received a $15.05 billion offer for the company from private-equity firms Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group. The private-equity firms are offering $81 per share in cash, a 22 percent premium to Harrah's closing stock price on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. After the news, Harrah's shares surged $9.52, or 14.3 percent, to $75.95 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Harrah's said it has established a special committee of independent directors to review the offer and has retained UBS Securities...

Last week, a well-respected online business publication provided yet another possible link between Neil Goldschmidt and the Texans who recruited him to take over Portland General Electric. On Oct. 28, Bloomberg News published an account of Texas Pacific Group's struggle to buy Oregon's largest utility. The story quoted Richard Blum, a San Francisco investor who has been a business partner and hiking companion of Texas Pacific CEO David Bonderman for the past decade. Blum is no stranger to acquiring heavily regulated businesses in Oregon--nor is he a stranger to Goldschmidt. Correspondence obtained by WW from the state archives shows that...

Portland General Electric has sailed past its first legal hurdle in breaking free from its troubled and broke parent, Enron Corp. Ignoring a letter from city officials saying Portland could pay more, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez on Thursday quickly approved the $2.35 billion sale of PGE to the Texas Pacific Group, a San Francisco-based private investment group with $13 billion in assets. Gonzalez's stamp of approval follows 10 months of intense negotiations among Enron management, its attorneys and creditor groups, said the company's managing director, Mitchell Taylor, during Thursday's bankruptcy hearing in New York City. "We're pleased the court...