Bain Capital

Mitt Romney has long called himself a venture capitalist, experience he says helps him understand the economy better than other candidates for president. But he spent much more of his career in leveraged buyouts than in the investments in start-up companies known as venture capital. Romney's one true venture deal was Staples Inc., the office supply superstore, two years after he started Bain Capital. He wasn't the first to discover Staples; another Boston venture firm introduced him to Staples founder Tom Stemberg.

Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday laced into the Republican Party and its presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, saying its Tea Party movement faction has blocked progress by President Obama while Romney wants to take the country back to recessionary practices. "They begin to sound like the horse that just won the Derby and the Preakness, ‘I'll Have Another,' " Biden told an audience at Keene State College. "Except the horse is a real winner. " Broadening his attack, the vice president said, "We will not go back to the '50s on social policy, to the Cold War on our...

Federal and state authorities are pulling back the covers on the secretive world of private equity by examining how these firms value the investments in the portfolios they run for pension funds, endowments, and nonprofits. The Securities and Exchange Commission has sent letters of inquiry to about a dozen firms, asking how they value the investments in their private equity funds, according to two people briefed on the matter. Both the SEC and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley are looking more closely at a particular fund, the Oppenheimer Global Resource Private Equity Fund,...

President Obama has accepted $92,270 in his last two campaigns from employees of Bain Capital, the private equity firm formerly led by Mitt Romney, which he has villainized for profiting on failed companies that laid off workers. Romney has taken $229,650, more than any other politician. But together, Democratic candidates and committees have received more than $1.3 million from Bain Capital workers since the 2008 election cycle - double the amount collected by Republicans. The willingness of Obama and his party to fund their campaigns with Bain Capital money threatens to undermine their...

Protesters gathered at lunch time today across the street from Bain Capital's headquarters, criticizing the firm and Mitt Romney for what they called killing jobs out of greed. "They have made a business out of killing jobs for profit," said Jason Stephany, spokesman for the group MassUniting.org, which led the protest. Bain Capital, a Boston-based investment firm, was previously headed by Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is now running to be the Republican nominee for president.

Bain Capital and its venture capital arm agreed to invest $238 million in SquareTrade, a San Francisco company that sells product warranties to consumers. The investments come from a Bain buyout fund and a separate venture fund, an unusual combination for the firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This is the first deal Bain Capital has disclosed this political season. SquareTrade sells warranties on consumer products such as laptops and other electronics that either augment or replace the ones provided by manufacturers.

Bain Capital is preparing to raise a new private equity fund that will be smaller than its last fund, at $7 billion to $8 billion, according to two people briefed on the discussions. Bain, based in Boston, has been planning for its 11th fund in the heat of the media spotlight as its founder and former chief executive, Mitt Romney, runs for president. The firm's last global fund, Fund X, was $10.7 billion, plus $2 billion more in co-investments from a side fund, raised in 2008.

President Barack Obama sought to undermine Mitt Romney's key rationale for his presidential candidacy Monday, sharply attacking his Republican challenger's background as a venture capitalist and arguing that profit-making alone is not a qualification for the White House. "His main calling card for why he thinks he should be president," Obama declared, "is his business experience. " It was Obama's most expansive argument yet against Romney, and the president delivered it from a world stage in his home town.

Amid a flash of cameras, Mitt Romney signed the check to buy Domino's Pizza with a flourish. It was a huge deal for Romney's Bain Capital back in 1998, worth $1.1 billion. Thomas Monaghan, the pizza magnate and orphan raised by nuns in the Detroit area, was cashing out all but a small stake. He wanted the proceeds to start a Catholic university. So he handed over control of the company he built from a small pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Mich., in 1960, to Romney and the partners of Bain Capital.

ON THE night of his New Hampshire primary victory, Mitt Romney accused Democrats and "some desperate Republicans" of putting "free enterprise on trial. " President Obama, he said, was stoking "the bitter politics of envy. " When Romney struck these kinds of notes in the past, he has referred to Obama's proposal to tax upper-income earners at a higher rate. This time, it seemed clear, he was referring to envy of himself, and his career at Boston-based Bain Capital. Founded by Romney and two other partners in 1984, Bain Capital was a unique creation.

President Obama has accepted $92,270 in his last two campaigns from employees of Bain Capital, the private equity firm formerly led by Mitt Romney, which he has villainized for profiting on failed companies that laid off workers. Romney has taken $229,650, more than any other politician. But together, Democratic candidates and committees have received more than $1.3 million from Bain Capital workers since the 2008 election cycle - double the amount collected by Republicans. The willingness of Obama and his party to fund their campaigns with Bain Capital money threatens to...

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney's campaign, following several days of intense attacks on his experience at Bain Capital, said it welcomed the discussion. "Look, we're happy to compare Governor Romney's record of success -- both at the state house in Massachusetts, and as a businessman for 25 years in the private sector -- to the lack of real world economic experience of President Obama," Eric Fehrnstrom, a senior adviser, told reporters on a conference call on Wednesday morning. He touted some of the jobs that he said were created during Romney's four-year term in...

Mitt Romney remains in a virtual tie with President Obama, but Americans no longer believe he would manage the nation's economic recovery better than the incumbent, according to a national poll published Tuesday. A survey by The Washington Post and ABC News showed Obama with a slim overall lead over the presumptive Republican nominee, 49 percent to 46 percent among registered voters. The 3-point gap was within the poll's margin of error and was consistent with those of other recent polls showing the two candidates in a dead heat.

Vice President Joe Biden today laced into the Republican Party and its presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, saying its Tea Party faction had blocked progress by President Obama while Romney wants to take the country back to recessionary practices. "They begin to sound like the horse that just won the Derby and the Preakness, ‘I'll Have Another,'" Biden told an audience at Keene State College. "Except the horse is a real winner. " Broadening his attack, the vice president said: "We will not go back to the ‘50s on social policy, to the Cold War...

So what if Newark Mayor Cory Booker went off message? On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Booker, a supporter of President Obama's reelection bid, took issue with a recent Obama ad criticizing Mitt Romney's record at the private-equity firm Bain Capital. In truth, open debate on the issue shouldn't make Booker "uncomfortable," as he put it. A key question in this election is whether leveraged buyouts, as practiced by Bain Capital and other companies, tend to produce job growth and efficiency, or layoffs and weakened companies.

WASHINGTON — The global consulting firm Bain & Co. plans to open its first office in Washington this summer. The Boston company is expected to announce Monday that it has appointed Bain partner Phillip Kleweno, a former Princess Cruises and Teleflora chief executive, managing director of the office. The move comes at a time when government spending is likely to slow and a number of consultancies are opening offices in Washington to help businesses navigate the weak economy and deal with health care and other regulatory changes.

NEW YORK — Children’s clothing retailer Gymboree Corp. has agreed to be bought by asset management firm Bain Capital for $1.8 billion in what would be the sixth-largest private equity deal of the year. Gymboree said yesterday that the deal is for $65.40 per share, a 24 percent premium to Gymboree’s Friday closing stock price of $52.95. The retailer, based in San Francisco, has about 27.3 million shares outstanding. The news did not come as a surprise, as speculation about a potential acquisition had been brewing.

A super PAC supporting President Barack Obama is airing a new ad in five states questioning Republican Mitt Romney's commitment to workers. Priorities USA Action is airing the ad in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. It comes a day after the Obama campaign released a similar ad attacking Romney's past role as head of private equity firm Bain Capital. The new Priorities ad shows a testimonial from a former steel worker at GST Steel in Kansas City, Mo., who says Romney's Bain Capital was only interested in making money at the expense of...

After attacking Mitt Romney and Bain Capital last week for their dealings with a Missouri steel company, the Obama campaign today is turning to the tale of a closed Indiana office supply company that then-Senator Edward M. Kennedy used to repel Romney in their 1994 race. The saga of SCM Office Supplies Inc. in Marion, Ind., was used by Kennedy in television ads and campaign trail appearances by SCM workers to undercut Romney as he mounted the most serious reelection challenge of Kennedy's career.