| Francisco Partners agrees to buy MyHeritage, Mnuchin plans to raise a fund, Stone Point hits impasse in plans to launch secondaries Happy Thursday!
Hope your week is going well. We got all kinds of stuff happening over here in the Metuchen bureau.
Here’s a quickie: Francisco Partners agreed to buy MyHeritage, a service for discovering family history. MyHeritage was formed in 2003 through a subscription-based global enterprise used by 62 million users available in 42 languages.
The company raised $49 million in five financing rounds, the most recent of which took place in 2012. Investors included private investors Yuval Rakavy and Aviv Raiz, as well as Accel, Index Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. Some existing investors will be re-investing in the deal, including HP Beteiligungs, Yuval Rakavy, founder and CEO Gilad Japhet and independent investor Gigi Levy.
Eran Gorev, Francisco’s president of Israel and senior operating partner, will join the MyHeritage board once the deal closes.
Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub...
That’s it for today! Hit me up with feedback, or tips n’ gossip at cwitkowsky@buyoutsinsider.com or find me on LinkedIn.
Also of note (may require subscriptions) Cap: Thomas H. Lee Partners is experiencing strong demand for its ninth fund, sources say, but will still cap commitments at $4.9 billion. Read it here on Buyouts.
Move: Paul Ryan, former speaker of the House, will join Solamere Capital, a private-equity firm founded by Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s son Taggart, as a partner. Solamere, a Boston firm with more than $1 billion in assets, seeks to invest in high-growth companies. Read it here on WSJ.
SPACs: The surge in special purpose acquisition companies, which have raised more than $137 billion over the past 12 months, has set off a global search for suitable targets -- usually startups with little revenue or mature companies sitting in private equity portfolios. Now SPACs are also looking at divisions of public companies, with an eye on those that have the potential to be carved out as standalone businesses. Read it on Bloomberg.
PE Deals 
They said it “SPACs have the ability to offer a path to liquidity not just for standalone-type private companies, but also public companies." Kevin Hartz, co-founder of Eventbrite, tells Bloomberg about SPACs targeting corporate carve-outs.
Today's letter was prepared by Chris Witkowsky Subscribe now to get full, unlimited access to all PE Hub content, including every PE Hub Wire article. Please visit Buyouts for the latest insight into LP activity and Venture Capital Journal for comprehensive coverage and analysis of what’s happening in VC. 
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