Bain Capital

Venture-capital activity may have been down in terms of deals and dollars during the first quarter nationwide, but the second-tier Philadelphia market did pretty well. Thirty-three companies raised $142.4 million during the first three months of 2013, compared with 44 companies attracting $54.5 million during the fourth quarter, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report. SevOne Inc. , a Wilmington software developer, was listed as the big wheel landing the biggest deal: $60 million.

LACONIA, N.H. - His credibility under attack, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday that he had "no role whatsoever in the management" of a private equity firm after early 1999, and demanded that President Obama apologize for aides who allege otherwise. "This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States," Romney said in an interview on ABC, one of several he granted to network and cable stations in hopes of extinguishing the controversy.

Cory Booker must feel like the halfback who finally gets to play in the big game — and fumbles the football. But he will get other chances. The Newark mayor's inarticulate handling of a Meet the Press question Sunday about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's prior career with the Bain Capital private equity firm was painful to watch, but not fatal. Since he was President Obama's surrogate, it was surprising that Booker seemed to defend Romney, saying he disagreed with Obama ads that appear to equate private equity firms with evil incarnate.

CHICAGO - President Obama sought Monday to undermine Mitt Romney's key rationale for his presidential candidacy, 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 said, "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 hometown.

WOLFEBORO, N.H. - Mitt Romney's campaign said Sunday that President Obama is willing to say anything to win a second term and should say he's sorry for attacks on the Republican's successful career at a private-equity firm. "No, we will not apologize," the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility. Questions about Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the firm shipped jobs overseas.

It's no surprise that Republican front-runner Mitt Romney is being compared to the fictional "greed is good" capitalist Gordon Gekko. What's surprising is that the criticism is coming from members of his own pro-business party. The "class warfare" debate was supposed to wait for the general election, when whoever is the Republican nominee can be counted on to accuse President Obama of engaging in what is, by GOP standards, such despicable behavior. But the Republican also-rans in Iowa and New Hampshire are now attacking Romney as a capitalist job-killer.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - With just days to go before a primary that could all but decide the Republican presidential nomination, a shrunken field of five candidates battled in a debate Monday night, with opponents trying to pull front-runner Mitt Romney back to Earth. The former Massachusetts governor - who won the first two nominating contests, in Iowa and New Hampshire, and leads in the polls here - faced intense scrutiny in the first of two debates this week before South Carolina holds its primary Saturday.

WASHINGTON - Documents filed by Mitt Romney's former company conflict with the Republican presidential candidate's statements about when he gave up control of the private equity firm Bain Capital. President Obama's campaign seized on the discrepancies Thursday to allege that Romney was lying about his background. Romney, in turn, said Obama was the one being dishonest, as he rolled out a hard-hitting TV ad that accused the president of launching "misleading, unfair and untrue" attacks about the Republican's role in outsourcing U.S. jobs.

GREER, S.C. - Facing efforts by his Republican rivals to paint him as a heartless corporate raider who preyed on struggling companies while working in private equity, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney stepped up his defense of his tenure at Bain Capital on Thursday, arguing that his goal had been to make businesses successful over the long term. Supporters of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have promised a "strong and sustained" campaign in the Palmetto State attacking Romney's career at Bain.

Corporate buyouts of underperforming companies - "private-equity investments," as financiers prefer to call them - made Mitt Romney rich and launched him toward the presidency. So his Republican rivals, and President Obama , are blaming Romney for the factory and office closings, firings, transfer payments, and junk-bond financings that often follow buyout deals. And private-equity investors are jumping to the defense. "Attacks on private equity" threaten the most successful, productive sector of our depressed economy, argues Andrew T. Greenberg , investment banker at Fairmount Partners in West Conshohocken and chief executive officer at GF Data Resources L.L.C.

Venture-capital activity may have been down in terms of deals and dollars during the first quarter nationwide, but the second-tier Philadelphia market did pretty well. Thirty-three companies raised $142.4 million during the first three months of 2013, compared with 44 companies attracting $54.5 million during the fourth quarter, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree Report. SevOne Inc. , a Wilmington software developer, was listed as the big wheel landing the biggest deal: $60 million.

WASHINGTON - When Mitt Romney launched Bain Capital in 1984, he struggled at first to raise enough money for the untested venture. Old-money families like the Rothschilds turned down the young Boston consultant. So he and his partners tapped an eclectic roster of investors, raising more than a third of their first $37 million investment fund from wealthy foreigners. Most of the foreign investors' money came through corporations registered in Panama, then known for tax advantages and unusual banking secrecy.

WOLFEBORO, N.H. - Mitt Romney's campaign said Sunday that President Obama is willing to say anything to win a second term and should say he's sorry for attacks on the Republican's successful career at a private-equity firm. "No, we will not apologize," the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility. Questions about Romney's tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the firm shipped jobs overseas.

LACONIA, N.H. - His credibility under attack, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Friday that he had "no role whatsoever in the management" of a private equity firm after early 1999, and demanded that President Obama apologize for aides who allege otherwise. "This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States," Romney said in an interview on ABC, one of several he granted to network and cable stations in hopes of extinguishing the controversy.

WASHINGTON - Documents filed by Mitt Romney's former company conflict with the Republican presidential candidate's statements about when he gave up control of the private equity firm Bain Capital. President Obama's campaign seized on the discrepancies Thursday to allege that Romney was lying about his background. Romney, in turn, said Obama was the one being dishonest, as he rolled out a hard-hitting TV ad that accused the president of launching "misleading, unfair and untrue" attacks about the Republican's role in outsourcing U.S. jobs.

Meatballs in sweet tomato sauce. With pickles? And vinegar peppers? That's what Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney ordered, in a Shorti hoagie, at a Bucks County Wawa last weekend, as my colleague Tom Fitzgerald reported. Whatever that particular mix of sweet and sour is supposed to be, it's not Philly food. My mother-in-law, Eileen Schach, who grew up feeding a farm household and whose sister became one of the most feared caterers on Pittsburgh's North Side, assures me the German Pennsylvanians she grew up with don't pile those things together on their serving boards, either.

Campaigning for public office on a platform that demonizes the wealthy is not a new idea. In a speech to the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, for instance, Franklin D. Roosevelt accused "economic royalists" of standing in the way of income equality. The theme emerges periodically in political campaigns, usually as part of a larger, more issue-oriented strategy. President Obama, though, has made it the centerpiece of his reelection bid. He has attacked presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney's record as an executive of Bain Capital, the private-equity firm that reaped enormous financial benefits from investments in distressed companies, making Romney a multimillionaire.

Cory Booker must feel like the halfback who finally gets to play in the big game — and fumbles the football. But he will get other chances. The Newark mayor's inarticulate handling of a Meet the Press question Sunday about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's prior career with the Bain Capital private equity firm was painful to watch, but not fatal. Since he was President Obama's surrogate, it was surprising that Booker seemed to defend Romney, saying he disagreed with Obama ads that appear to equate private equity firms with evil incarnate.

CHICAGO - President Obama sought Monday to undermine Mitt Romney's key rationale for his presidential candidacy, 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 said, "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 hometown.

Corporate buyouts of underperforming companies - "private-equity investments," as financiers prefer to call them - made Mitt Romney rich and launched him toward the presidency. So his Republican rivals, and President Obama , are blaming Romney for the factory and office closings, firings, transfer payments, and junk-bond financings that often follow buyout deals. And private-equity investors are jumping to the defense. "Attacks on private equity" threaten the most successful, productive sector of our depressed economy, argues Andrew T. Greenberg , investment banker at Fairmount Partners in West Conshohocken and chief executive officer at GF Data Resources L.L.C.