Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") assigned a B2 rating to new unsecured notes being issued by Jaguar Holding Company II, LLC (a subsidiary of PPD, Inc. (collectively "PPD")). Proceeds from the new notes will be used for general corporate purposes, including the partial or full redemption of existing unsecured notes that mature in 2023. The new unsecured notes will have a guarantee from the parent, PPD, Inc.

(Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group Inc. and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. are backing out of a deal to buy a stake in American Express Global Business Travel, which has suffered losses from the Covid-19 pandemic.The parties were in talks to renegotiate terms of the deal, which was set to close this week, in an effort to keep it from falling apart. But the groups couldn’t reach an agreement, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the dispute.The deal, announced at the end of 2019, valued the American Express Co. unit at $5 billion, including debt. Carlyle and GIC agreed to purchase a 20% stake and American Express retained 50% ownership.The pandemic has roiled the travel industry, with companies suffering huge revenue drops, prompting worker layoffs. The American Express unit offers travel services primarily to businesses that book airfare and hotel rooms.The corporate travel business was growing before the advent of Covid-19, generating $5.7 trillion in annual revenue and creating 319 million jobs. Companies spent more than $305 billion on travel in 2018, a 4.5% gain from the year earlier, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, citing data from the Global Business Travel Association.LawsuitsAmerican Express Global Business Travel has “the backing of strong, long-term investors and have taken appropriate actions to reduce operating costs in the current environment,” the company said in a statement. “There are absolutely no concerns about liquidity.”An investment group, which includes Certares LP and the Qatar Investment Authority, own the other half of the business-travel joint venture.A unit of the Qatari agency sued Carlyle in Delaware Chancery Court last week seeking to force the investment firms to “comply with their contractual obligation to proceed to the closing of a share purchase agreement,” according to a court filing. The unit is asking Chancery Judge Joseph Slights III to put the case on the fast track for trial.Carlyle countersued May 8, arguing it could renege on the agreement because other investors violated “various provisions of the share purchase agreement,” Carlyle’s lawyers said in a court filing.“The sellers violated several terms of the purchase agreement and as a result we are seeking a judicial confirmation that we have no obligation to close the transaction,” Brittany Berliner, a Carlyle spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.The Delaware cases are Carlyle Roundtrip, LP v. Juweel Investors, No. 2020-0351, Delaware Chancery Court and Juweel Investors Limited v. Carlyle Roundtrip, LP, No. 2020-0338, Delaware Chancery Court (Dover).For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") downgraded Arctic Glacier U.S.A., Inc.'s (Arctic Glacier) Corporate Family Rating (CFR) to Caa1 from B3, its Probability of Default Rating (PDR) to Caa1-PD from B3-PD, and the ratings on the company's senior secured first lien credit facilities to Caa1 from B3, consisting of a $60 million senior secured first lien revolver due 2022 and a $412.5 million senior secured first lien term loan due 2024. Today's ratings downgrades and negative outlook reflect Arctic Glacier's high financial leverage with debt/EBITDA at around 7.0x for the fiscal year end period December 31, 2019, and Moody's expectation that headwinds stemming from the coronavirus outbreak will pressure earnings and cash flow generation in fiscal 2020.

Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has affirmed , Inc.'s ("Getty" or the "company") B3 Corporate Family Rating (CFR) and B3-PD Probability of Default Rating (PDR). Concurrently, Moody's affirmed the B2 ratings on the first-lien credit facilities (comprising the $80 million revolving credit facility (RCF), E450 million ($504.9 million US dollar equivalent) first-lien euro term loan and $1.03 billion first-lien term loan) and Caa2 rating on the $300 million senior unsecured notes.

CG earnings call for the period ending March 31, 2020.

(Bloomberg) -- ZoomInfo Technologies Inc., a business-intelligence platform owned by private equity firms, plans to go public as early as June in what could be one of the first technology listings since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to people with knowledge of the matter.The Vancouver, Washington-based company may launch a virtual roadshow to market its stock as soon as this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.ZoomInfo on Monday updated its filing for an initial public offering with its latest financial information. Following its February 2019 deal to combine with DiscoverOrg, the company’s revenue almost doubled to $102 million in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, according to the filing. Meanwhile, its net loss for the quarter shrunk to $5.9 million from $40 million in 2019.The company also said in the filing that in April, the annualized value of its contracts grew 87% compared with the same month last year.No decision is final and ZoomInfo’s IPO plans could still change. A representative for ZoomInfo declined to comment.The plans come after Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Ltd., the third-biggest cloud service provider in China by revenue, jumped 40% in its U.S. trading debut after raising $510 million last week. Kingsoft was the first major listing in the U.S. since mid-March, when the Covid-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic and trading volatility skyrocketed.A technology IPO would be a positive sign in an otherwise dreary market for offerings. Companies that were planning to go public this year, such as Airbnb Inc. and Procore Technologies Inc., have instead turned to private funding.ZoomInfo listed the size of its planned offering as $500 million in a filing in February, a placeholder figure that will likely change. Raising $500 million would make ZoomInfo’s IPO the second-biggest in the U.S. since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Zoom ConfusionIf the IPO is successful, ZoomInfo will have to make sure traders can tell it apart from several other companies with similar names, including Zoom Video Communications Inc., the video-conferencing system that’s become a work-from-home staple for many during the coronavirus crisis. That company’s shares are up 140% this year, valuing it at about $46 billion just over a year after its own IPO. Mobile hardware manufacturer Zoom Technologies Inc. changed its ticker to ZTNO from ZOOM to avoid confusion, after its stock rallied 890% in the first quarter and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended its trading.ZoomInfo plans to use the symbol ZI for its shares, which will list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.Previously known as Zoom Information Inc., ZoomInfo was last year combined with DiscoverOrg, another business-to-business data platform for sales and recruitment. DiscoverOrg’s backers include TA Associates and Carlyle Group Inc.JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are leading the share sale, a filing shows. Proceeds from the offering will be used to redeem preferred shares, repay debt and for general corporate purposes.(Updates with filing in third paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Letteri will be a senior managing director at Blackstone Growth’s recently launched growth equity platform and will lead its financial-services efforts.

(Bloomberg) -- A turning point has arrived for the private equity industry, whose velvet-rope deals and outsized returns defined the past decade’s era of ultra-wealth on Wall Street.The jolt of the coronavirus pandemic, which halted most economic life in the U.S., has sent shockwaves through the industry, which in recent years infiltrated virtually every corner of the business world from real estate to hospitals, newspapers and restaurants.Amid the chaos, the reverberations are just beginning. On Friday, Apollo Global Management Inc., one of the sector’s giants, said that as of March 31 it was facing the prospect of returning nearly $1 billion of profits to its investors. While executives later said April’s market gains have made that less likely, the announcement pointed to the potential pain to come.Private equity thrived in the years following the last financial crisis, taking advantage of low interest rates, relatively lax regulation -- especially compared to Wall Street banks -- and eager investors looking for returns. Now, some of the companies it levered up are among those most in financial danger. While the industry is on sure footing, with about $1.5 trillion in cash on hand, there’s a likelihood that the extreme money-making days are over for firms and their clients, at least for now.“It’s cyclical, like every other investment product -- sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug,” said Scott Conners, president of FlowStone Partners, which acquires portfolios of private equity fund interests. “Now is not a great time to own assets that you put in the ground over the past three years, but money that you put in the ground tomorrow will probably do well.”Compensation BlowApollo said that the firm, together with some current and former employees and partners, could be on the hook to give back $965.4 million in profit taken as of the end of March. The funds facing potential payouts, known as clawbacks, would have to make $4.6 billion from investment gains and income to avoid owing anything, the company said.On a call with analysts Friday morning, co-founder Josh Harris said that the firm estimated an 11% market gain would mean no clawbacks were required (the S&P 500 Index rose 13% in April), but didn’t provide further details.Clawback provisions can mean private equity executives have to return cash distributions to prevent their share of profits from exceeding a set amount, typically 20%, when a fund’s remaining holdings suffer a permanent decline in value. They’re more likely to occur when managers take profits early on in a fund’s life; if that fund gets hit later on, the earlier profits would be owed back.While so far unrealized, clawbacks may become reality for some in an industry that bet big on sectors such as travel, energy and retail that have been devastated by the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures taken to halt its spread.Apollo is the first major alternative asset manager to suggest it may have to pay back profits. But it’s not just clawbacks. Big drops in asset values at firms including Carlyle Group Inc. and Blackstone Group Inc. could mean lower compensation.Blackstone wrote down its firmwide potential future carry payments to employees -- which it describes as unrealized performance allocations compensation -- by $1.4 billion in the latest quarter, compared to accruals of about $95 million in the prior two quarters.Carlyle executives said this week that four funds fell out of carry in the first quarter, including a credit opportunities and a European buyout fund.“If you go back to the great financial crisis, we had the same thing happen,” Carlyle Chief Financial Officer Curt Buser told analysts on an earnings call Thursday. “Our fourth U.S. buyout fund fell out of accrued carry. Well, guess what? I am really happy that I was invested in that fourth U.S. buyout fund, because it did great.”Creating RichesFirms such as Blackstone, Apollo and KKR & Co. have been among the greatest wealth creation machines in history, minting dozens of billionaires at the top, legions of very wealthy partners and even offering salaries of more than $200,000 to those straight out of college.Leading figures from the industry are a recurring presence on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people. They include Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, who has an $18 billion fortune, and KKR’s Henry Kravis, who is credited with a $6 billion net worth. Apollo’s Leon Black is calculated to be worth $8.5 billion.Demand for private equity has ballooned from pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and ultra-rich families, while soaring markets made it easier to buy and sell companies or invest in credit.Some of the biggest firms went public, while more recently others cashed in by selling stakes to investors such as Neuberger Berman’s Dyal Capital Partners. That helped unlock some of their wealth, the bulk of which is often tied up in investment funds, and created a fresh cohort of new billionaires even as they kept control of their firms.Despite the current challenges, senior executives are reassuring investors about their firms’ ability to weather the current crisis. Working in their favor is that the outcome of the previous recession was soaring assets and returns for the industry.Blackstone is “designed to ride through a difficult environment,” President Jon Gray said last week. Amundi SA is “solidly armed” to eventually emerge stronger, Chief Executive Yves Perrier said Thursday, the same day that Carlyle’s co-CEOs said they were taking a “patient approach.”“Private equity is already taking advantage of deeply discounted values by buying when other capital structures won’t,” Antoine Drean, chairman and founder of private equity fund advisory Triago, said by email.Drean said he expects the industry to emerge from the crisis with an enhanced reputation for creating value and minimizing risk. “It’s an opportunity for private equity investment stars to emerge,” he said.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded the rating assigned to Revere Power, LLC's (Revere or the Project) senior secured credit facilities to B1 from Ba3 to reflect challenging power market conditions that have negatively impacted Revere's financial performance and its ability to achieve previously anticipated debt reduction targets. The credit facilities consist of a $445 million term loan B due 2026, a $70 million term loan C due 2026 and a $55 million revolving credit facility due 2024.

Carlyle Group agreed in December to purchase a $450 million stake in American Express Global Business Travel, but it's pulling out of the deal.

Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") changed Alphabet Holding Company, Inc.'s (dba as Nature's Bounty) rating outlook to stable from negative. At the same time Moody's affirmed the company's B3 Corporate Family Rating (CFR), B3-PD Probability of Default Rating, the Ba2 rating on the company's asset based lending facility ("ABL"), the B3 rating on the company's first lien term loan, and the Caa2 rating on the company's second lien term loan.

Executives discussed potential opportunities and discussed the outlook for the crisis after the private-equity firm reported a quarterly loss.

The coronavirus pandemic has slammed the Carlyle Group, which reported a first-quarter net loss of $612 million, or $1.76 a share.

(Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group Inc. and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte. are using fake excuses to renege on buying a 20% stake in American Express Global Business Travel, according to a lawsuit unsealed in the U.S.A unit of Certares Management LLC claims Carlyle’s losses from the coronavirus left it with a whopping case of buyer’s remorse and prompted its attempt to scrap the stock purchase, which had valued the travel entity at $5 billion when it was announced in 2019. Certares leads a group of investors in the deal, including the Qatar Investment Authority and several Carlyle entities.“The Carlyle Group’s losses do not provide defendants with a basis to withdraw from the transaction,” Juweel Investors Ltd., a subsidiary of New York-based Certares, said in the lawsuit unsealed Monday in Delaware Chancery Court. The investment fund “cobbled together a series of pretextual and transparently false excuses to justify their refusal to close” the deal, Juweel said.The dispute is among a half-dozen busted-deal cases tied to Covid-19 that found their way to Delaware’s business court. The state is the corporate home to more than half of U.S. public companies and more than 60% of Fortune 500 firms. Chancery court judges hear cases without juries and can’t award punitive damages.Price RoseIn its complaint, Juweel said Carlyle and GIC balked after the price of the deal rose when AmEx GBT sought to use a portion of the proceeds to cover operating losses tied to the pandemic. Juweel said the purchase agreement didn’t bar it from using the proceeds to fund its operations. The Certares unit also said it was prepared to close the deal under the agreed terms, according to court filings.“The sellers violated several terms of the purchase agreement and as a result we are seeking a judicial confirmation that we have no obligation to close the transaction,” Brittany Berliner, a spokeswoman for Carlyle, said in an emailed statement.Jason Leow, a spokesman for GIC -- the Singapore sovereign wealth fund -- didn’t respond to an email requesting comment. Other members of the investment group include funds managed by BlackRock, and Teacher Retirement System of Texas, according to a press release issued when the deal was announced.The pandemic has roiled the travel industry, with companies suffering huge revenue drops, prompting worker layoffs. AmEx GBT offers travel services primarily to businesses that book airfare and hotel rooms.The travel business was growing before Covid-19, generating $5.7 trillion in annual revenue and creating 319 million jobs. Companies spent more than $305 billion on travel in 2018, a 4.5% gain from the year earlier, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, citing data from the Global Business Travel Association.Carlyle and GIC say the economic body blows the U.S. economy suffered from the virus amount to a “material adverse effect” under the stock-purchase agreement that allows them to scuttle the deal, Juweel said in the complaint. The funds have countersued to get a judge to approve their decision to pull out.But the Certares unit said the stock-purchase agreement contains provisions that rule out a material adverse effect based on “any disruption” to the U.S. “financial, banking or securities markets,” according to the lawsuit.Juweel also said in the complaint that the agreement specifically bars Carlyle from arguing changes to “general business or economic conditions” provide a legitimate basis for calling off the deal. “No MAE has occurred, or could reasonably be expected to occur, as a result of the effects of Covid-19,” Juweel officials claimed in the lawsuit.Juweel officials have asked Chancery Judge Joseph Slights III to put the lawsuit on a fast track for trial because of worries about missing a June financing deadline. The judge is scheduled to hear Juweel’s request at a May 14 hearing.The case is Juweel Investors Limited v. Carlyle Roundtrip, LP, No. 2020-0338, Delaware Chancery Court (Dover).(Updates with Juweel claim. Earlier versions of this story corrected spelling of Certares and noted the Certares unit sued.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Last December, about a fortnight before officials in Wuhan began telling of a strange sickness that was filling the city’s hospitals, executives at the Carlyle Group worked into the night to sign what they imagined would be one of the private equity firm’s most enduring deals. Like other big Wall Street firms, Carlyle had taken to promising investors stability instead of trying to wow them with the prospect of profits that came in spectacular bursts. In 2020, however, there may be no such thing as a stable business, and Carlyle is now trying to walk away from the Amex deal before any money has even changed hands.

Net Health, a premier provider of cloud-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) software for specialized care settings, today announced that it has acquired Tissue Analytics, a pioneering developer of automated mobile wound and skin imaging and predictive analytics solutions. The acquisition of Tissue Analytics expands Net Health's leadership position within the wound care market, and for all customers, will accelerate the delivery of next generation wound care technology solutions, including predictive analytics. Net Health is a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group, Level Equity, and Silversmith Capital Partners. Silversmith invested additional equity to support the acquisition of Tissue Analytics.

Yes, the markets are roaring back and even first-quarter earnings are looking better than expected.But even as businesses open up and the novel coronavirus fades, we're not headed back to normalcy quickly. It's going to take a while.Also, all measures of performance are in an odd spot. How do you calculate what good earnings are after a complete economic shutdown? It's all going to be guesswork. And that means volatility.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading TipsWhat you want to have in your portfolio are solid stocks that will be there come what may and pay you a little for owning them. These are long-term positions that offer total returns -- dividends and capital gains -- not sexy stocks that will rally 6% in a day, then fall 10% and then rally 5%. * 9 Healthcare Stocks to Buy Even After the Coronavirus Fades The seven fundamentally solid dividend stocks to buy now are screened by my Portfolio Grader I use to find Growth Investor plays and represent some of the best long-term buys in the markets today. * Easterly Government Properties (NYSE:DEA) * Frontline (NYSE:FRO) * Carlyle Group (NYSE:CG) * Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) * Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) * Dominion Energy (NYSE:D) * Xerox (NYSE:XRX) Dividend Stocks: Easterly Government Properties (DEA)Source: Shutterstock Dividend Yield: 3.9%Easterly Government Properties is a shining example of the kind of stock I'm talking about today.It's a real estate investment trust (REIT) that has one of the most reliable tenants in the world -- the U.S. government.It's based in Washington, D.C. and leases Class A properties to government agencies. DEA operates 72 properties for 32 agencies with nearly 7 million square feet of space.DEA has been around since 2011, so it's relatively new in the REIT space. But this is a very unique niche with a serious competitive moat.Currently it has a solid 3.9% dividend, which shouldn't be affected by any of the economic issues visited upon the broader economy. The stock is up 50% in the past 12 months, so there's some significant growth there as well. Frontline (FRO)Source: VladSV / Shutterstock.com Dividend Yield: 17.1%Frontline is a commodity shipping company that ships dry and wet cargo. That basically means it has ships that will carry iron ore or coal (dry cargo) as well as oil and liquified natural gas (wet cargo). It carries a variety of other products as well.Shipping is a very cyclical business and that tends to be reflected in its dividend as well.When the economy is going strong, shipping firms are in demand and the stock rises as the dividend falls. When it gets seasonally slow -- usually summer -- the dividend rises as the stock falls.But that cycle has been affected by Covid-19. That's why FRO stock has a 17.1% dividend right now. But as the global economy comes back online, that dividend will shrink as the stock rises. * 7 of the Best Large-Cap Stocks to Buy Now This is a seasonally volatile industry, but there's a lot of upside at this point, and FRO has become a "strong buy" in my stock-picking system in this market. And that huge dividend should keep you happy as growth picks up. Carlyle Group (CG)Source: Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.com Dividend Yield: 3.9%Carlyle Group is an asset management company. That means it uses private investors' money to run its investment operations. Those include private equity, real estate, global credit and investments.It has been around since 1987 and has a very blue-chip client list of global leaders and royal families that want a solid place to park their money and get a consistent long-term return.For the rest of us, we can ride their coattails by owning the company at large.It has grown from a boutique private firm into a powerful global company with a $9 billion market capitalization. And the entire time it has kept investors' money safe and productive.It delivers a healthy 3.9% dividend and the stock is up 24% in the past year. Unum Group (UNM)Source: Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.com Dividend Yield: 6.7%Unum Group specializes in supplemental insurance benefits. Basically, it offers long-term and short-term disability insurance, as well as group life and accidental death and dismemberment policies. It also owns Colonial Life, which is a health insurance provider.Insurance is always a corner of the market I like to monitor for Growth Investor plays. This particular company has been operating since 1848, so it has seen global and national events over that time, including some of the biggest market dislocations before the Great Depression.Currently, it operates mainly in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.While the job market has shrunk during this period, UNM sits on piles of cash since many of its policies don't pay out as regularly as broader health insurance companies do. This protects it from some the damage in the markets right now.The stock has been hammered in recent months, off 35% in the past 3 months, and 53% over the past 12 months. But its dividend is now sitting at a rich 6.7% and given its long track record, there's little chance it will cut that dividend.And as the market recovers, the stock will recover as well, making up lost ground quickly. Huntsman (HUN)Source: Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.com Dividend Yield: 3.9%Huntsman is a chemical manufacturer in Texas that focuses on the plastics, automotive and construction industries.And earlier this month is made 50 tons of hand sanitizer and distributed it to hospitals and pharmacies for free.It was founded in 1970 by Jon Huntsman and remains a family-run company in its second generation.The company's client list reads as a "Who's Who" of industrial blue-chip players across various industries. And it has made solid in-roads to China and other nations beyond U.S. shores over the years. * 30 Consumer Stocks to Buy Once the Coronavirus Pandemic Passes This is a cyclical business, so it has suffered in the current environment. It's off 22% in the past 12 months. But in the past month the stock is up 16%, which shows there are buyers moving in while it's on sale. It delivers a solid 3.9% dividend. Dominion Energy (D)Source: ying / Shutterstock.com Dividend Yield: 4.8%Dominion Energy is a big electric utility that has service operations in Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas and Ohio. It also has some operations as far away as Wyoming and Utah.Dominion also has an unregulated natural gas business, with one of the few liquefied natural gas export terminals in the country, at Cove Point, Maryland. This has enormous potential, not just for Dominion's own natural gas supplies but collecting fees from other suppliers looking to export their LNG.It is also investing heavily in renewable energy resources. Its balance between regulated and unregulated businesses allows it to maintain a solid growth rate and dividend, with a growth kicker when times are good.Right now, it's a flight-to-safety stock for many, so it isn't cheap here. But it still delivers a generous 4.8% dividend and is up slightly in the past 12 months. And I've got even better growth and income plays for you now. Xerox (XRX)Source: BalkansCat / Shutterstock.com Dividend Yield: 5.6%Xerox was once so popular and ubiquitous that its name was synonymous with making a copy -- as both a noun and a verb. You Xeroxed the report and handed out Xeroxes of that report.But those days are long behind it. From running the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) where Steve Jobs got the ideas for a mouse and the graphical user interface for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), it failed to keep up with the times and couldn't take advantage of its own research.And while it made some efforts to regain its vaulted position, the world of copiers and digital printing wasn't where the big money was headed.In 2018, the company was going to allow itself to be sold to Fujifilm (OTCMKTS:FUJIY), but investor Carl Icahn and others stepped in and fought the sale. Late last year it tried a hostile takeover of HP (NYSE:HPQ), but Covid-19 brought an end to that effort.It still sports a $3.9 billion market cap and has sold off more than 50% in the past year. But with a revived board and management -- and Icahn's backing -- there's still hope it can build a solid company through acquisitions.The stock has a 5.6% dividend, which is far better than a money market account.Legacy tech is tricky, though, if what you're looking for is growth. That's why I'm looking in a completely different group, where my favorite stock offers both dividends and huge growth opportunities. The AI Master KeyIf artificial intelligence (AI) sounds futuristic, even far-fetched -- well, keep in mind, you're already using it every day. If you've ever used Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Assistant or Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Siri … if you've had Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) recommend a movie or Zillow (NASDAQ:Z) recommend a house … even an email spam filter … then you've used artificial intelligence.In this new world of AI everywhere, data becomes a hot commodity.As scientists find even more applications for artificial intelligence -- from hospitals to retail to self-driving cars -- it's incredible to imagine how much data will be involved.To create AI programs in the first place, tech companies must collect vast amounts of data on human decisions. Data is what powers every AI system. As one AI researcher from the University of South Florida puts it, "data is the new oil."To cash in, you'll want the company that makes the "brain" that all AI software needs to function, spot patterns and interpret data.It's known as the "Volta Chip" -- and it's what makes the AI revolution possible.You don't need to be an AI expert to take part. I'll tell you everything you need to know, as well as my buy recommendation, in my special report for Growth Investor, The A.I. Master Key. The stock is still under my buy limit price -- so you'll want to sign up now. That way, you can get in while you can still do so cheaply.Click here for a free briefing on this groundbreaking innovation.Louis Navellier had an unconventional start, as a grad student who accidentally built a market-beating stock system -- with returns rivaling even Warren Buffett. In his latest feat, Louis discovered the "Master Key" to profiting from the biggest tech revolution of this (or any) generation. Louis Navellier may hold some of the aforementioned securities in one or more of his newsletters. More From InvestorPlace * America's 1 Stock Picker Reveals Next 1,000% Winner * 25 Stocks You Should Sell Immediately * 1 Under-the-Radar 5G Stock to Buy Now * The 1 Stock All Retirees Must Own The post 7 Fundamentally Solid Dividend Stocks to Buy appeared first on InvestorPlace.

(Bloomberg) -- Former Google Inc. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt, appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to lead a commission on reviving the state’s economy, said businesses and individuals must reimagine their futures as they emerge from the coronavirus lockdown.New York’s emergence from the pandemic will depend on a wider availability and use of online technology in health care, commerce and education, and a change in how people view working in offices and at home, Schmidt said Thursday in a Bloomberg TV discussion with David Rubenstein, chairman and co-founder of the Carlyle Group.“Without significant changes, people won’t be able to work efficiently,” he said. “We have to find ways to get through this Covid crisis before a vaccine is available.”New York, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, is making plans to reopen some regions in phases beginning tomorrow. Cuomo and Schmidt have spoken of the need to rethink and improve the state’s transportation and health-care systems in the aftermath of Covid-19.Schmidt said the 15-member Reimagine New York State task force will focus on using the Internet in health-care delivery, providing widespread access to broadband service and rethinking rules for the workplace. He expects the panel will issue initial findings in three to six months.“The state needs help, as do all the states, and this pandemic is going to go on for a pretty long time,” Schmidt said. “We better get used to dealing with it and making some adjustments.”The lack of widespread testing in the U.S. has “trained all our citizens that they can’t be sure if they meet someone on the street that they won’t get it,” Rubenstein said of the virus.Tele-medicine can help doctors diagnose cases without office visits, empowering them to triage the patients who may need hospitalization or an in-office visit, Schmidt said. Online and offline retail will be more blended, as will learning online and in school, he said.A vaccine is likely within the next 12 months, Schmidt said, because of the advent of artificial intelligence, which can replicate the human intuitive process in theorizing approaches to neutralizing it.“I’m an insufferable optimist about America and our entrepreneurial capability,” Schmidt said. “If we could just agree on these basic rules -- like more testing is good, more data is good, building the surveillance systems -- we can get through this, and we could get through it a lot more quickly than people think.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Q1 2020 Carlyle Group Inc Earnings Call

(Bloomberg) -- The Covid-19 pandemic has decimated the world’s travel industry and fatally crippled a deal calling for the Carlyle Group Inc. and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte to buy 20% of American Express Global Business Travel, according to unsealed lawsuits.Carlyle and GIC asked a judge in separate lawsuits to let them scrap the deal. In the lawsuits, the funds disputed claims by an investment group led by Certares Management LLC -- slated to sell the shares in the deal -- that the pandemic doesn’t provide legitimate legal grounds for pulling the plug. The $1.5 billion stock-purchase valued the travel entity’s total worth at $5 billion.Certares, respresenting other investors in the deal, sued earlier seeking an order from a judge to force Carlyle and GIC to finalize the deal. On Thursday, it failed to persuade Delaware Chancery Court Judge Joseph Slights III to schedule a quick trial on its lawsuit. Slights said it would be “impractical and imprudent” to try to protect the deal’s June 30 financing deadline with a speedy hearing.“It’s not feasible in times we are in now, where most of the country is locked down because of a pandemic, international travel discouraged and health of population still at risk,” the judge said. Certares’ lawyer Tibor Nagy argued that without a trial by the end of June, financing for the deal would collapse.“If this deal doesn’t close by June 30, it will never close,” Nagy told the judge on a conference call. Jonathan Polkes, one of Carlyle’s lawyers, reminded the judge a decision on whether Covid-19 provides proper legal grounds to renege on deals will be groundbreaking. “This is going to be a very closely watched, bellwether case,” he said.‘Confident’“We respect the judge’s decision today that the unique circumstances of the pandemic will not permit for an expedited trial, but we are confident in our case and will continue to pursue it vigorously,” Charles Zehren, a Certares spokesman, said in an emailed statement.The sale’s specific terms don’t bar canceling it if the world is rocked by a worldwide health crisis -- like a pandemic -- that paralyzes the airline, hotel and rental-car industries, Carlyle’s and GIC’s lawyers said in the lawsuits.While the sale agreement allocates “certain risks to the purchasers, glaringly absent is a carve-out for pandemics,” Carlyle’s lawyers said.Busted DealsThe dispute is among more than a half-dozen busted-deal cases tied to Covid-19 that landed in Delaware’s business court. The state is the corporate home to more than half of U.S. public companies and more than 60% of Fortune 500 firms. Chancery judges hear cases without juries and can’t award punitive damages.“Their claims are entirely pretextual,” Zehren said Wednesday of Carlyle’s and GIC’s arguments. “The global pandemic was already well underway when Carlyle and GIC moved to back out of their legal obligations just prior to closing.”The pandemic has buffeted the travel industry, as companies are suffering severe revenue drops. AmEx GBT offers travel services primarily to businesses that book airfare and hotel rooms.Material Adverse EffectCarlyle and GIC say the economic blows the U.S. economy suffered from the virus amount to a “material adverse effect” under the stock-purchase agreement that allows them to scuttle the deal. Such clauses are common in M&A deals.“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented contraction in the travel industry far more severe than that resulting from any prior natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other disruption,” Carlyle’s lawyers said.GIC said in an emailed statement that it acknowledged the court’s decision to reject a request for expedited proceedings in advance of June 30.It added the “transaction cannot be consummated as the sellers, Juweel, and Global Business Travel are unable to live up to their obligations,” referring to the defendants and the travel service provider. “These are not mere technicalities but go to the core fundamentals of the Global Business Travel business,” a GIC spokesperson said.Two years ago, a Delaware judge invoked a material adverse effect clause to allow German drugmaker Fresenius SE to cancel a $4.3 billion buyout of U.S. rival Akorn Inc., which tried to cover up serious quality-control problems.Moves by AmEx GBT -- run by Greg O’Hara, founder and head of New York-based Certares -- responding to the virus also violated the terms of the stock deal, according to Carlyle’s and GIC’s court filings.The joint venture’s cost-cutting measures, including cutting employees’ salaries, imposing a hiring freeze and cracking down on operating expenses means executives haven’t been operating the travel firm “in the ordinary course” of business as required by deal’s terms, GIC said.It’s “fundamentally unfair to purchasers, who are being asked to pay far more for a company that is a mere shell of what it once was,” GIC said.The Delaware cases are Juweel Investors Limited v. Carlyle Roundtrip, LP, No. 2020-0338, Delaware Chancery Court, Carlyle Roundtrip, LP v. Juweel Investors, No. 2020-0351, Delaware Chancery Court, Pure Magenta Investment Pte. Ltd. V. Juweel Investors Limited, No. 2020-0354 (Dover).(Updates with GIC response in 14th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.