Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Carlyle Buys Majority Interest in ITS Technologies & Logistics

The Carlyle Group's news section of its website ran the headline above. Unfortunately the link to the press release wasn't operating. A web search of the deal produced very little. One might expect a technology company to have a major web presence, but little information was available.

ITS Technologies & Logistics did show up as a contractor for the Defense Logistics Agency. Other than that, I'll have to wait for Carlyle to share more information, but it looks like the government industrial monstrosity has yet another nipple available for their Pennsylvania Avenue cohort.

Update: ITS is an intermodal facilities operator. It lifts containers from rail to truck and truck to rail and performs rail switching, terminal administration and equipment maintenance. It has 52 operations in the U.S. and 3 in Mexico. Can Carlyle pull a double in a year and a half, like they did with CSX Lines, later renamed Horizon Lines? Ex. Treasury Chief John Snow sold CSX Lines to Carlyle for a song. He now heads another private equity underwriter, Cerebus Capital Management. Meanwhile, CSX works Congress for protection from potential hedge fund acquirers. One thing leads to another.