Co-working Spaces (Holy WeWork Batman)

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Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Onex Corp. are reportedly prepping a $3.7b offer to purchase IWG Plc, a commercial real estate company and office space owner. Those who have been around the restructuring industry long enough will recall that IWG is the successor entity to Regus, which filed for bankruptcy nearly 15 years ago after it expanded too quickly in the midst of the dot-com boom. Now, putting aside "location location location," which, admittedly, is, uh, we guess kind of a big deal in real estate, it's important to note that IWG actually owns its office space. It also has nearly 3k locations. Its main competitor, WeWork, in contrast, does not own most of its 283 lease rejections...uh, oops, we mean, locations. Which, naturally, means that it is valued at 7x BAM and Onex's offer for IWG. Because, you know, pixy dust. 

Since we're on the topic of WeWork, we might as well note that news out of its WeLive division has been scant ever since Bloomberg reported a few months ago that the concept wasn't gaining traction. Notably, however, Node, a co-living company based in London and New York just launched its third Bushwick-based location. Things are only going to get harder for WeWork as it tries to justify its lofty valuation.

Notable (3D Printing, Elliott Management, Sycamore Capital Partners, etc.)

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3D Printing. We've previously noted the potential game changing effect of advancements in 3D printing technology. This view - from the bloggers at UPS - is a little more tempered but interesting nonetheless.

Brookfield Asset Management. Interesting.

Energy M&A. Reportedly, Vistra Energy Corp. is making moves to take over Dynegy Inc.

Gearing for Battle. Elliott Management is hiring to prepare for a restructuring wave (firewall).

Short Coke & Pepsi (read: Bottled Water). On one hand, the volume of plastic water bottles is absurd and harmful to the environment...we get that. On the other hand, however, do we really need a BtoB subscription service for...wait for it...NYC tap water?!? We're split as to whether this is "notable" for its earnest save-the-environment vibe or for its "is this really a frikken problem in need of solving" vibe. We're leaning towards the latter.

Smoking-More-Crack.live. A nice little ranty blogpost from a petulant Eddie Lampert.

Sun Capital Partners & Sycamore Partners. The firm is looking to sell British bedding retailer Dreams - which it acquired out of administration back in 2013 - with Chinese companies in the mix to bid. Rothschild is the investment banker. Meanwhile, to avoid seeing another portfolio company in bankruptcy court, the firm has agreed to, in the event of a rights offering, recapitalize Vince Holding Corp. ($VNCE) with $30mm. Meanwhile, this was an interesting piece on Sycamore Partners and its potentially evolving strategy (though it neglected to acknowledge how dire Nine West is beginning to look).

Trickle Down Economics. Bullsh*t.