Good morning! Dead of winter or no—and school vacation weeks aside—dealmakers seem to be pouring it on these days. We can only imagine what's in store as warmer weather visits the Northern Hemisphere in the months ahead. If interest rates should decline as well, that's likely to accelerate the pace, too.

Meantime, our Journal colleague Andrew Beaton reports that one of the biggest private-markets prizes is up for grabs. The owners of the Seattle Seahawks football team, barely a week after winning the Super Bowl, have put the NFL franchise up for sale.

On the fundraising trail, our Chris Cumming reports that Soundcore Capital has closed its latest fund with $450 million.

We have these and many more deals, including exits, as well as fundraises and more summarized for you below, so please slide on down... 

Soundcore Capital Partners, a New York firm that buys smaller companies, closed its latest fund at $450 million and has already made several dozen investments from the new vehicle, WSJ Pro's Chris Cumming reports. Soundcore Capital Partners Fund III was closed Wednesday at its hard cap, or upper fundraising limit, said Jarrett Turner, the firm’s founder and managing partner. The firm’s prior vehicle closed with $350 million in 2018. While it was Soundcore’s first institutional fund, it was called Fund II because the firm had previously raised smaller pools for one-off deals.

The newest Super Bowl champions are now officially available to the highest bidder, Andrew Beaton reports for The Wall Street Journal. The estate of Paul Allen, the late Microsoft co-founder who purchased the Seattle Seahawks in 1997, said it has begun the long-awaited process of selling the team. A sale might challenge the price record set for a National Football League franchise with the $6 billion purchase of the Washington Commanders by Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris and others in 2023. More recent sales of minority stakes have seen teams valued at up to $10 billion.

Telecommunications business Mobileum emerged from bankruptcy in 2024. Yesterday's newsletter incorrectly said it was bankrupt.

Leonard Green & Partners is taking the Mister Car Wash chain private, offering to pay $7 a share in a deal that values the business at $3.1 billion, Nate Wolf reports for sister publication Barron's. The price represents a roughly 16% premium to Tuesday's close in New York. The Los Angeles firm, which already controls about two-thirds of the company's shares, first acquired Tucson, Ariz.-based Mister Car Wash in 2014 and held about 91% of its equity when it went public in 2021.

Blue Owl Capital and Sixth Street Partners’ growth strategy are leading a $385 million investment in Vestwell, a financial technology company that offers workplace savings programs, including retirement plans, student loan repayment benefits and specialized accounts for education, emergencies and disability savings. Other investors that backed that latest deal include Neuberger Berman, SLW Management and HarbourVest Partners.

Lone Star Funds has secured a $235 million senior mortgage loan from Marathon Asset Management to refinance a collection of 11 senior housing properties held by the Dallas firm's Lone Star Real Estate Fund VI. Lone Star acquired the properties in 2021.

Pantera Capital led a $75 million growth investment in sports trading system operator Novig, joined by others including Multicoin Capital. Novig's system generates market-driven odds for traders, omitting commissions and house-generated odds.

Triatomic Capital led a $60 million growth investment in microprocessor developer Efficient Computer. The Pittsburgh-based company's Electron E1 processor is designed to minimize energy use.

Bain Capital in Boston is backing a $42 million growth investment in cyber defense company Cogent Security, joined by others including Greylock Partners. Cogent uses agentic artificial-intelligence technology in its cybersecurity systems. Bain Capital is investing through its venture strategy.

Energy Impact Partners led a $41 million growth investment in project monitoring and analysis applications provider FYLD in London, joined by European growth investor Partech.

Healthcare investor Catalio Capital Management in New York is backing ProSomnus Sleep Technologies with a commitment of up to $38 million to support the Pleasanton, Calif., company's development of a remote patient monitoring system and sleep diagnostic devices for those with obstructive sleep apnea.

Amberjack Capital Partners, a midmarket-focused private-equity firm that backs critical infrastructure services companies, has acquired CIMA Services, a Houston-based provider of waste-management, environmental remediation and industrial services, according to an emailed news release.

Cerberus Capital Management has fully acquired Vivace International, a New Orleans-based provider of mission‑critical product development, engineering and management services for U.S. spaceflight systems, as well as the hypersonic and launch vehicle markets. Cerberus initially backed a growth investment in the company in 2024.

Specialist investor BayPine Holdings in Boston is buying broker Relation Insurance Services from private-equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners. The Chicago-based company operates from over 90 branches nationwide with more than 230,000 clients. New York-based Aquiline acquired the business in 2019, according to the firm's website.

Prairie Capital and growth capital investor RF Investment Partners are recapitalizing security and fire protection NSG Life Safety and Norel Service Co., which have operated as a combined company since 2023.

Xerox struck a deal with TPG to raise financing, with TPG's credit business leading the financing. Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly said Xerox struck a deal with TPG Capital, the investment firm’s private-equity business.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. is giving up its control of Dutch bicycle company Accell Group to a new structure that relieves the company of some of its debt and is supported by a majority of lenders to the business. The new structure will benefit Accell's "super senior" lenders, according to the company. KKR led a group that took the maker of Raleigh bikes private in 2022 at an equity value of about €1.21 billion, or roughly $1.44 billion.

Several Blue Owl Capital business-development companies are selling $1.4 billion of direct lending investments at near par value to four U.S. public pension systems and insurance investors. Blue Owl Capital Corp. II is selling commitments of $600 million while Blue Owl Technology Income Corp. and Blue Owl Capital Corp. are each selling $400 million worth of investments, all of which back the same borrower. All the investments are being sold at 99.7% of par value as of Feb. 12.

Credit-focused Soho Square Capital-backed broadband services provider Netomnia's parent company, Substantial Group, is being acquired for £2 billion, or $2.71 billion, by strategic buyer Nexfibre, a joint venture between private-equity firm InfraVia and European network operators Liberty Global and Telefónica. Substantial's current investors also include Advencap and DigitalBridge. Netomnia's fiber-optic network services more than 460,000 customers in the U.K. London-based Soho first invested in the company in 2020.

Carlyle Group in Washington has sold ice products and services company Arctic Glacier to rival Reddy Ice, which is backed by SCI Capital Partners. Carlyle initially acquired Arctic Glacier in 2017 from another private-equity firm, Miami-based H.I.G. Capital. In response to an antitrust review of the latest deal, Reddy Ice will divest four of its facilities and associated customer contracts in Mukilteo and Lakewood, Wash., Coeur d' Alene, Idaho, and Brawley, Calif., as well as customer contracts in Oregon and in the New York and Boston markets.

Tailwind Capital has exited its investment in distributor Colony Hardware, which serves general construction contractors and was sold to strategic buyer White Cap. Tailwind first backed the Orange, Conn.-based company in 2015.

Securities trading systems operator Robinhood plans to offer a fund that would provide individual investors with a chance to bet on a basket of private companies, Kelly Cloonan reports for the Journal. The company expects its Robinhood Ventures Fund I to be offered to all retail investors through an IPO in the coming weeks, with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RVI. Investors can request shares of RVI through Robinhood at an expected IPO price of $25 a share, the company said. Investors don't need to be accredited to participate.

Guardian Capital Partners in Wayne, Pa., has wrapped up its fourth flagship fund with $441 million, which closed at its hard cap. The firm's strategy for Guardian Capital Partners Fund IV includes control investments in founder-led and closely held businesses.

Growth investor Frist Cressey Ventures in Nashville, Tenn., has finished fundraising for its fourth main fund with $425 million, surpassing the firm's initial $400 million offering amount when it began raising the pool last year. Investors in Frist Cressey Ventures Fund IV include the New Mexico State Investment Council, which committed $40 million, according to the WSJ Pro Private Equity LP Commitments database.

Riverside Co. has closed Riverside Acceleration Capital Growth Lending Fund III at the lower midmarket investment firm’s $200 million upper limit. That's about 13% more than the firm collected for a predecessor vehicle. Riverside invests from the strategy in loans to enterprise software businesses.

A top Kirkland & Ellis lawyer has joined rival Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where as a partner he'll lead the newly formed capital structure solutions practice, including liability management and  debt restructuring, WSJ Pro's Alexander Gladstone reports. In recent years, David Nemecek played a key role in popularizing the use of ​​liability management, a technique that private-equity firms have employed to secure financial breathing room for their portfolio companies to stave off bankruptcy.

Karthic Jayaraman, who oversaw healthcare investment activity in Europe for TPG’s private-equity arm, has departed the buyout giant “to pursue other opportunities,” Sebastian McCarthy writes for sister publication Private Equity News in London, citing a person familiar with the matter. Jayaraman, who joined TPG as a partner in 2020 from Carlyle Group, continues to serve as a senior adviser at the firm.

Growth-equity investor FTV Capital in San Francisco has elevated Adam Hallquist to partner, leading investments for the firm's Ascend strategy, according to an emailed news release. He joined FTV in 2014. His promotion came amid a flurry of other personnel moves by the firm, including naming several new senior vice presidents.

Star Mountain Capital has added Paul Efron as a senior advisor to the firm to provide strategic insights into capital markets, governance and financial innovation. A 38-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, he was elected a general partner at the bank in 1998.

The growth investment arm of AEA Investors, AEA Elevate, has added Preston Hayes as head of portfolio M&A and capital markets and has also brought on technology executive Kirk Goodman as head of portfolio go‑to‑market. Hayes was previously with Ares Management.

Stephen Hemsley, leader of giant health insurer UnitedHealth Group, for years has made private investments in healthcare startups, including companies that do business with—or compete against—UnitedHealth, the Journal reports. The investments, involving tens of millions of dollars and stretching back at least seven years, weren’t announced by the healthcare companies that he backed, and UnitedHealth never told its shareholders about them. Ethics specialists said the private investments involving UnitedHealth’s chief create the potential for conflicts of interest, but UnitedHealth said Hemsley abides by all of its disclosure and conflict-of-interest policies

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.