SunEdison LLC Where Big-Time M&A Comes to Maryland. 11/23/2009 Sale of Company.
The reports on the big Wall Street bonuses that have so recently rubbed Joe Six-pack the wrong way are that the bonuses are going to the traders and not to the M&A professionals. M&A has not begun to recover as our monthly statistics for the region show. Which is why this modestly large sale of a Maryland solar energy projects company not only dominated local statistics, it also had NYC bankers on it as if the purchase price had another zero tacked onto the end of it. Times are tough, I guess, and you take whatever work you can get. Credit Suisse worked for the buyer MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE:WFR) and Goldman and Morgan Stanley worked for SunEdison. Of course, Goldman private equity (along with Greylock and others) had $134M invested in SunEdison—so it is natural to dish out some of the fees to your own flesh and blood. One major business line for MEMC is making chips that go into solar systems, so this is a good fit. Nevertheless, MEMC is based in Missouri. Once SunEdison took that big private equity money, it was probably destined to sell as opposed to becoming a major local public company like a MICROS Systems or a COMSCORE. Too bad—SunEdison could have anchored a regional solar industry, which is a natural for the D.C. regulatory-oriented market.
