Bain Capital

Bain exec responds to Biden 'hyperbole'

Obama-supporting Bain Capital executive defends his firm.

FORTUNE -- Steve Pagliuca is a Democrat, having run for U.S. Senate in a 2009 Massachusetts race that ultimately led to the election of Scott Brown (R-MA). He also is a managing director of Bain Capital, whose run as Democratic Party punching bag as been extended through to November 6.

Like most Bain Capital executives, Pagliuca has stayed fairly quiet during the presidential campaign. But MORE

Give Romney a break on 'harvesting' comment

Candidate's 1985 statement is being misinterpreted.

FORTUNE -- We've seen Mitt Romney say a bunch of dumb things in old videos over the past few weeks. But his desire to "harvest" investments while with Bain Capital is not one of them.

The comment in question was made by Romney in 1985 and included in a 25th anniversary video for Bain & Company, the management consulting firm that spawned Bain Capital. Mother Jones MORE

Why Romney can't save the Sensata workers

Sorry, but Mitt Romney won't save the Freeport jobs

FORTUNE -- As Occupy Wall Street celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday in Zuccotti Park, a much smaller group of protesters set up camp in the northwestern Illinois town of Freeport. They called it called BainVille, in sarcastic homage to the private equity firm they blame for outsourcing their jobs to China.

What the protesters want is for Mitt Romney to intervene on their MORE

The Bain Capital divide

Democrats and Republicans have found common ground on Bain Capital. With one major exception.

FORTUNE -- Last week was Tampa. This week is Charlotte. My reason for being in both was to gauge delegate understanding of Bain Capital, and how that understanding impacted their opinions of a President Romney.

To be honest, I expected lots of crazy talk from both sides. Talk about how Bain was the greatest force for job creation MORE

Greed, debt and Matt Taibbi

What Rolling Stone got right, and wrong, about Bain Capital.

FORTUNE --  Very few of my friends understand private equity, let alone care about it. But some of them wrote me this past weekend, after reading Matt Taibbi's new cover story for Rolling Stone about Mitt Romney's time with Bain Capital. For example, this was from my former college housemate Andrew:

I read the Taibbi article in Rolling Stone. Reading it you can MORE

Mitt Romney's higher tax bill

Resolving Romney's fee waiver issue.

FORTUNE -- Mitt Romney paid taxes at a much lower rate than did many other Americans, but he may have paid at a higher rate than his former colleagues at Bain Capital.

The underlying issue is management fee waivers.

In short, private equity funds receive annual management fees that are used to cover overhead like salaries and office leases. Typically 2% of capital commitments, paid by fund investors MORE

Bain is bad for jobs, Bain is good for jobs

Bain Capital contains multitudes.

FORTUNE -- The Huffington Post reports that several former employees of Bain Capital-owned companies will speak this week at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. No word yet on specifics, but don't expect them to mirror the glowing reviews of Bain that we heard last week in Tampa.

In other words, Democratic speakers will say that private equity is horrible and Republican speakers said private equity is awesome.

Here's MORE

Bain Capital doesn't know energy

Mitt Romney's private-sector experience didn't extend to energy.

FORTUNE -- Lots of talk here in Tampa this evening about how President Obama has blocked the Keystone Pipeline, which many Republicans view as a job-killing kowtow to environmentalists. Tad True, vice president at a family-owned pipeline company in Wyoming, says that Mitt Romney "understands the importance of pipelines," and that he'll make sure it is built.

No quibble with the last part, as MORE

For Republicans, it's all about Bain Capital

Republicans have a uniformly positive view of Mitt Romney's private equity experience.

FORTUNE -- Bain isn't a dirty word for Republican Party delegates here in Tampa. It's the reason they're nominating Mitt Romney for president.

"The Bain stuff is far more compelling than being governor of Massachusetts," explains John McCutcheon, a Romney delegate from West Virginia. "It means that he knows how to set goals and then achieve them, how to be MORE

How Bain Capital execs lower their taxes

Time to change a private equity tax scheme.

FORTUNE -- There has been lots of talk over the past few days about how Bain Capital executives have used management fee waivers to effectively lower their tax payments (a tactic that is not unique to Bain). Some academics have argued that such waivers are an illegal dodge, while private equity tax attorneys I've spoken with call it "aggressive but accepted by the IRS."

Here MORE