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News and Deals

LivingSocial appears to have taken yet another page out of the Groupon play book. Earlier this month, the Washington, D.C.-based daily deals company announced that it had raised $400 million in new venture capital funding. The money would be used pursue "aggressive domestic and international growth and continued product innovation." Approximately half of the total (i.e., $200 million) is being used to partially cash out early investors and members of company management, according to a new regulatory filing.

This is similar to what Groupon did in January, when it used $573 million of a $950 million funding round for liquidity purposes. The only real difference is that Groupon had just rejected a $6 billion buyout offer from Google, and some of its shareholders were upset about missing out on an early payday.

No word yet on which LivingSocial investors and/or executives cashed in some of their shares. Prior to the $400 million round, LivingSocial had raised around $230 million from Grotech Ventures, Steve Case, U.S. Venture Partners, Amazon.com and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The more recent deal also included involvement from T. Rowe Price and Institutional Venture Partners.

RenRen, a Chinese social networking site, has filed to raise up to 584.1 million in an IPO. It plans to offer 53.1 million American depository shares at between $9 and $11 per share, and trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol RENN. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse are serving as co-lead underwriters. It reports a $64 million net loss in 2010 on $76 million in revenue, compared to a $70 million loss on $46 million in revenue the previous year.

RenRen last year agreed to sell up to a 35% ownership stake to Softbank Corp. for $430 million. Before that, it had raised $58 million from Accel Partners, DCM, General Atlantic, Legend Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures.

AloStar Bank of Commerce has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets and assume certain liabilities of Birmingham, Ala.-based Nexity Bank, which had been declared insolvent and was under FDIC receivership. AloStar was formed for the purpose of acquiring Nexity, by Michael Gillfillan (ex-vice chairman and chief credit officer at Wells Fargo) and Andrew McGhee (ex-SunTrust exec who co-founder PE firm Archway Equity Partners).

Clayton Dubilier & Rice is the leading business for the RAC, a European roadside assistance company being sold by UK insurer Aviva (LSE: AV), according to The Sunday Times. The deal could be valued at around £1 billion (including approximately £400 million in debt).

Friedman Fleischer & Lowe has acquired a majority stake in Midwest Dental, a Mondovi, Wis.-based dental practice management company. No financial terms were disclosed.

Millennium Technology Value Partners has led a $70 million secondary share purchase of equity in ETF Securities Ltd., a creator and manager of exchange-traded products. No additional financial information was disclosed.

Rhone Capital has agreed to acquire the carbon black unit of German conglomerate Evonik for more than €900 million. Expectations are that the unit will be floated within the next 15 months.

Roofing Supply Group LLC, a Dallas-based wholesale distributor of roofing supplies and related materials, has acquired Construction Resource Inc., a provider of commercial roofing and waterproofing materials in Northern California. No financial terms were disclosed. Roofing Supply Group is a portfolio company of The Sterling Group.

Technology Crossover Ventures has agreed to invest $125 million into K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), a provider of curriculum and online school programs for students in kindergarten through high school. The deal is being done via a private placement of 4 million common shares at $31.46 per share. K12 stock jumped 5.5% on the news, closing Friday at $36.06 per share.