The Carlyle Group has completed its sale of AxleTech International to General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) for an undisclosed amount. Carlyle acquired AxleTech in late 2005 from Wynnchurch Capital. The company makes parts for military vehicles, commercial specialty trucks and off-highway machines.

Leigh Clifford has joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. as a senior advisor. He is the current chairman of Qantas Airways, and the former CEO of Rio Tinto.
 
PRESS RELEASE

Reuters - (Reuters) -- Stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Monday, as gloomy comments by U.S. and European policymakers overshadowed hopes that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's plan for massive tax cuts will help revive economic growth.

Reuters - The U.S. economy faces a potentially long period of weak growth and a rising risk of deflation, making it worth "pulling out all the stops" with a big fiscal spending program, Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, said on Sunday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The blank-check companies known as SPACs, which have raised billions but not yet made the acquisitions that money is supposed to be spent on, are in a race against time.
 
The success of these 57 companies in spending the $11.3 billion they have raised in stock flotations may determine whether such special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) will be in the thick of things when the IPO market recovers.