Some huge private equity firms are going to be very relieved if they can finally get out of this deal

David Rubenstein

(Fred Prouser/Reuters) Carlyle Group chairman David Rubenstein. A group of major private equity firms is finally recovering from a nearly decade-long headache.

Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, TPG Capital, and Permira Advisers have finally found a buyer for the semiconductor firm they bought out during the boom years of leveraged buyout deals back in 2006, Bloomberg's Ian King and Jason Kelly reported.

Dutch semiconductor manufacturer NXP agreed to acquire Freescale Semiconductor from the PE firms for $11.8 billion, the report said.

Freescale, a former Motorola subsidiary, was once one of the largest chip suppliers. It lost much of its worth when sales of Motorola phones declined in 2008. Bloomberg called the business "essentially worthless."

So there was serious trouble turning it around. The deal turned into nine years of trouble, including two chief executive replacements, negotiations with debt holders, and mounting pressure from limited partners who expected profits, rather than four or five more years of waiting, in the midst of the global financial crisis.

If the acquisition goes through, the PE firms will have managed to "squeak out" a small profit.

Read the full story over at Bloomberg>>

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