Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), after months of searching for a new Chief Financial Officer, has just named a new one as of this week. Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE)'s Patrick Pichette will take over for the retiring George Reyes. Reyes, who presided over Google's IPO back in 2004 and was very adept at telling the investor community only what Google wanted the world to know, will be an interesting person to replace indeed.

Pichette will begin with Google on August 1. His recent positions as president of global operations and CFO of Bell Canada no doubt was a large mark on his resume. Google did the right thing here -- searched for, and found, a seasoned global exec to represent the financial communications of the world's hottest internet company.

One area that will be interesting to see develop involves Google's stubborn approach to not laying it all out on the table. As in, giving all the inside guidance and other details analysts crave so that they can push GOOG shares up or down if those targets are hit or missed every quarter. Google has always been a financial communication maverick and has told the market to stick it many times by not coming forward with a bunch of granular detail about future quarters. What will Pichette do? We'll see on Google's Q3 quarterly results call later this year.

It looked like the deal to take BCE (NYSE: BCE), the parent of Bell Canada, private would be hung up by the unwillingness of banks to take on huge amounts of debt during a credit crisis. Instead, the $35.4 billion deal will probably be killed by the Canadian courts.

Some BCE shareholders sued the company, saying the deal was unfair to them. The debt holders who brought the suit may be fools, but they won. According to Reuters, "the Quebec Court of Appeal said that BCE, Canada's largest telecommunications group, failed to prove that a buyout could have been structured to provide a satisfactory price for the company's shares while avoiding an adverse effect on the debenture holders."

If the entire deal for the BCE buyout fails, all parties who hold a piece of the company may be hurt. But, the debt holders have certainly put the stockholders in a very ugly place. The court ruling may give banks some excuses to walk away from the transaction. Providence Equity Partners, Madison Dearborn, and other institutions who put the deal together may have to watch all of those fees disappear in smoke.

And, a buyout that normally would have ended up in court because banks wanted to break their words may be killed because one class of stakeholders bested another.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 newsletter.

If we needed another sign that private equity is passe, we need go no further than to look at the current issue of Fortune, which shares a parent, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), with BloggingStocks. To be fair, Fortune added an update to its web site about the tottering deal. It's a shame because the Fortune article paints such a glowing portrait of Providence Equity Partner's CEO Jonathan Nelson and praises him for doing the biggest deal ever -- the $51 billion takeover of Bell Canada parent BCE (NYSE: BCE) whose stock is down 5.7% this morning.

Regrettably for Nelson and Fortune, the New York Times reports this morning that the deal looks to be imperiled. It quotes one executive who read the revised bank terms: "It's patently obvious that the banks have no intention of closing the deal." These banks -- led by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Deutsche Bank, and the Royal Bank of Scotland -- sent revised terms to the consortium of buyers. which included higher interest rates, tighter loan restrictions and stronger protections for the banks, far exceeding the original terms.

Fortune has a photo of Nelson sitting in a comfortable chair with his hands in a position that communicates "I am smarter than you." It will be interesting to see whether he can use those smarts to close this $51 billion deal. If he does, then he will certainly deserve the encomiums that Fortune heaps on him. Fifteen months ago I appeared on CNBC to discuss whether private equity had peaked. I think Fortune's Private Money 2008 package answers that question in the affirmative -- with the cover story jinx.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns Citigroup shares and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned.

BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE) rose another nearly 4.5% today after The Globe and Mail reported a possible bidding war for BCE. The consortium of Canadian pension funds, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., might soon have two other groups considering the same deal.

To remind you, first there were rumors BCE is in talks with buyout firms. Then came a denial, followed closely by an acknowledgment: BCE is indeed considering taking the company private. Here are the reported players:

• KKR is considering taking control of one-third of the company with partners Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and two other pension funds, thus fulfilling the required majority Canadian ownership.
  
• Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is apparently assembling its own consortium and preparing to formally enter the bid process early next week. The group is said to be financed by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) among others.
• And just to make shareholders happier, it is reported that two more U.S. private equity firms, giant Blackstone Group LP and Cerberus Capital Management LP, might form a third group. How this group would abide by the majority Canadian ownership law is still unclear, although Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec might be shifting allegiances.
• Last time I also mentioned a possible merger between Bell (BCE) and smaller rival Telus Corp. (NYSE: TU). This might be more difficult from a regulatory point of view.
  

So far it seems that the groups are aligning themselves and preparing financing as "BCE has not prepared the data rooms that bidders need before deciding what they are prepared to pay."

After BCE closed up some 6% and Telus up over 3% during my last post, I was going to ask if you think hubby should sell his shares in both these companies. He wanted to sell all, I talked him down to selling half, but then he never got around to it. Lucky, or he would have missed today's 4.5% and 2.3% run for BCE and TU respectively.

Thank you Don for the FT link this morning.

The three Canadian telecommunication companies, BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE), Telus Corp. (NYSE: TU) and Rogers Communications Inc. (NYSE: RG), are leading gains of telecommunication stocks following confirmed buyout talks.

Bell Canada, owned by BCE and the largest telephone company in Canada, has been rumored for the past month to have been talking to KKR and to Ontario Teachers about a possible offer to be taken private. Including today's gain, BCE has a market value of about C$30.8 billion ($27.3 billion), which would put the original rumored price of C$30 billion below its current market cap. Some mentioned C$40 per share as the magic number for a deal.

Of course, back when the rumors first started, BCE issued a denial, saying it had no plans to go private and wasn't in talks with buyout firms. Today is a different story. Today, the company issued a press release saying that it is reviewing its strategic alternatives and has entered into discussions with a group of leading Canadian pension funds to explore the possibility of taking the company private. Since the company needs to maintain a Canadian majority, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. will be a minority partner.

However, some analysts believe that a merger between BCE and smaller rival Telus is more likely to occur. According to Bloomberg, "That deal would value BCE at about C$42 a share, compared with the C$40 the company may get in a transaction with buyout firms." Even if regulators wouldn't allow such a merger, the prospects for Telus following such a deal are good.

Reuters expands on the Canadian pension funds involved here.

BCE shares are up over 6.6%, Telus shares are gaining nearly 3.5% and RG shares are rising 3.4%.

BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE), better known as Bell Canada, supposedly held discussions to be taken private by KKR during the past few weeks, as we previously blogged about here. The report from Globe and Mail said KKR might pay a 20% premium, in Canadian dollars, to current market trading.

BCE issued a statement addressing the speculation, saying there have been no ongoing discussions with any private equity investor to privatize the company. The company added that it has no intention to pursue such talks.

If the talks did happen, KKR would likely have to come to the table with a nice offer to get regulators and Canadian shareholders to approve this deal.

BCE has been working hard to appease shareholders by getting rid of non-core assets to gain investor interest. Despite their efforts, the stock has remained in a tight trading range between $25 and $30. So, if KKR comes with a good enough offer, will they really stand by their statement?

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., reportedly has BCE Inc. (NYSE:BCE), the owner of Bell Canada, in its sights.

A deal for the telecom company would be worth about CAD$30 billion (over USD$25 billion), making it the largest acquisition in Canadian history and one of the largest buyouts ever, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper. KKR is looking for Canadian partners such as the Ontario Teachers' Fund since foreign firms are prohibited from owning more than 46% of a telecom company's voting shares.

Shares of BCE were up 12% pre-market trading. They have dropped about 4% this year.

KKR already has its hands full:

The New York-based buyout firm is part of the $45 billion TXU Corp. (NYSE: TXU) deal, the largest buyout ever. KKR also is among the companies in the hunt for Australian retailer Coles Group Ltd. Last month, it agreed to buy Dollar General Stores Corp. (NYSE: DG).

Apparently, there's no limit to the number of multi-billion acquisitions that KKR can juggle at the same time.

I've just returned from the World Money Show in Orlando where more than 10,000 investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the U.S. and foreign financial experts featured at the show, and over the next week I will share some of their top investment ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.

With his conservative yet top-performing long-term performance record, Jim Stack cautions that this is not a low-risk market. Yet, the editor of Investech Market Analyst sees value in the renamed Bell Canada (NYSE:BCE).

"Although our key technical indicators in breadth and leadership are surprisingly bullish at present, we also see recessionary warning flags from a slowing economy, struggling housing market, and the inverted yield curve. As such, this is not a low-risk market.

"Therefore, we've maintained a moderate cash buffer this year and focused on defensive sectors -- in line with our commitment to following a safety-first strategy and protecting our bull market gains of the last three years. One stock that we have chosen to upgrade to a buy is BCE, which is changing its name to Bell Canada Inc.

"As background, the Finance Minister of Canada surprised the market with an official announcement that Canada was planning for the first time to tax dividends on income trusts. The move was aimed at closing a loophole that is costing the Canadian government over C$500 million in lost corporate-tax revenue.