Goldman Sachs Group Inc is predicting a flood of initial public offerings to be held in South Africa as private equity buyers divest their investments, Bloomberg reported.

With a recovery in the IPO market propelling private equity backers to exit their investments, lenders are readying to list more UK retailers on the London bourse, the Financial Times reported.

Private equity and venture capital investors are exhibiting renewed interest in India's online retail space, a segment considered as an investment bubbly early last year, Mumbai-based online website dna reported.

Private equity companies are among the rising number of investors looking to invest in the commercial real estate market in Germany where cash-strapped owners are forced to make deals, Bloomberg reported.

The Federal Reserve is optimistic that the US economy will grow strong this year and is expected to announce the next reduction of its bond-buying program on January 28-29, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Liqvid e-Learning Services, an educational software maker based in India, has began talks with different venture capital firms for another round of equity funding, according to sources interviewed by The Economic Times.

Venture capitalists continue to look to Bangalore, Chennai and other companies located in the southern portion of India for deals, The Times of India reported.

Jeff Jordan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, says the structural shift from physical to digital retail is happening more quickly than what he had previously imagined.

Strapped for cash, schools in Houston, Texas are slowly turning to crowdfunding sites like donorschoose.org to get needed funding for their supplies and equipment, the Associated Press reported.

Private equity firm Leopard Capital is an opportunistic investor that prefers to invest in frontier markets in Asia where it can be competitive in giving long-term capital, co-founder Ken Stevens tells Forbes contributor Jon Springer in an interview.

Private equity-focused executive search platform Private Equity Head Hunters has upgraded its executive platform that helps executives and recruiters save time and make the recruitment process more effective.

An increasing number of hedge funds like Coatue Management are looking for opportunities to invest in the private markets, pouring money in technology startups, TechCrunch reported.

Epom, an ad serving and ad management solutions provider, said it received $7 million in a private investment pool for product improvement and new product development.

A report on Pensions & Investments said 2014 is set to be a very busy year for hedge fund launches because of factors like having experienced teams gearing to form their own companies and having available seed money, among others.

The Bank of Finland said that digital currencies like the Bitcoin cannot be considered an official currency but is more comparable to a commodity, Bloomberg reported.

Private equity giant Warburg Pincus LLC will be acquiring a majority stake in Source, an asset management firm based in London for an undisclosed amount, Bloomberg reported.

Henrique de Castro, Yahoo's No. 2 chief who recently got fired, received a much higher compensation than other executives and even his boss Marissa Mayer when he was hired in 2012.

The Canadian government has finally broken its silence about the Bitcoin, rejecting the digital currency as legal tender in the country, The Wall Street Journal blog Canada Real Time reported.

After saying no to an informal acquisition bid worth $100 million from AOL last year, Business Insider is likely set to raise new funds from its existing backers, re/code reported.

Industry insiders told the Los Angeles Times that Paramount Pictures will be retiring the 35-millimeter film and will be distributing movies in the digital format.

As Nintendo's sales of Wii U flopped, Japanese video game machines maker Nintendo Co is under pressure to think about abandoning its hardware operations, Bloomberg reported.

Sources told The Wall Street Journal that private equity-owned discount retailer Dots LLC is readying itself to file for bankruptcy as the company struggles from the competition given by flash sites.

Miller's Ale House, a chain of restaurants owned by private equity firm Roark Capital Group, has withdrawn from a deal to build a restaurant in Pittsburgh's SouthSide Works Complex, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

India-based Aurobindo Pharma Ltd will be purchasing the generic drug operations of Dublin-based Actavis in seven countries in Western Europe in a deal worth around €30 million, Bloomberg reported.

The Office of the New York Attorney General will continue with the lawsuit without claim to damages it lodged against Bank of America over its 2009 purchase of Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg reported.

Hewlett-Packard has said it has already arrived at decisions on how to go about solving shareholders' securities fraud claims for the writedown it took on its Autonomy Plc acquisition, Reuters reported.

The US Federal Trade Commission has given its approval to the purchase of Harris Teeter by Kroger Co, according to a statement from both supermarket chains, Reuters reported.

The amount of US insured municipal bonds was pegged at to $12.08 billion last year, the lowest since the financial crisis. However, Reuters reported that the steep decline may be over.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ordered Rabobank in December to straighten out the issues plaguing its anti-money laundering programs in an order made public recently, Reuters reported.

Shareholders were asked by the Jos. A. Bank Clothier's Inc board to refuse a hostile bid amounting to $1.61 billion from Men's Wearhouse, Reuters reported.