NEW YORK (The Deal) -- Private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) - Get Report and aPriori Capital Partners may have taken slight losses on their investments in Visant Holding Corp.

Visant, the parent of yearbook maker Jostens, agreed to be acquired by Jarden (JAH) on Wednesday for an enterprise value of $1.5 billion from KKR and aPriori.

KKR declined to comment, while aPriori, which was formerly known as DLJ Merchant Banking Partners until it was spun off by Credit Suisse (CS) - Get Report in March 2014, did not respond to a request for comment.

The valuation Jarden said it paid equals the debt Visant had on its balance sheet, which consists of a roughly $767 million term loan and nearly $737 million in notes, according to data provided by Bloomberg.

Because the purchase price equals the debt on Visant's balance sheet, it could be concluded that neither PE firm will receive additional cash as a result of Wednesday's announced transaction.

Prior to the announcement, Visant had refinanced a $1.1 billion term loan last year, using $325 million in proceeds it received to pay off debt, not to pay dividends. The yearbook maker obtained the cash proceeds when it merged its marketing business, Arcade Marketing, with Ileos Group, a sample and cosmetics packaging manufacturer backed by Oaktree Capital Management.

KKR and aPriori could possibly end up profiting from their equity investments if the 25% equity stake Visant received in Ileos was not part of the deal with Jarden, but the announcement wasn't clear on that.

In 2010, The Deal reported that a $138 million cash dividend paid by Visant to KKR and DLJ was close to covering the equity the firms had sunk into the peddler of high school-related paraphernalia. That dividend was in addition to a payout in 2006 of $341 million.

KKR collected $213 million in total from the two dividends, recouping 83% of the $256 million it invested into Visant in 2004. Meanwhile, DLJ had recovered $331 million, equating to 95% of its $350 million equity investment made in 2003.

Visant was formed when Von Hoffman Corp., Arcade Marketing and Jostens Holdings merged in 2004, a transaction in which KKR bought a 44.5% stake.

DLJ, now aPriori, had been a majority shareholder in all three companies when that merger took place. The investor rolled over its stake in Jostens, but sold its stakes in Von Hoffman and Arcade, The Deal previously reported. DLJ ended up with a 44.5% stake in Visant, equal to KKR's stake.

DLJ had bought its stake when it purchased Jostens from Investcorp in 2003 and then reaped a $118 million dividend before merging the company with Von Hoffman and Arcade. Textbook printer Von Hoffman ended up being sold in 2007.

Jarden, by buying Visant, not only picks up the core business of Jostens with its acquisition of Visant, but also Neffco.com, an online retailer of varsity jackets, school awards and custom apparel, according to the company's Web site. In addition to Neffco.com, Jarden will also buy Rock Creek Athletics, a maker of varsity jackets.

The enterprise value of the deal for Minneapolis-based Visant is about 7.5 times adjusted Ebitda, the Boca Raton, Fla.-based consumer products giant said.

Jostens is considered a market leader in the segment, generating $740 million in revenue annually, and will become part of Jarden's outdoor solutions unit.