🠈 Forstmann, Little & Company 🠊
Forstmann, Little & Company
Forstmann, Little & Company was a large private equity firm that collapsed during the dot com bubble. The company liquidated its holdings after the death of its founders. The company is interesting in that it shows that large private equity firms can fail.
The Wikipedia article indicates that Forstmann was a compatriot of Henry Kravis and Jerry Kohlberg who started Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and worked closely with Derald Ruttenberg who was a deal maker in the leveraged buyout community.
Wikipedia claims the company earned $14 billion on leveraged buyouts and worked on deals involving companies including Gulfstream Aerospace, Topps Playing Cards, Dr Pepper, Stanadyne, and General Instrument, McLeodUSA and XO Communications. The book Barbarians at the Gate details the battle between Forstmann and KKR in the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco
Corporate Transactions
This section will only list transactions that I encounter in other research.
- 1978: Ted and Nick Forstmann and Brian Little founded the firm.
- 1987: Forstmann acquired Lear Siegler Inc. in a $2.1 billion leveraged buyout.
- 2005: Forstmann acquired 24 Hour Fitness for $1.6 billion.
- 2014: Forstmann sold 24 Hour Fitness to AEA Investors LP and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan for $1.85 billion.