Elevation Partners was an American
private equity
In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...
firm that invested in
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
, technology and media companies. The firm had $1.9 billion of
assets under management. The firm was founded in 2004 and was headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...
. In the years 2012–2015, their assets were acquired by other companies, with portfolio under the name Elevation Partners closing in 2015. Some members of the board formed a company called "NextEquity Partners", which invests in similar sites. Rock musician
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2.
Born and raised in Dublin, he attended ...
went on to co-found "The Rise Fund", dedicated to improving the United Nations' seven sectors of sustainable development.
History
Founding
Elevation Partners was founded by former
Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake is an American global private equity firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries. Founded in 1999, the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world. Its investment holdings hav ...
professionals
Roger McNamee
Roger McNamee (born May 2, 1956) is an American businessman, investor, venture capitalist and musician. He is the founding partner of the venture capital firm Elevation Partners. Prior to co-founding the firm, McNamee co-founded private equity ...
and
Marc Bodnick
Marc Adam Bodnick (born May 17, 1969) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, best known as a co-founder of Elevation Partners.
Education
Bodnick earned a bachelor's degree in government at Harvard University and a master's degree in ...
, as well as
Fred Anderson (
Apple Inc.) and
John Riccitiello
John Riccitiello () is an American business executive who is chief executive officer (CEO) of Unity Technologies. Previously, he served as CEO, chief operating officer and president of Electronic Arts, and co-founded private equity firm Elevat ...
(
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
). Elevation is perhaps best known for its association with
Bono
Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2.
Born and raised in Dublin, he attended ...
, lead singer of the musical group
U2, who joined the company shortly after its creation in 2004. The firm is named after U2's song "
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
".
[Paul Taylor and Daniel Pimlott: FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - Palm sells stake to private equity firm]
broken link-->''Palm sells stake to private equity firm''. FT.com, June 4, 2007 As of January 2011 Marc Bodnick departed to concentrate on the development of
Quora
Quora () is a social question-and-answer website based in Mountain View, California. It was founded on June 25, 2009, and made available to the public on June 21, 2010. Users can collaborate by editing questions and commenting on answers that ...
. Elevation Partners is not affiliated in any way with The Elevation Group.
Investments
On March 22, 2005, as its first major venture Elevation attempted to purchase
Eidos Interactive
Square Enix Limited (formerly Domark Limited and Eidos Interactive Limited) is a British subsidiary of the Japanese video game company Square Enix, acting as their European publishing arm. The company formerly owned '' Tomb Raider'', which was ...
. However, its bid failed and the video games giant was sold to rival
SCi Entertainment. On November 3, 2005, Elevation invested $300 million to create an alliance between video game developers
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
and
Pandemic Studios, making it one of the biggest independent developers in the world. It also invested $100 million in
Move, Inc., which operates real estate information services.
In August 2006, Elevation announced that it had made an investment in
Forbes Media, the parent company of ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' magazine and Forbes.com. Sources stated that the deal gave Elevation a stake of more than 40 percent at a cost of $250 million to $300 million.
After Elevation invested in Forbes, the employee pension plan was frozen. In the years that followed, there were numerous rounds of layoffs worldwide. The Forbes family also sold its iconic building on Manhattan's
5th Avenue to
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
.
On June 4, 2007 Elevation Partners announced an investment of $325m (€242m) for a 25 percent stake in
Palm, Inc. On December 22, 2008 the deal was followed up with an additional $100 million equity investment in Palm, and is made with newly issued preferred stock of convertible type.
[ On July 11, 2007 Elevation Partners acquired SDI Media Group, the world's largest provider of subtitling and language dubbing service to the entertainment industry. Elevation purchased the company from ]Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...
, the private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...
that acquired SDI Media in 2004. On October 11, 2007, it was announced that EA, now with Elevation founding partner John Riccitiello as CEO, had negotiated a deal with Elevation to pay $860 million (USD) in order to acquire both Bioware and Pandemic Studios. On April 16, 2010 Elevation Partners acquired 1% of the company Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
for $90 Million.
Through September 2014 the fund had generated an 11.4% annual return.
Relationship with Wikimedia
On March 20, 2008, the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
published a story saying members of Elevation Partners had donated and raised more than a million dollars for the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...
, and were possibly examining a deeper relationship.
Portfolio companies
*Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
*''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
''
* Move, Inc.[
* SDI Media
* MarketShare
* Yelp, Inc.][
]
References
External links
*
{{Private equity and venture capital
Private equity firms of the United States
Venture capital firms of the United States
American companies established in 2004
Financial services companies established in 2004