DoubleLine Capital ("DoubleLine") is an American

investment management Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as financial asset management) is the professional asset management of various Security (finance), securities, including shareholdings, Bond (finance), bonds, and other assets, such as r ...

firm headquartered in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

. It is known for its focus on investing in the

bond market The bond market (also debt market or credit market) is a financial market in which participants can issue new debt, known as the primary market, or buy and sell debt security (finance), securities, known as the secondary market. This is usually in ...

but also invests in other

asset classes In finance, an asset class is a group of marketable financial assets that have similar financial characteristics and behave similarly in the marketplace. These instruments can be distinguished as either having to do with real assets or having ...

such as

equities Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion t ...

and

commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. Th ...

. The firm is majority owned by its employees.

Background

Jeffrey Gundlach was employed at TCW Group where he managed its Total Return Bond Fund which at the time was one of the top performing funds in the last 10 years that invested in intermediate-term bonds. It produced returns that exceeded those that were managed by Bill Gross. On 4 December 2009, he was fired by TCW and was alleged to be engaged in gross misconduct by plotting to take TCW's clients and trade secrets to establish his own rival firm. It was noted that the relationship between Gundlach and senior members such as Marc Stern and Robert Addison Day had deteriorated before then. In December 2009, shortly after leaving TCW, Gundlach, Philip Barach and 14 senior members of their team set up DoubleLine Capital in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The name DoubleLine came from a painting by

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...

called Double Line. Gundlach and Barach reached out to

Howard Marks Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler and author who achieved notoriety as an international Cannabis (drug), cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been sm ...

who was the co-founder of

Oaktree Capital Management Oaktree Capital Management, Inc. is an American global asset management firm specializing in alternative investment strategies. As of September 30, 2024, the company managed $205 billion for its clientele. The firm was co-founded in 1995 by a ...

as well as a former employee of TCW who knew them during their time there. Oaktree Capital Management invested $20 million in DoubleLine for a 20% stake. On 23 December, DoubleLine registered with the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

. On 7 January 2010, TCW sued Gundlach with DoubleLine being named as a defendant in the case. TCW alleged that Gundlach and the firm stole its company secrets and clients. 45 out of 65 of Gundlach's old TCW team had joined DoubleLine. Gundlach countersued TCW stating it owed him millions in unpaid compensation. By December 2011, the lawsuit was settled. TWC prevailed on the trade secret case but the jury awarded nothing for the damages. An undisclosed settlement was reached between Gundlach and TCW. Gundlach prevailed on the unpaid compensation case and the jury awarded him and three other former TCW employees $66.7 million in unpaid wages. On 6 April 2010, DoubleLine started accepted investor money and launched its own Total Return Fund which was managed by Gundlach himself. By December that year, the firm had over $7 billion in

assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...

. In July 2011, DoubleLine launched its first

closed-end fund A closed-end fund (CEF), also known as a closed-end mutual fund, is an investment vehicle fund that raises capital by issuing a fixed number of shares at its inception, and then invests that capital in financial assets such as stocks and bonds. ...

, the DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund which was managed by Gundlach himself. By November 2012, DoubleLine was managing $50 billion. In January 2013, DoubleLine established a new division that would manage equity portfolios called DoubleLine Equity LP. It was reported that after the

2016 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor, Indiana governor Mike P ...

, Gundlach who voted for

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and predicted his victory forwarded an email to DoubleLine employees with an image of Trump smiling in front of a garbage truck carting

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

away. The image angered some of the employees, who felt it blurred the line between politics and business. In 2019, the firm experienced a number of high level staff departures which was considered uncharacteristic. During this period DoubleLine's performance had dropped however it had over $140 billion in assets under management. In February 2022, DoubleLine moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to

due to its tax laws. In April 2022, DoubleLine launched its first two exchange-traded funds (ETF), the DoubleLine Opportunistic Bond ETF and the DoubleLine Shiller CAPE US Equities ETF. Prior to that, DoubleLine served as sub-advisor to ETFs offered by

State Street Global Advisors State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is an American investment management division of State Street Corporation founded in 1978 and the world's fourth largest asset manager, with nearly in assets under management as of December 31, 2023. SSGA ...

and AdvisorShares. In April 2023, one year after its ETF debut, DoubleLine moved into the real estate ETF market, launching the DoubleLine Commercial Real Estate ETF and the DoubleLine Mortgage ETF.

Investment funds

References

External links

* {{authority control 2009 establishments in California Companies based in Tampa, Florida Financial services companies established in 2009 Investment management companies of the United States Asset management companies