The story
Founded by David Tepper in 1993.1
In 1993, David Tepper and Jack Walton, founded Appaloosa Management, an employee-owned hedge fund, in Chatham, New Jersey. Throughout the 1990s, the firm was known as a junk bond investment boutique, and through the 2000s it was known as a hedge fund. In March 2021, David Tepper said it's increasingly difficult to be bearish on stock rights now, feeling that rising rates are set to stabilize, and that the sell off in treasuries that has driven rates up is probably over.
2002 Conseco & Marconi Corp.
In the fourth quarter of 2002, Appaloosa Management's returns were driven largely by positions in the junk bonds and distressed debt of Conseco and Marconi Corp., reflecting a view that the market had reached a bottom.
2007 Delphi
In 2007, the firm oversaw an estimated $5.3 billion in assets under management. According to the Financial Times, Appaloosa drew scrutiny for its sizable stake in the bankrupt auto-parts supplier Delphi and for disputes over whether Delphi's management was serving the best interests of shareholders or those of GM and the UAW.
2008 financial crisis through 2011
Appaloosa survived the 2008 financial crisis with relatively few investor redemption orders. From 2009 to 2010, Appaloosa Management's assets under management grew from $5 billion to $12 billion. In November 2010, The New York Times reported total assets under management of $14 billion. In 2010, it was reported that since 1993 Appaloosa Management had returned $12.4 billion to clients—ranking it sixth on a ranking of total returns to clients by managers since inception.
In September 2011, a Delaware bankruptcy court found that Appaloosa Management is one of four hedge funds that had played a role in Washington Mutual's restructuring which might have received confidential information that could have been used to trade improperly in the bank's debt; Appaloosa and the other hedge funds denied any impropriety. In 2011, the company was awarded the Institutional Hedge Fund Firm of the Year award.
In January 2016, Appaloosa's headquarters were relocated to Miami Beach, Florida.
From Wikipedia’s article on Appaloosa Management, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5