The story
Founded by Tom Gores in 1995.1
History
Platinum Equity was founded in 1995 by Tom Gores. The firm's first acquisition was LSI, a company that generated computer graphics to re-create accidents for courtroom testimony. After purchasing it for $200,000, Platinum Equity focused on serving existing customers and returning the company to profitability.
Over the next five years, between July 1996 and September 2001, the firm made 32 acquisitions amounting to $226 million, and realized $940 million on those investments. These acquisitions included a call center (Foresight Software), networking gear (Racal Electronics), and voice and data service (Williams Communications). BusinessWeek ranked the firm number 10 on its 1999 list of the country’s top 20 private IT organizations, based on 1998 revenues.
During this period of acquisition growth, additional partners joined the firm and several other joined through key acquisitions starting in 1999.
The firm’s first fund, Platinum Equity Capital Partners, was raised in 2004 and had a 62.5% net internal rate of return as of June 30, 2009. For the second fund, Platinum Equity Capital Partners II, which closed in September 2008, despite uncertainty in the financial markets. the firm initially sought a $1.5 billion leveraged buyout fund and nearly doubled it by raising $2.75 billion.
During the Great Recession, Platinum Equity acquired 14 companies in the first 11 months of 2009, eight of them full buyouts.
In 2011, Platinum Equity became a major sponsor of the Detroit Pistons when Gores purchased the club and became its owner. The company's logo has since been affixed to the Pistons courts, both at The Palace of Auburn Hills and Little Caesars Arena.
In 2017, Platinum Equity completed the acquisition of the Staples business in Australia and New Zealand from Staples Inc., relaunching it as Winc (Work Incorporated).
In 2018, Newell Brands sold Jostens to Platinum Equity for $1.3 billion.
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Information technology
In October 2004, the firm completed the acquisition of CompuCom Systems, Inc. which was one of the largest public-to-private transactions in 2004. Then, in December 2004, the company acquired General Electric's IT Solutions division. The merger brought CompuCom to $1.7 billion in annual revenue and more than $500 million in services. The business was sold to Court Square Capital Partners in 2007. In 2014, Platinum Equity acquired 70% ownership of Australian marketing and directory services company Sensis for AU$454 million. In July 2021, the firm completed the acquisition of Ingram Micro.
From Wikipedia’s article on Platinum Equity, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5