Freeman Spogli & Co.

Infobox_Company
company_
company_name = Freeman Spogli & Co.
company_type = Private Ownership
founder = Richard Riordan, Bradford Freeman and Ronald P. Spogli
foundation = 1983
location =
industry = Private Equity
products = Private equity funds, Leveraged buyouts
assets = $2.5 billion [Funds raised since inception]
homepage = [http://www.freemanspogli.com/ www.freemanspogli.com]

Freeman Spogli & Co. is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions involving growth companies in the retail, direct marketing, catalog and distribution sectors.

The firm, founded in 1983, is based in Los Angeles with an office in New York City and has approximately 20 investment professionals. Since its inception, as of 2008, Freeman Spogli had invested $2.5 billion of equity in 42 companies through transactions with an aggregate purchase price of more than $16 billion.

History

Freeman Spogli, originally known as Riordan, Freeman & Spogli was founded in 1983 Richard Riordan, Bradford Freeman and Ronald P. Spogli.

Co-founder Richard Riordan, who would later go on to serve as Mayor of Los Angeles, had been an attorney and a had made substantial personal investments in technology companies. After joining the firm, Riordan focused primarily on venture capital investments computer, medical and semiconductor companies. Prior to co-founding Freeman Spogli, Bradford Freeman and Ronald P. Spogli had been a Managing Directors in the Corporate Finance Department at Dean Witter Reynolds. [cite web |url= http://www.penningtonpc.com/bio.html |title= Managing Principal |publisher= penningtonpc.com |accessdate=2007-10-18]

The firm made its name in the 1980s through a series of leveraged buyout transactions, most notable of which was the 1984 buyout of Mattel. Throughout the 1980s, Riordan, Freeman & Spogli also executed leveraged buyouts of a series of supermarket retailers including Bayless Southwest (Phoenix), Boys Markets (Los Angeles), P&C Foods (Syracuse, Piggly Wiggly (various Southern states) and Tops Markets (New York and Pennsylvania).

Riordan separated from the other two partners in 1988, when they decided to specialize primarily in larger leveraged buyouts of more mature companies. Riordan relinquished his general partner position in the firm to form a venture capital firm called Riordan, Lewis & Haden with J. Christopher Lewis and former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Pat Haden. Following Riordan's departure, the firm was renamed Freeman Spogli & Co.

In 2002, George W. Bush appointed Spogli to a three-year term with the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship board. [cite web |url= http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021009-4.html |title= Nominations and Appointments |publisher= whitehouse.gov |accessdate=2007-10-18] [cite web |url= http://exchanges.state.gov/education/fulbright/ffsb/annualreport/2004/board.pdf |title= J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT FOREIGN SCHOLARSHIP BOARD 2004•2005 |publisher= exchanges.state.gov |accessdate=2007-10-18] Ultimately, Spogli left his position at Freeman Spogli & Co. in July 2005, to be was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy on August 10, 2005. [cite web |url= http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/51342.htm |title= BIOGRAPHY |publisher= state.gov |accessdate=2007-10-18]

Investments

Since its inception, as of 2008, Freeman Spogli had invested $2.5 billion of equity in 42 companies through transactions with an aggregate purchase price of more than $16 billion.

*Mattel
*Tops Markets
*Micro Warehouse
*Sur La Table
*P&C Foods
*Piggly Wiggly
*Petco
*El Pollo Loco

Since the departure of Riordan in 1987, Freeman, Spogli & Co. has raised four private equity funds with over $2.5 billion of investor commitments:

* FS Equity II (1988)
* FS Equity III - $560 million (1994)
* FS Equity IV - $915 million (1998)
* FS Equity V - $1.0 billion (2003)

ee also

*Riordan, Lewis & Haden
*Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

References

* Taub, Daniel. " [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_n26_v19/ai_ Riordan made his fortune backing start-up ventures] ," "Los Angeles Business Journal", June 30, 1997
* Zwiebach, Elloitt "The LBO maker (leveraged buyouts, Riordan Freeman & Spogli merchant bank)", Supermarket News, July 1987

External links

* [http://www.freemanspogli.com/ Freeman Spogli & Co.] (company website)