Clearlake Capital
American private equity firm based in Santa Monica From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a private equity firm founded in 2006 that focuses on the technology, industrial and consumer sectors.[2][3][4][5] The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica with affiliates in Dallas, London and Dublin.[1][3][4][5] In 2022, the firm was a part of an investor consortium named BlueCo that purchased Chelsea.[3][5][6][7]
| |
 Headquarters at 233 Wilshire Blvd | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Private equity |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | 233 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, California U.S. |
| AUM | US$85 billion (2024) |
Number of employees | 114 (2024) |
| Subsidiaries | WhiteStar Asset Management |
| Website | clearlake |
| Footnotes / references [1][2][3][4] | |
In 2024, Clearlake Capital was ranked 16th in Private Equity International's PEI 300 ranking of the largest private equity firms in the world.[8]
Background
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Perspective
Clearlake Capital was founded in 2006 by Steven Chang, Behdad Eghbali and José Feliciano.[2][3][4][5] The strategy was to shift between buyouts and distressed securities depending on economic conditions.[3] This allowed the firm to take advantage of the 2007–2008 financial crisis to acquire distressed securities and then sell them for a profit after recovery.[3]
In 2015, Chang left the firm leaving Eghbali and Feliciano as the remaining managing partners.[2][9]
In May 2018, Clearlake sold a minority stake of up to 20% of its shares to Dyal Capital, Petershill Partners and Landmark Partners.[10][11] The purpose of the sale was to fund the creation of a credit unit.[11]
In June 2020, Clearlake acquired a majority interest in WhiteStar Asset Management from Pine Brook Road Partners.[3][12] WhiteStar Asset Management serves as the credit platform of Clearlake.[3][12]
In recent years Clearlake has become the biggest user of "General partner-led Private-equity secondary markets".[3] It is a technique where Clearlake will find another private equity firm to buy a large portion of one of its existing investments and then offer investors a chance to sell at a new valuation or roll their stake into a new fund that will hold the investment for a few more years.[3] It discovered this technique during the COVID-19 pandemic when it sold shares of software company Ivanti to TA Associates in August 2020 at a valuation of $2 billion that generated a large windfall gain.[3] Many investors chose to roll their holdings instead.[3] In 2021, Charlesbank Capital Partners invested in Ivanti at a valuation of $4 billion.[3]
In September 2024, Clearlake acquired Natixis' pan-European private credit business MV Credit [13]
Funds
| Fund[14] | Vintage Year | Committed Capital (US$m) |
|---|---|---|
| Clearlake Capital Partners I | N/A | N/A |
| Clearlake Capital Partners II | 2010 | 410 |
| Clearlake Capital Partners III | 2013 | 785 |
| Clearlake Capital Partners IV | 2015 | 1,380 |
| Clearlake Opportunities Partners | 2016 | 600 |
| Clearlake Capital Partners V | 2018 | 3,600 |
| Clearlake Opportunities Partners II | 2019 | 1,400 |
| Clearlake Capital Partners VI | 2020 | 7,000 |
| Clearlake Opportunities Partners III[15] | 2022 | 2,500 |
| Clearlake Capital Partners VII[16] | 2022 | 14,000 |
Notable deals
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In 2014, Clearlake acquired the women's clothing company Ashley Stewart for $18 million after it had recently filed for bankruptcy.[9] After the company underwent significant restructuring including cost-cutting, Clearlake sold the company to Invus Group for more than $140 million in 2016.[9]
In 2015, Clearlake took a controlling stake in Syncsort.[17] In 2016 Clearlake, took a controlling stake in Vision Solutions.[17] In 2017, Clearlake sold both companies to Centerbridge Partners for $1.26 billion and were merged.[17][18] In 2020 the merged company rebranded to Precisely. In 2021, Clearlake and TA Associates reacquired Precisely for $3.5 billion.[17][18]
In November 2020, Clearlake announced that it would acquire Endurance International Group for around $3 billion.[19] Following the acquisition, Clearlake combined Endurance's Web Presence division with Web.com to form Newfold Digital, a global web presence and domain name registration market leader.[20]
In October 2021, the firm acquired Cornerstone OnDemand a NASDAQ listed software company for $5.2 billion and took the company private.[21][22]
On May 30, 2022, an investor consortium named BlueCo co-led by Clearlake and Todd Boehly acquired Chelsea F.C. for $3 billion.[3][5][6][7] Clearlake, which owns about 60% of Chelsea, would share joint control and equal governance of the club with Boehly.[5]
References
External links
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