from
Wikipedia Website
The Carlyle Group is a Washington, D.C. based global private equity
investment firm with more than $58.5 billion of equity capital under
management.[1] The firm operates four fund families, focusing on
leveraged buyouts, venture & growth capital, real estate and
leveraged finance investments.
The firm employs more than 395
investment professionals in 18 countries with several offices in
North America, Europe and Asia; its portfolio companies employ more
than 250,000 people worldwide.
Carlyle has over 1000 investors in 57
countries.
The Carlyle
Group
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Type - Private Partnership
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Founded - 1987
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Headquarters - Washington,
D.C.
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Key people
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Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.,
Chairman
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William E. Conway, Jr.,
Founder
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Daniel A. D'Aniello,
Founder
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David M. Rubenstein,
Founder
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John F. Harris, CFO
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Industry - Financial
Services
-
Products
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Revenue - Undisclosed to
public
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Employees - 750
-
Website -
www.carlyle.com
Origin
Carlyle was founded in 1987 by:
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William E. Conway, Jr.
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Daniel A. D'Aniello
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Stephen L. Norris
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Greg A. Rosenbaum
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David M. Rubenstein
Rosenbaum left in 1987; Norris left in
1995. The three remaining founders are reported to collectively own
around a 50% interest in the group's general partnership. The
California Public Employees Retirement System (or CalPERS) is the
only institution which owns a stake in the partnership, holding 5.5%
of Carlyle.
As they wanted the firm to outlive them, the founders named the firm
after the upper east side hotel in New York City, the Carlyle Hotel,
where they first met to discuss the idea. Carlyle's current chairman
is Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM and Nabisco.
Specialization
Carlyle deals in the following industries:
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Aerospace & Defense
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Automotive
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Consumer & Retail
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Energy & Power
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Healthcare
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Real Estate
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Technology & Business
Services
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Telecommunications &
Media
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Transportation
The Carlyle Group's investments are
focused on East Asia, Europe and North America, with most investment
money coming from the United States (65%), Europe (25%), Asia (6%),
Latin America, and the Middle East.
Defense investments represent about 1%
of the group's current portfolio — though this translates, for
example, into a 33.8% ownership of QinetiQ, the UK's recently
privatized defense company.
Current portfolio and
major acquisitions
Though known for its expertise in aerospace and defense, Carlyle
invested more than thirty percent of its assets in the
telecommunications and media sector. Noted portfolio companies are:
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Dex Media, the former directories business of Qwest Communications
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Willcom, a Japanese wireless company
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Casema, a Dutch cable company
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Insight Communications, the ninth largest cable company in the
U.S.
The Carlyle Group is also a major investor in US Investigations
Services, which is the privatized arm of the United States Office of
Personnel Management's Office of Federal Investigations.
Brand-name companies that Carlyle owns include: Dunkin' Brands,
which owns Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, and dental hygiene
company. Water Pik. Carlyle also recently took rental car company
Hertz public.
On June 28, 2007, Carlyle announced that it would partner with Onex
Corporation to buy the Allison Transmission unit from General Motors
for $5.6 billion.
On July 2, 2007, it was disclosed that
the Carlyle Group was looking to buy Virgin Media UK cable business.
Richard Branson is the largest shareholder, and the Virgin Group own
the name Virgin, and Virgin Media have the rights to use the name
Virgin for 10 years.
Controversy
Critics of the Carlyle Group frequently note its connections to
various political figures. Some of the sectors and companies in
which it invests are highly sensitive to political activity; indeed,
its actions may be viewed as a form of political arbitrage. This may
create conflicts of interest when political decision makers have
their own personal wealth linked to such investments. Carlyle is the
largest private equity firm located in Washington, D.C., its
corporate headquarters are located on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Critics refer to Carlyle as a private military contractor, because
it owns controlling or partial interests in several military
contractors. For example, it used to own United Defense Industries,
which was developing the Crusader artillery project. This project
was funded in eight consecutive Clinton budgets but was cancelled
soon after Bush became president, eliminating the remaining $9
billion of the original $11 billion contract. A much smaller
contract was awarded to United Defense to capture technologies
developed during the eight years of development.
In the book
House of Bush, House of Saud, author
Craig Unger states
that Saudi Arabian interests have given $1.4 billion to firms
connected to the Bush family. Nearly 85% of the $1.4 billion, or
about $1.18 billion, refers to Saudi Arabian government contracts
awarded to defense contractor BDM in the early to mid 1990s.
Carlyle, however, sold its interest in BDM before former President
George H. W. Bush joined as an advisor.
Former President George H.W. Bush retired from Carlyle in
October 2003. George W. Bush served on the Board of Directors of
early Carlyle acquisition Caterair. Bush left the board in 1992 to
run for Governor of Texas.
The Saudi Arabian relatives of Osama bin Laden were also investors
in Carlyle until October 2001 when the family sold its $2.02 million
investment back to the firm in light of the public controversy
surrounding bin Laden’s family after the terrorist attack on
September 11, 2001. The bin Laden family has publicly disowned the
al-Qaeda leader. Osama bin Laden has not publicly known or
acknowledged economic interest in Saudi Binladin Group (SBG),
whose investments were in part managed by the Carlyle Group until
the arrangement was terminated by mutual consent.
The Carlyle group have also been criticized for making excessive
profit from the full public sales of the former government-run UK
defense research establishment, which post sale became the private
company QinetiQ.
Notable current and
former employees and affiliated persons
Business
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G. Allen Andreas - Chairman of
the Archer Daniels Midland Company
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Daniel Akerson - company
director
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Joaquin Avila - investment
banker
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Laurent Beaudoin - CEO of
Bombardier (1979-)
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Paul Desmarais - Chairman of the
Power Corporation of Canada
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Arthur Levitt - former Chairman
of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
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Karl Otto Pöhl - former
President of the Bundesbank
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George Soros - billionaire and
political backer
Politics and public service
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James Baker III, former United
States Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, Staff
member under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Carlyle
Senior Counselor, served in this capacity from 1993 to 2005
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George H. W. Bush, former U.S.
President, Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Asia Advisory Board
from April 1998 to October 2003
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George W. Bush, current U.S.
President. Was appointed in 1990 to the Board of Directors
of one of Carlyle's first acquisitions, an airline food
business called Caterair, which Carlyle eventually sold at a
loss. Bush left the board in 1992 to run for Governor of
Texas
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Frank C. Carlucci, former United
States Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989; Also, former
Princeton wrestling partner of former US Secretary of
Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Carlyle Chairman and Chairman
Emeritus from 1989 to 2005
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Richard Darman, former Director
of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under George H.
W. Bush, Senior Advisor and Managing Director of The Carlyle
Group from 1993 to the present
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Allan Gotlieb, Canadian
ambassador to the United States (1981-89) and member of
Carlyle's Canadian advisory board
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Liu Hong-Ru, former chairman of
China's Securities Regulatory Commission
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William Kennard, Chairman of the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President
Bill Clinton, Carlyle's Managing Director in the
Telecommunications & Media Group from 2001 to the present
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Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under
President Bill Clinton, Carlyle Senior Advisor from 2001 to
the present
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Peter Lougheed - Premier of
Alberta (1971-85)
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John Major, former British Prime
Minister, Chairman, Carlyle Europe from 2002 until 2005
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Frank McKenna, Canadian
ambassador to the United States and former member of
Carlyle's Canadian advisory board
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Mack McLarty, White House Chief
of Staff under President Bill Clinton, President of
Kissinger McLarty Associates, Carlyle Senior Advisor from
2003 to the present
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Anand Panyarachun, former Prime
Minister of Thailand (twice), former member of the Carlyle
Asia Advisory Board until the board was disbanded in 2004
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Fidel Ramos, former president of
the Philippines, Carlyle Asia Advisor Board Member until the
board was disbanded in 2004
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Dan Senor - political consultant
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Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed
Prime Minister of Thailand, former member of board, who
resigned on taking office in 2001
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Luis Téllez Kuenzler, Mexican
economist, current Secretary of Communications and
Transportation under the Calderon administration and former
Secretary of Energy under the Zedillo administration
Other
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