Clearlake Capital

Last updated

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P.
Company type Private
Industry Private equity
Founded2006;19 years ago (2006)
Founders
Headquarters233 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, California U.S.
AUM US$85 billion (2024)
Number of employees
114 (2024)
Subsidiaries WhiteStar Asset Management
Website clearlake.com
Footnotes /references
[1] [2] [3] [4]

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]

Contents

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

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 YearCommitted Capital (US$m)
Clearlake Capital Partners IN/AN/A
Clearlake Capital Partners II2010410
Clearlake Capital Partners III2013785
Clearlake Capital Partners IV20151,380
Clearlake Opportunities Partners2016600
Clearlake Capital Partners V20183,600
Clearlake Opportunities Partners II20191,400
Clearlake Capital Partners VI20207,000
Clearlake Opportunities Partners III [15] 20222,500
Clearlake Capital Partners VII [16] 202214,000

Notable deals

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

  1. 1 2 "Form ADV" (PDF). SEC.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Clearlake Capital hits fundraising trail minus a founder | Buyouts". October 26, 2021. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Clearlake, the US buyout group behind the Chelsea bid". Financial Times. May 7, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Singh, Preeti (May 18, 2022). "Clearlake Capital Wraps Up Latest Fund With $14.1 Billion". Wall Street Journal.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dowd, Kevin. "Clearlake Follows Its Chelsea Deal With A $14.1 Billion Buyout Fund". Forbes. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  6. 1 2 "Wall Street Brings Its Financial Engineering to English Football". Bloomberg.com. February 17, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completes acquisition of Chelsea Football Club". www.chelseafc.com. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  8. ↑ "PEI 300 | The Largest Private Equity Firms in the World". Private Equity International. June 1, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 "The Fall and Rise of a Plus-Size Empire". Bloomberg.com. December 21, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Clearlake Capital sells 20% stake to 3 alternatives fund managers". Pensions & Investments. May 25, 2018. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  11. 1 2 "Clearlake Attracts Minority Investment From Dyal, Goldman, Landmark". Institutional Investor. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  12. 1 2 "Clearlake Capital purchases majority stake in WhiteStar Asset Management". www.spglobal.com. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  13. ↑ Platt, Eric (September 3, 2024). "Chelsea FC co-owner Clearlake buys private credit business from Natixis". Financial Times. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  14. ↑ "Clearlake Capital Group | Palico". www.palico.com. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
  15. ↑ Larin, Marvin (September 20, 2022). "Clearlake Capital closes Clearlake Opportunities Partners III with more than $2.5 billion in commitments". Clearlake Capital. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
  16. ↑ Larin, Marvin (May 18, 2022). "Clearlake Capital closes seventh flagship private equity fund with more than $14.1 billion in commitments". Clearlake Capital. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Woodie, Alex (March 8, 2021). "Clearlake Re-Acquires Precisely In $3.5 Billion Deal". IT Jungle. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  18. 1 2 "Two private equity firms take control of U.S. software company Precisely in $3.5 billion deal: source". Reuters. March 3, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  19. ↑ "Endurance International Group Announces Agreement to be Acquired by Clearlake Capital Group L.P. for $9.50 per Share". Clearlake.com (Press release). Clearlake Capital. November 2, 2020. Retrieved November 2, 2020.
  20. ↑ Basch, Mark (February 11, 2021). "Web.com merges with competitor, becoming Newfold Digital". Jax Daily Record. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  21. ↑ "Clearlake Capital to take Cornerstone OnDemand private for $3.8 billion". Reuters. August 5, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  22. ↑ "In $5.2B deal, Cornerstone OnDemand goes private | TechTarget". HR Software. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
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