Madison Dearborn Partners

History

Madison Dearborn Partners was founded in 1992 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The founders, John A Canning Jr, Paul J. Finnegan, Samuel M. Mencoff, and Nicholas W. Alexos, had previously made private equity investments for First Chicago Bank.

Investments

Between 2006 and 2007, Madison Dearborn completed leveraged buyout transactions for a number of publicly traded companies, including Asurion, CDW, LA Fitness, Nuveen investments, Sorenson Communications, Univision Communications, VWR International and Yankee Candle.

In 2007, the firm joined with Michael Eisner's Tornante investment company to buy out baseball card maker The Topps Company.

In 2010, the firm acquired a majority stake in Transunion from the Pritzker family.

In 2014, a plan for MDP to sell Nuveen to TIAA-CREF for $6.25 billion was announced. While the Wall Street Journal cited an anonymous source close to the transaction to the effect that MDP "will have broken even on the transaction", Felix Salmon queried that assertion at Reuters. Dan Primack at Fortune then published additional information about auxiliary benefits to MDP to buttress the break-even claim.

Bell Canada

In June 2007, Madison Dearborn, Providence Equity Partners and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan agreed to acquire Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) in what would have been one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. The transaction was valued at C$51.7billion (US$48.5 billion) and was approved on September 21, 2007, by more than 97% shareholder votes cast by holders of common and preferred shares.

Bondholders argued in the Superior Court of Quebec that the deal did not protect their interests. While the court rejected the bondholder's arguments, the Quebec Court of Appeal sided with those opposed to the deal. In 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada overruled the Court of Appeal, allowing the deal to move forward.

In December 2008, the deal collapsed after auditing firm KPMG determined that the transaction would create an insolvent entity.

Selected portfolio

• Asurion
• InMoment
• Intermedia
• MoneyGram
• Topps
• Univision Communications}}

References

References

1. Capital raised since inception in 1992
2. "Madison Dearborn Partners LLC - Company Profile and News".
3. (1992-01-07). "Company News; Fund Venture Begun in Chicago". The New York Times.
4. (2 August 2015). "Which PE firm (or firms) is selling some of its Asurion stake?". PE Hub.
5. Mouawad, Jad. (2007-05-30). "Equity Firm to Acquire Net Retailer". The New York Times.
6. (21 May 2007). "Madison Dearborn Buys into LA Fitness". Venture Capital Journal.
7. (2007-06-21). "Mutual Fund Manager Agrees to Buyout". The New York Times.
8. (26 July 2014). "A deal that went sideways". Crain's Chicago Business.
9. [http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21128&seenIt=1 Madison Dearborn part of winning $12.3B bid for Univision] (Chicago Business News, Analysis & Articles, 2006)
10. (9 August 2007). "Madison Dearborn to buy VWR International". Reuters.
11. (2006-10-26). "Candle Maker Accepts a Buyout Offer". [[The New York Times]].
12. (2007-05-25). "A Bid for Topps, the Baseball Card Company". The New York Times.
13. (2014-04-14). "TIAA-CREF to buy Nuveen Investments for $6.25 billion".
14. (2014-04-14). "Private equity math, Nuveen edition". Reuters.
15. (2014-04-14). "Madison Dearborn's patience pays off on Nuveen Investments".
16. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080302034223/http://www.bce.ca/en/investors/shareholderinfo/privatization/ Privatization of BCE]
17. (30 June 2007). "BCE sets $33 billion buyout deal, one of Canada's biggest - Jun. 30, 2007". money.cnn.com.
18. (22 May 2008). "The BCE takeover". CBC.
19. (4 July 2008). "BCE Finalizes Tumultuous Takeover". Forbes.
20. (11 December 2008). "BCE Leveraged Buyout Deal Collapses - WSJ". WSJ.
21. Dusane, Ameya. (May 16, 2019). "Madison Dearborn Partners Invests in InMoment's Customer Experience Management Platform". [[Martech Advisor]].