& partners type private ownership industry private equity founded 1995 headquarters chicago illinois united states products private equity funds leveraged buyouts total assets 3.0 billion 1 website www.willisstein.com willis stein & partners is a private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions for middle market companies . the firm s most notable investments have included ziff davis roundy s jays foods lincoln snacks company and petersen publishing company publisher of motor trend . the firm is headquartered in chicago and was founded in 1995 . history edit prior to founding the firm john willis and avy stein were executives of continental illinois venture corp. civc the private equity arm of continental illinois national bank and trust company . when continental illinois was acquired in 1994 by bank of america john willis and avy stein who had run the group at continental illinois left to form willis stein & partners . they were quickly able to raise over 300 million of investor commitments . subsequently the remaining civc team would form a semi independent private equity firm civc partners with backing from bank of america . civc is today a mid sized middle market private equity firm based in chicago . civc announced in 2007 it was seeking to raise its first private equity fund with primarily third party capital . since its inception in 1995 willis stein has raised three private equity funds with nearly 3.0 billion of investor commitments . as of 2007 the firm had announced the launch of a fourth fund . due to mixed results in its 2000 vintage fund willis stein waited nearly eight years before launching a new fund and when it did so the firm significantly decreased its target fund size relative to its last fund . 2 willis stein & partners 1995 343 million willis stein & partners ii 1998 840 million willis stein & partners iii 2000 1.8 billion willis stein & partners iv announced 1.0 billion target external links edit willis stein & partners company website willis stein & partners agrees to acquire ziff davis publishing for 780 million company business and marketing willis stein & partners exits national veterinary associates . references edit capital raised since inception willis stein said to target 1 billion fund . new york times march 26 2008 former hearst executive wins bidding for petersen publishing . new york times august 16 1996 chairman of ziff davis media is replaced . new york times august 14 2001 v t e private equity and venture capital investment firms investment strategy venture growth mezzanine secondaries leveraged buyout history history of private equity and venture capital early history of private equity private equity in the 1980s private equity in the 1990s private equity in the 2000s investors angel investor corporate venture capital commercial bank crowdfunding institutional investor insurance company investment bank endowment family office fund of funds high net worth individual merchant bank pension fund sovereign wealth fund private equity firms venture capital firms portfolio companies v t e spartannash subsidiaries d & w fresh market econofoods felpausch defunct family fare glen s markets defunct nash finch company roundy s seaway food town defunct people william e. smith related willis stein & partners retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title willis stein % 26 partners & oldid 743337340 categories private equity firms of the united statescompanies established in 1995companies based in chicagohidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 05 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view