firm . for the management consulting company see bain and company . bain capital lp type private limited partnership industry alternative investment founded 1984 ; 32 years ago 1984 headquarters 200 clarendon street boston massachusetts u.s. number of locations boston chicago dublin hong kong london luxembourg melbourne mumbai munich new york palo alto san francisco shanghai and tokyo key people joshua bekenstein john connaughton jonathan lavine steven pagliuca products venture capital investment management public equity private equity and credit products total assets us 75 billion 2014 number of employees 900 2014 citation needed website www.baincapital.com in late 2011 bain capital moved its headquarters to the john hancock tower in boston massachusetts . bain occupies 210 000 sq. ft. from the 36th to 43rd floors . 1 bain capital is a global alternative investment firm based in boston massachusetts . it specializes in private equity venture capital and credit products . bain capital invests across a range of industry sectors and geographic regions . as of june 2014 the firm managed more than 75 billion of investor capital across its various investment platforms . the firm was founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm bain & company . 2 since inception it has invested in or acquired hundreds of companies including amc theatres aspen education group brookstone burger king burlington coat factory canada goose dic entertainment domino s pizza doubleclick dunkin donuts d & m holdings guitar center hospital corporation of america hca iheartmedia sealy sports authority staples toys r us warner music group fingerhut the weather channel and apple leisure group which includes amresorts and apple vacations . 3 as of 2014 bain capital employs more than 900 people . citation needed bain capital is headquartered at the john hancock tower in boston massachusetts with additional offices in new york city chicago palo alto san francisco dublin london luxembourg munich hong kong shanghai mumbai tokyo and melbourne . 4 the company and its actions during its first 15 years became the subject of political and media scrutiny as a result of co founder mitt romney s later political career especially his 2012 presidential campaign . 5 6 contents 1 history 1.1 1984 founding and early history 1.2 1990s 1.3 1999 2002 romney departure and political legacy 1.4 early 2000s 1.5 bain and the 2000s buy out boom 1.6 since 2008 2 businesses and affiliates 2.1 bain capital private equity 2.2 bain capital ventures 2.3 bain capital public equity 2.4 bain capital credit 3 appraisals and critiques 4 investments gallery 5 references 6 bibliography 7 external links history edit 1984 founding and early history edit bain capital was founded in 1984 by bain & company partners mitt romney t. coleman andrews iii and eric kriss after bill bain had offered romney the chance to head a new venture that would invest in companies and apply bain s consulting techniques to improve operations . 7 in addition to the three founding partners the early team included fraser bullock robert f. white joshua bekenstein adam kirsch and geoffrey s. rehnert . 8 romney initially had the titles of president 9 and managing general partner 10 11 or managing partner . 12 he later became referred to as managing director 13 or ceo 14 as well . he was also the sole shareholder of the firm . 15 at the beginning the firm had fewer than ten employees . 16 in the face of skepticism from potential investors romney and his partners spent a year raising the 37 million in funds needed to start the new operation . 16 17 18 19 bain partners put in 12 million of their own money and sourced the rest from wealthy individuals . 20 early investors included boston real estate mogul mortimer zuckerman and robert kraft the owner of the new england patriots football team . 18 they also included members of elite salvadoran families who fled the country s civil war . 21 they and other wealthy latin americans invested 9 million primarily through offshore companies registered in panama . 20 while bain capital was founded by bain executives the firm was not an affiliate or a division of bain & company but rather a completely separate company . initially the two firms shared the same offices in an office tower at copley place in boston 22 and a similar approach to improving business operations . however the two firms had put in place certain protections to avoid sharing information between the two companies and the bain & company executives had the ability to veto investments that posed potential conflicts of interest . 23 bain capital also provided an investment opportunity for partners of bain & company . the firm initially gave a cut of its profits to bain & company but romney later persuaded bill bain to give that up . 24 bain capital was an initial investor in staples inc. the bain capital team was initially reluctant to invest its capital . by 1985 things were going poorly enough that romney considered closing the operation returning investors money back to them and having the partners go back to their old positions . 25 the partners saw weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986 very few had been done . 26 at first bain capital focused on venture capital opportunities . 26 one of bain s earliest and most notable venture investments was in staples inc. the office supply retailer . in 1986 bain provided 4.5 million to two supermarket executives leo kahn and thomas g. stemberg to open an office supply supermarket in brighton massachusetts . 27 the fast growing retail chain went public in 1989 ; 28 by 1996 the company had grown to over 1 100 stores 29 and as of fiscal year end january 2012 staples reached over 20 billion in sales nearly 1.0 b in net income 87 000 employees and 2 295 stores . 30 bain capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment and romney sat on the staples board of directors for over a decade . 16 19 26 another very successful investment occurred in 1986 when 1 million was invested in medical equipment maker calumet coach which eventually returned 34 million . 31 a few years later bain capital made an investment in the technology research outfit the gartner group which ended up returning a 16 fold gain . 31 bain invested the 37 million of capital in its first fund in twenty companies and by 1989 was generating an annualized return in excess of 50 percent . by the end of the decade bain s second fund raised in 1987 had deployed 106 million into 13 investments . 32 as the firm began organizing around funds each such fund was run by a specific general partnership that included all bain capital executives as well as others which in turn was controlled by bain capital inc. the management company that romney had full ownership control of . 33 as ceo romney had a final say in every deal made . 34 1990s edit beginning in 1989 the firm which began as a venture capital source investing in start up companies adjusted its strategy to focus on leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments in more mature companies . 35 their model was to buy existing firms with money mostly borrowed against their assets partner with existing management to apply bain methodology to their operations rather than the hostile takeovers practiced in other leverage buyout scenarios and sell them off in a few years . 18 26 existing ceos were offered large equity stakes in the process owing to bain capital s belief in the emerging agency theory that ceos should be bound to maximizing shareholder value rather than other goals . 19 by the end of 1990 bain had raised 175 million of capital and financed 35 companies with combined revenues of 3.5 billion . 36 in july 1992 bain acquired ampad originally american pad & paper from mead corporation which had acquired the company in 1986 . mead which had been experiencing difficulties integrating ampad s products into its existing product lines generated a cash gain of 56 million on the sale . 37 under bain s ownership the company enjoyed a significant growth in sales from 106.7 million in 1992 to 583.9 million in 1996 when the company was listed on the new york stock exchange . under bain s ownership the company also made a number of acquisitions including writing products company scm in july 1994 brand names from the american trading and production corporation in august 1995 wr acquisition and the williamhouse regency division of delaware inc. in october 1995 niagara envelope company inc. in 1996 and shade allied inc. in february 1997 . 38 ampad s revenue began to decline in 1997 and the company laid off employees and closed production facilities to maintain profitability . employment declined from 4 105 in 1996 to 3 800 in 2000 . 39 the company ceased trading on the new york stock exchange on december 22 2000 40 and filed for bankruptcy in 2001 . at the time of the bankruptcy bain capital held a 34.9 % equity ownership interest in the company . 41 the assets were acquired in 2003 by crescent investments . bain s eight years of involvement in ampad is estimated to have generated over 100 million in profits 60 million in dividends 45 50 million from the proceeds from stock issued after the company went public and 1.5 2 million in annual management fees . 42 in 1994 bain acquired totes a producer of umbrellas and overshoes . 43 three years later totes under bain s ownership acquired isotoner a producer of leather gloves . 44 bain together with thomas h. lee partners acquired experian the consumer credit reporting business of trw inc. in 1996 for more than 1 billion . formerly known as trw s information systems and services unit experian is one of the leading providers of credit reports on consumers and businesses in the us . 45 the company was sold to great universal stores for 1.7 billion just months after being acquired . 46 other notable bain investments of the late 1990s included sealy corporation the manufacturer of mattresses ; 47 alliance laundry systems ; 48 domino s pizza 49 and artisan entertainment . 50 much of the firm s profits was earned from a relatively small number of deals with bain capital s overall success and failure rate being about even . one study of 68 deals that bain capital made up through the 1990s found that the firm lost money or broke even on 33 of them . 51 another study that looked at the eight year period following 77 deals during the same time found that in 17 cases the company went bankrupt or out of business and in 6 cases bain capital lost all its investment . but 10 deals were very successful and represented 70 percent of the total profits . 52 romney had two diversions from bain capital during the first half of the decade . from january 1991 to december 1992 26 53 romney served as the ceo of bain & company where he led the successful turnaround of the consulting firm he remained managing general partner of bain capital during this time . 10 11 in november 1993 he took a leave of absence for his unsuccessful 1994 run for the u.s. senate seat from massachusetts ; he returned the day after the election in november 1994 . 26 54 55 during that time ampad workers went on strike and asked romney to intervene ; bain capital lawyers asked him not to get involved although he did meet with the workers to tell them he had no position of active authority in the matter . 56 57 in 1994 bain invested in steel dynamics based in fort wayne indiana a prosperous