private equity founded 1994 founder jim stern jeff hughes jamie singleton and david spalding headquarters new york new york united states products leveraged buyout total assets 3.6 billion number of employees 20 website www.cypressgp.com the cypress group is a private equity company focused on leveraged buyout investments in companies across a range of industry sectors . at its peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s cypress was among the largest us private equity firms although by the end of the decade the firm would find itself in the process of winding down its operations . 1 the firm based in new york city was founded in 1994 by the four senior members of lehman brothers merchant banking group jim stern jeff hughes jamie singleton and david spalding . 2 cypress has raised approximately 3.6 billion since its inception across two funds raised in 1996 and 1999 . contents 1 history 2 investments 3 references 4 external links history edit the cypress group was founded in 1994 by jim stern jeff hughes jamie singleton and david spalding who had served previously as the senior managing directors of lehman brothers merchant banking group . 2 the four founders were responsible for restarting lehman s merchant banking efforts after the departure of pete peterson and stephen a. schwarzman to found the blackstone group a private equity and investment banking firm . the cypress group raised its first institutional private equity fund in 1996 with 1.05 billion of investor commitments . 3 history of private equity and venture capital early history origins of modern private equity the 1980s leveraged buyout boom the 1990s leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble the 2000s dot com bubble to the credit crunch v t e in 1999 the firm completed fundraising for cypress merchant banking partners ii with 2.5 billion of investor commitments . at the time it was raised the firm s new fund ranked among the largest raised for leveraged buyout transactions . ultimately cypress ii would prove to be the firm s final fund when it announced in 2007 that it would abandon further plans to raise a successor fund . 4 cypress had indicated its intentions to raise 1.5 billion . however a series of weak investments particularly in cypress ii severely impacted the firm s plans to raise a third fund . by 2007 cypress had lost a significant number of its senior investment professionals . 4 as of 2009 the firm is still managed day to day by two of its original founders jim stern and jeff hughes . david spalding assumed a role at his alma mater dartmouth college and jamie singleton still remains on the firm s board . in october 2009 the firm s cypress merchant banking partners ii will reach the end of its original 10 year term . while the firm is seeking to extend the life of the fund investors in the fund are currently negotiating an orderly wind down of the investments in the portfolio . 1 5 investments edit since inception in 1994 cypress has invested more than 4 billion of equity in more than 30 companies through transactions totalling in excess of 22 billion in size . historically cypress employed an industry based investment strategy and the firm was structured into six industry groups covering large segments of the economy including packaging building products construction materials & retail automotive & aerospace defense general industrial & services healthcare & financial services media & entertainment lodging & leisure consumer products among the firm s notable investments include affinia group 6 7 amtrol 8 catlin group cinemark theatres cooper standard 9 financial guaranty insurance company 10 frank s nursery & crafts infinity broadcasting corporation lear corporation loral aerospace holdings mcbride plc meow mix 11 12 r.p. scherer corporation republic national cabinet corporation scottish re group wesco international 13 williams scotsman 14 references edit a b cypress group faces vote for survival . new york post august 7 2009 a b lehman seeking higher profit returns to merchant banking . new york times november 12 1996 cypress closes funds . new york times february 22 1996 a b winding down at cypress group . wall street journal june 18 2007 fate of cypress group said to be in investors hands . new york times august 7 2009 dana reduces sale price of its auto parts unit . new york times november 3 2004 dana sells replacement parts business to cypress . new york times july 10 2004 cypress group to purchase amtrol . new york times august 30 1996 cooper tire sells automotive unit for 1.2 billion . new york times september 18 2004 general electric to sell bond insurance unit . new york times august 5 2003 equity firm buys cat food company for 425 million . new york times october 15 2003 del monte to buy meow mix and sell some food units . new york times march 3 2006 buyout firm joins wesco managers in takeover . new york times april 25 1998 williams scotsman sale set for 675 million . new york times april 15 1997 external links edit the cypress group company website v t e private equity and venture capital basic investment types buyout venture mezzanine growth secondaries equity co investment 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 terms and concepts buyout financial sponsor management buyout divisional buyout buy sell agreement leveraged recapitalization dividend recapitalization venture angel investor business incubator post money valuation pre money valuation seed money startup company venture capital financing venture debt venture round structure private equity firms and funds limited partnership limited liability company carried interest management fee publicly traded private equity business development company venture capital trust private investment in public equity pipe pledge fund investors corporations institutional investors pension funds insurance companies fund of funds endowments foundations investment banks merchant banks commercial banks high net worth individuals family offices sovereign wealth funds crowdfunding related financial terms aum cap table capital call capital commitment capital structure distribution waterfall ebitda envy ratio high yield debt ipo irr leverage liquidation preference m & a pme taxation of private equity and hedge funds undercapitalization vintage year private equity and venture capital investors private equity firms venture capital firms angel investors portfolio companies retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cypress group & oldid 647121649 categories private equity firms of the united states 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 14 february 2015 at 17 08 . 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