limited liability company industry private equity technology founded 1999 founder james davidson david roux roger mcnamee glenn hutchins headquarters sand hill road menlo park california united states number of locations 8 offices in 5 countries products leveraged buyout growth capital aum 26 billion number of employees 100 1 citation needed website www.silverlake.com silver lake is an american private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments in technology technology enabled and related industries . founded in 1999 the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world . notable among its investment holdings are avago dell alibaba go daddy william morris endeavor img worldwide avaya sabre holdings skype symantec glg seagate technology and nasdaq . silver lake is headquartered in menlo park with offices in san mateo cupertino new york london hong kong shanghai and tokyo . contents 1 investment strategies 2 history 3 key personnel 4 investments 5 controversy 6 references 7 external links investment strategies edit silver lake operates through four primary businesses all focused on technology investments silver lake partners makes private equity investments in large cap technology companies . silver lake partners was the firm s original business founded by jim davidson dave roux roger mcnamee and glenn hutchins and comprises the bulk of the firm s assets under management . 2 silver lake sumeru focuses on technology investments in middle market companies . the sumeru business was formerly known as shah capital founded by ajay shah . silver lake kraftwerk a growth oriented fund focused on energy energy technology and resources investing . silver lake waterman a growth capital via a proprietary growth debt product to later stage growth companies in the technology and technology enabled industries . history edit 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 silver lake was founded in 1999 at the height of the late 1990s technology boom to make private equity investments in mature technology companies as opposed to the startups pursued actively by venture capitalists . among the firm s founders were the four amigos 3 jim davidson who had led the technology investment banking business at hambrecht & quist ; david roux who had an operational and entrepreneurial background having served as chairman and ceo of liberate technologies executive vice president at oracle corporation and senior vice president at lotus development ; roger mcnamee who had previously co founded integral capital partners a hybrid investment fund that made investments in publicly traded companies and venture capital investments in early stage startups ; and glenn hutchins who came from blackstone group and served as a special advisor on economic and healthcare policy in the early clinton administration and previously worked at thomas h. lee partners ; . 4 4 the firm raised its first fund silver lake partners with 2.3 billion of investor commitments . silver lake s first fund was among the best performing funds of its vintage . the firm s second fund silver lake partners ii was raised in 2004 with 3.6 billion of commitments . 5 the firm s third fund silver lake partners iii was raised in 2007 with 9.6 billion of commitments . 6 also in 2007 the firm launched its middle market investment business silver lake sumeru hiring ajay shah and the former investment team of shah capital partners . sumeru completed fundraising for its debut fund in 2008 with 1.1 billion of capital . 7 silver lake also launched its credit focused business silver lake financial in 2007 . silver lake financial is headed by roger wittlin who joined the firm together with a group of staff from sutter credit strategies a division of wells fargo . in 2013 the firm raised its fourth fund silver lake partners iv which closed in 2013 with 10.3 billion in committed capital . key personnel edit in 2004 mcnamee left silver lake to found elevation partners an entertainment and media focused private equity firm with bono . 8 on december 20 2007 cisco systems development chief charles giancarlo announced his departure from cisco and his new position as partner and managing director at silver lake . 9 in january 2008 as the mid 2000s buyout boom was coming to an end silver lake sold a 9.9 % stake in its management company to calpers for 275 million implying a valuation of approximately 2.8 billion for the firm . 10 contemporaneously with the raising of the firm s fourth large cap fund in 2013 silver lakes new four amigos 11 a group of four investment professionals mike bingle egon durban ken hao and greg mondre all of whom had been with the firm since its founding took leadership positions as managing partners in the firm alongside founder jim davidson . in october 2013 it was announced that skype s chief operating officer and development chief mark gillett would depart from microsoft 12 and succeed giancarlo as a managing director and head of value creation 13 while giancarlo would transition to be a senior advisor to the firm . investments edit since inception in 1999 silver lake has made investments through leveraged buyout transactions minority growth investments and pipe investments in over 40 companies . silver lake s current and realized portfolio of investments includes or has included technology industry companies such as avago technologies avi spl business objects flextronics gartner instinet ipc systems mci inc. multiplan nasdaq netscout systems nxp semiconductors sabre holdings seagate technology serena software sungard talend td ameritrade technicolor sa ugs corp. and virtu financial . the following table details some of silver lake s private equity investments investment year company description emc 2015 on 12 october 2015 emc announced that they have agreed on a buy out by michael dell msd capital and silver lake for 33.15 per share in a complicated cash transaction which includes tracking stock in vmware which will remain a publicly traded company . the deal when completed will total 67 billion the largest technology buyout since the 2013 dell buyout . dell continues to hedge its bets that mergers are the way to expand the company when others are betting that spinoffs and smaller companies are better . 14 dell 2013 on 5 february 2013 dell inc. announced that they have agreed on a buy out by michael dell and silver lake for 13.65 per share in cash . the shares of founder and ceo michael dell and some of its key management are not included in this deal . microsoft additionally provided 2 billion in the form of a loan to assist with the buy out . 15 16 if the deal is completed dell will be de listed from nasdaq and the hong kong stock exchange and will again be a fully privately owned company as it was before its first initial public offering . according to michael dell this move will make it easier to work on a long term growth strategy as the company can make choices that will pay out on the longer term without the need to address to demands of short term individual share holders . 15 the deal was completed on october 30 2013 and at 24.4 billion was the largest technology buyout ever surpassing the 2006 buyout of freescale semiconductor for 17.5 billion . 17 other smaller investors are msd capital an investment firm to manage the wealth of michael dell microsoft with a 2 billion loan and several debt facilities from banks like barclays credit suisse bank of america and royal bank of canada . 18 skype 2009 silver lake andreessen horowitz and the canada pension plan investment board announce the acquisition of 65 % of skype for 1.9 billion from e bay valuing the business at 2.75 billion . in may 2011 microsoft agreed to acquire skype for 8.5 billion in cash . 19 20 21 22 avaya 2007 silver lake and tpg capital completed an 8.2 billion leveraged buyout of the enterprise telephony and call center technology company that was formerly a unit of lucent . 23 sabre holdings 2006 silver lake and tpg capital announced a deal to buy sabre holdings which operates travelocity sabre travel network and sabre airline solutions for approximately 4.3 billion in cash plus the assumption of 550 million in debt . earlier in 2006 blackstone acquired sabre s chief competitor travelport . 24 nxp semiconductors 2006 in august 2006 a consortium of silver lake kohlberg kravis roberts and alpinvest partners acquired a controlling 80.1 % share of semiconductors unit of philips for 6.4 billion . the new company based in the netherlands was renamed nxp semiconductors . 25 26 sungard 2006 sungard was acquired by a consortium of seven private equity investment firms in a transaction valued at 11.3 billion . the partners in the acquisition were silver lake which led the deal as well as bain capital the blackstone group goldman sachs capital partners kohlberg kravis roberts providence equity partners and tpg capital . this represented the largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of rjr nabisco at the end of the 1980s leveraged buyout boom . also at the time of its announcement sungard would be the largest buyout of a technology company in history a distinction it would cede to the buyout of freescale semiconductor . the sungard transaction is also notable in the number of firms involved in the transaction . the involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross holdings among firms to be generally unattractive . 27 avago technologies 2005 in 2005 the semiconductor division of agilent was acquired by silver lake and kohlberg kravis roberts to form avago technologies one of the largest privately held semiconductor companies in the world . in 2009 avago completed a 650 million initial public offering . 28 29 30 reuters news service reports that silver lake partners is among more than a dozen private equity firms subpoenaed by new york state attorney general eric schneiderman regarding a widely used tax strategy within the industry that may illegally cut their tax bills by hundreds of millions of dollars . controversy edit after the sale of skype to microsoft in 2011 21 silver lake was accused of unfairly depriving an employee of an options windfall . 31 at issue was a clause in the skype employee stock option grant agreement . the repurchase right gave skype the authority to buy back shares at the grant price when an employee left the company even when those shares were vested . references edit investment professionals as of 2015 silver lake s new four amigos dealmaker september 2007 silver lake and the deal of the next century fortune 1999 . 10 february 2013 . retrieved 1 june 2016 . a b wall street s new alchemist glenn hutchins profile . businessweek august 8 2005 silver lake partners closes 3.6 bn private equity fund . altassets april 13 2004 silver lake to raise 10 billion for technology fund . february 6 2007 silver lake sumeru closes on 1.1 bn . altassets may 7 2008 bono riffs on silicon valley buyouts with video games forbes . bloomberg january 23 2005 cisco s heir apparent charles giancarlo resigns . usa today . associated press . december 20 2007 . retrieved october 4 2016 . sorkin andrew ross . california pension fund expected to take big stake in silver lake at 275 million . new york times january 9 2008 http manual4ever.com doc file silver lakes new four amigos departing skype exec gillett to become head of value creation at silver lake . retrieved 2013 11 01 . silver lake announces appointment of mark gillett as head of value creation . retrieved 2013 11 02 . in takeover of emc dell makes ambitious bet . the new york