& company type limited liability company industry private equity founded 1946 headquarters new canaan connecticut united states products investments private equity funds website www.whitney.com j.h. whitney & company is a venture capital firm in the u.s. founded in 1946 by john hay whitney and his partner benno schmidt . today the firm focuses primarily on leveraged buyouts turnarounds acquisitions and recapitalizations of more mature companies particularly those it considers to be in the middle market . the firm is based in new canaan connecticut . contents 1 investments 2 history 2.1 founding and early history 2.2 the 1980s and the move to leveraged buyouts 3 references 4 external links investments edit the firm which today is known as whitney & co. continues to make investments in leveraged buyout transactions and raised 750 million for its sixth institutional private equity fund in 2005 . 1 the 750 million raised in 2005 was a significant decrease from its previous funds when the firm raised 1.1 billion in 2001 and 975 million in 2000 for whitney v and iv respectively . the performance of the 2000 vintage fund iv in particular was impacted by the firm s exposure to technology and internet businesses . 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 founding and early history edit j.h. whitney & company was founded by john hay whitney who put up 10 million after world war ii to finance entrepreneurs with business plans who were unwelcome at banks . mr. whitney brought in benno schmidt as his partner to run the company . when starting the company whitney wanted a broad team of young experts to be his deputies . he went to the deans of harvard business school yale law school and the mit graduate school of engineering and asked each man who the best student they produced in the past five years was . the hbs dean cleverly responded that he was insulted that whitney would think that he would simply rank his best students and hand the list out but that if he was to do such an outrageous thing he would rank c. wrede petersmeyer a graduate the previous year first . whitney hired petersmeyer the next day and petersmeyer went on to become a partner at the firm and run whitney communications . whitney had been investing since the 1930s founding pioneer pictures in 1933 and acquiring a 15 % interest in technicolor corporation with his cousin cornelius vanderbilt whitney . it was not until after world war ii that what is considered today to be true private equity investments began to emerge marked by the founding of the first two venture capital firms in 1946 american research and development corporation . ardc and j.h. whitney & company . 2 whitney would become a highly professional organization whereas before world war ii venture capital investments were primarily the domain of wealthy individuals and families . it was schmidt in fact who is credited with coining the term venture capital originally known as development capital . the company was originally described as a lender of private adventure capital and schmidt would shorten the term to venture capital . 3 by far whitney s most famous investment during this period was in florida foods corporation . the company developed an innovative method for delivering nutrition to american soldiers which later came to be known as minute maid orange juice and was sold to the coca cola company in 1960 . 4 the 1980s and the move to leveraged buyouts edit in response to the changing conditions in the venture capital industry in the 1980s whitney and other early venture capital firms including warburg pincus began to transition away from venture capital toward leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments which were in vogue in that decade . 5 6 whitney s most public foray into the leveraged buyout space came in 1989 when it completed the acquisition of prime computer . 7 8 in 1988 corporate raider bennett s. lebow who controlled a smaller computer maker mai basic four began an attempted 970 million hostile takeover of prime computer . management resisted lebow s advances and eventually agreed to a 1.3 billion leveraged buyout with whitney acting as a white knight . for whitney owning prime proved to be nearly a total loss with the bulk of the proceeds from the company s liquidation paid to the company s creditors . 9 whitney would complete other buyouts in the 1980s including the acquisition of retailer filene s basement . 10 references edit metro business ; a change of identity for j. h. whitney . new york times june 14 2000 wilson john . the new ventures inside the high stakes world of venture capital . cuff daniel f. business people ; deal for prime pleases partners at whitney . new york times june 26 1989 richard a. oppel jr. benno c. schmidt financier is dead at 86 . new york times october 22 1999 pollack andrew . venture capital loses its vigor . new york times october 8 1989 . lueck thomas j. high tech s glamour fades for some venture capitalists . new york times february 6 1987 . cuff daniel f. business people ; deal for prime pleases partners at whitney http query.nytimes.com gst fullpage.html res 950de3de1439f935a15755c0a96f948260 . new york times june 26 1989 whitney agrees to buy prime for 1.25 billion . associated press june 24 1989 norris floyd market place ; buyout of prime computer limps toward completion . new york times august 12 1992 campeau sets sale of unit . new york times june 10 1988 external links edit j.h. whitney & co. official website 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 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title j.h. whitney % 26 company & oldid 741788222 categories venture capital firms of the united statesprivate 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 29 september 2016 at 17 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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