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TA Associates

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TA Associates Management, L.P.
Company typePrivate
IndustryPrivate Equity
Founded1968; 56 years ago (1968)
FounderPeter Brooke
HeadquartersJohn Hancock Tower
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people
  • Brian J. Conway (chairman)
  • Ajit Nedungadi (CEO)[1]
ProductsGrowth capital, Leveraged buyouts, Recapitalizations
AUM$45.03 billion (2022)[2]
Number of employees
193 (2022)[2]
Websiteta.com

TA Associates Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm and was one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States.[3] The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA invests across five industry groups: technology, healthcare, consumer products, financial services and business services.[4]

TA Associates has raised $47.5 billion of capital since inception.[5] Since its founding, the firm has invested in more than 560 companies,[6] and been ranked among the 50 largest private equity firms (ranked 27 in 2022) globally.[7]

The firm is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with additional offices in Menlo Park, Austin, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. As of July 2022, TA had more than 110 investment professionals.[6][4]

History

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TA Associates was founded in 1968 by Peter Brooke with the backing of his former firm, Tucker, Anthony & RL Day, an investment banking and brokerage firm. Prior to founding TA, from 1963 to 1968, Brooke had headed the corporate finance and venture capital activities of Tucker Anthony. Previously, Brooke had been responsible for expanding the private equity activities of Bessemer Securities and had founded the High Technology Lending Group of First National Bank of Boston. At the time it was founded, the firm focused primarily on making venture capital investments in earlier stage companies.

The firm expanded significantly through the 1970s growing from $5 million of capital in 1969 to $125 million by the beginning of the 1980s, making TA the largest independent venture capital firm in a 1980 ranking.[8] Through the 1970s, the firm's investments averaged 30% to 40% annually. Among the firm's notable investments of the 1970s were Biogen, Artificial Intelligence Software, Immunogen and Digital Research.[8] Jacqui Morby, one of the first women to become a partner at a venture capital firm, secured TA's earliest investments in software companies, including Digital Research as well as Capex, McCormack & Dodge, and others.[9]

As the 1980s developed, TA found itself increasingly investing larger amounts in more mature, profitable companies as opposed to the small early stage investments in start-up companies that had characterized the firm's first decade and a half. By the mid-1980s, TA was no longer describing itself as a "venture capital firm", instead using the more general "private equity" description. By the early 1990s, the firm found itself rarely investing in early stage start-up companies, focusing primarily on later-stage growth capital investments in more mature businesses.[10]

Much of this evolution from a regional venture capital investor to global growth private equity firm has been credited to C. Kevin Landry.[11] Landry began his career with TA in 1968, became a General Partner in 1972, Managing Partner in 1982, CEO in 1984 upon the firm's incorporation, and Chairman in 2007. After retiring in 2012, he remained actively involved in the firm and was serving as a Senior Advisor at the time of his death in 2013.

TA Associate's global expansion continued in the 2000s. In 2003, it opened its London office.[12] TA purchased a minority stake in Indian company Idea Cellular in 2006,[13] marking TA's first investment in Asia.[14][15] TA opened an office in Mumbai in 2009[16][17] and one in Hong Kong in 2011, expanding its presence in the Asia Pacific region.[18]

In 2012, certain members of TA Associates leadership, independent of the firm, began financially supporting various conservative political action groups backing candidates in favor of repealing the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act publicly claiming it was "government regulation run amok."[19] Landry was among of the leading Super PAC donors to the 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaign.[20] Landry told the Boston Globe the Dodd-Frank legislation costs TA more than $600,000 a year in compliance-related costs which would be better spent supporting job growth fueled by private equity firms such as Bain Capital and TA Associates.[21]

In 2014, TA Associates helped organize a syndicated loan worth $1.77 billion for Millennium Health LLC. Most of the loan – $1.27 billion – was channelled back to TA Associates and others, who used it to hand out special dividends.[22] Shortly thereafter, Millennium Health LLC declared bankruptcy.[23] Voya Investment Management, the creditor, subsequently, and unsuccessfully, filed a racketeering lawsuit against TA Associates and Millennium Health founder James Slattery.[24]

Ajit Nedungadi, a managing partner who first joined TA in 1999, became CEO of the company in January 2021.[25][26] On 8 February 2021, TA Associates-owned British digital auction platform Auction Technology Group (ATG), chaired by WorldRemit CEO Breon Corcoran, announced plans to float in the London Stock Exchange in March 2021. The listing was expected to value ATG at £600 million, and the firm said it was hoping to raise £250 million through the IPO.[27] ATG began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 23 February 2021.[28][29]

Spin-out firms

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As one of the earliest venture capital firms, there are many successful investment firms that trace their lineage back to TA Associates.[30]

References

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  1. ^ Singh, Preeti; Cooper, Laura (11 January 2021). "TA Associates Preps Roughly $11 Billion Flagship Fund Pitch". The Wall Street Journal.
  2. ^ a b "TA Associates Form ADV" (PDF). Investment Adviser Public Disclosure. 29 August 2022. pp. 8–9. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  3. ^ A Short (Sometimes Profitable) History of Private Equity, Wall Street Journal, January 17, 2012.
  4. ^ a b Singh, Preeti (25 March 2022). "Specialist Managers Gain Traction With Fund Investors". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
  5. ^ "About TA".
  6. ^ a b Christen, Mike (7 July 2022). "Private equity powerhouse TA Associates picks Austin for third US office". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  7. ^ "PEI 300 2022 full ranking". Private Equity International. 2022. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  8. ^ a b Venture Capitalists' New Role. New York Times, August 31, 1981
  9. ^ Guthrie, Julian (2019). Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts who Took on Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime (First ed.). New York: Penguin Random House. pp. 70–71. ISBN 9780525573920. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  10. ^ Gupta, Udayan. Done deals. 2000
  11. ^ "Kevin Landry, Former CEO of TA Associates, Dies of Cancer at 69". Bloomberg.com. August 2013.
  12. ^ Meikle, Brad (15 March 2007). "TA Associates to buy Jupiter". Buyouts. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Idea sells 24% stake to private equity investors". The Economic Times. 29 October 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  14. ^ "TA Associates invests in Indian wireless company". Boston Business Journal. 27 October 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  15. ^ "25% in Idea sold for $550m". The Times of India. 28 October 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  16. ^ Winfrey, Graham (14 September 2010). "TA Associates hires director in India". Private Equity International. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  17. ^ Burroughs, Tim (18 April 2012). "TA continues India spree by backing BillDesk". AVCJ. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  18. ^ McLaughlin, Tim (24 May 2011). "TA Associates opens Hong Kong office". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  19. ^ Mitt Romney mum on how to regulate big banks, Boston Globe, May 2, 2012.
  20. ^ Tea Party super PAC pours funds into congressional races, Boston Globe, June 6, 2012.
  21. ^ Romney foes put Bain on defensive, Boston Globe, January 11, 2012.
  22. ^ Beall, Pat (2016-01-12). "'The Big Wink:' How $1.8 billion loan boosted company's founder". The Palm Beach Post.
  23. ^ Mazzucato, Mariana (2020). The Value of Everything. PublicAffairs. p. 146. ISBN 978-1541758247.
  24. ^ Montgomery, Jeff (2018-09-24). "Del. Judge Backs Releases In Millennium Lab Holdings Ch. 11". Law360.
  25. ^ Mendonça, Elisângela (5 January 2021). "TA names Ajit Nedungadi CEO as part of string of global promotions". Private Equity News. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  26. ^ Parmar, Beena (12 January 2021). "TA Associates elevates insider to CEO, appoints MDs in slew of promotions". VCCircle. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  27. ^ "ATG confirms plans to float in London next month". Evening Standard. 8 February 2021.
  28. ^ "London Stock Exchange welcomes Auction Technology Group to the Premium Segment of the Main Market". London Stock Exchange. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  29. ^ Mellor, Sophie (31 July 2021). "How London became 2021's hub for hot new tech IPOs". Fortune. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  30. ^ "THE THRILL OF DEFEAT IN 1999". highbeam.com. 2001-02-05. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
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