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Elevation Partners is an American private equity
Private equity

In finance, private equity is an asset class consisting of Stock securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
 firm that invests in intellectual property
Intellectual property

Intellectual property are law property over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and inventions; and words, phra...
 and media and entertainment companies. The firm has $1.9 billion of assets under management.

The firm was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and San Francisco. It has approximately 20 investment professionals and other employees.

ation Partners was founded by former Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake Partners

Silver Lake Partners is an American private equity firm founded in 1999 and headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, California....
 professionals Roger McNamee
Roger McNamee

Roger McNamee is a founding partner of the venture capital firm Elevation Partners, as well as private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. According to the New York Times, McNamee has been instrumental in arranging at least two $500,000 donations to the Wikimedia Foundation....
 and Marc Bodnick, as well as Fred Anderson
Fred D. Anderson

See Fred Anderson for others with similar names.Fred D. Anderson is an American business executive known for his time with Apple Computers and as a managing director and co-founder of Elevation Partners....
 (Apple Inc.) and John Riccitiello
John Riccitiello

John Riccitiello is the Chief executive officer of Electronic Arts .He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley....
 (Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts is an international video game developer, marketer, video game publisher and distributor of video games. Established in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games....
).

Elevation is perhaps best known because of its association with Bono
Bono

Paul David Hewson , also known by his stage name Bono, is the main vocalist of the Ireland rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife, Ali Hewson, and the future members of U2....
, lead singer of the musical group U2
U2

U2 are a rock music band from Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The band consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. .The band formed in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical proficiency....
, who joined the company shortly after its creation in 2004.






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Encyclopedia


Elevation Partners is an American private equity
Private equity

In finance, private equity is an asset class consisting of Stock securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
 firm that invests in intellectual property
Intellectual property

Intellectual property are law property over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; ideas, discoveries and inventions; and words, phra...
 and media and entertainment companies. The firm has $1.9 billion of assets under management.

The firm was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and San Francisco. It has approximately 20 investment professionals and other employees.

History


Founding

Elevation Partners was founded by former Silver Lake Partners
Silver Lake Partners

Silver Lake Partners is an American private equity firm founded in 1999 and headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, California....
 professionals Roger McNamee
Roger McNamee

Roger McNamee is a founding partner of the venture capital firm Elevation Partners, as well as private equity firm Silver Lake Partners. According to the New York Times, McNamee has been instrumental in arranging at least two $500,000 donations to the Wikimedia Foundation....
 and Marc Bodnick, as well as Fred Anderson
Fred D. Anderson

See Fred Anderson for others with similar names.Fred D. Anderson is an American business executive known for his time with Apple Computers and as a managing director and co-founder of Elevation Partners....
 (Apple Inc.) and John Riccitiello
John Riccitiello

John Riccitiello is the Chief executive officer of Electronic Arts .He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley....
 (Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts is an international video game developer, marketer, video game publisher and distributor of video games. Established in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games....
).

Elevation is perhaps best known because of its association with Bono
Bono

Paul David Hewson , also known by his stage name Bono, is the main vocalist of the Ireland rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his future wife, Ali Hewson, and the future members of U2....
, lead singer of the musical group U2
U2

U2 are a rock music band from Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The band consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. .The band formed in 1976 when the members were teenagers with limited musical proficiency....
, who joined the company shortly after its creation in 2004. The firm is named after U2's song "Elevation
Elevation (song)

"Elevation" is the third track and third single release from U2's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. Featuring a thunderous beat, a variety of sound effects on the central guitar riff, and an easy rhyming lyric for the audience to shout along with, it was highly effective in its concert-opening role on the Elevation Tour and be...
".

Investments

On March 22, 2005, as its first major venture Elevation attempted to purchase Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive

Eidos Interactive is a video game publisher of video game and computer games with its parent company based in England. It is now part of the Eidos Group of Companies and is a subsidiary of Eidos plc that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange....
. However, its bid failed and the video games giant was sold to rival SCi Entertainment.

On November 3, 2005, Elevation invested $300 million to create an alliance between video game developers BioWare
BioWare

BioWare is a Canada electronic entertainment company founded in February 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. It is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada....
 and Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios

Pandemic is a video game developer with office in Los Angeles, California. The studio is notable for featuring fully-destructible environments in its games....
, making it one of the biggest independent developers in the world. It also invested $100 million in Move.com
Move.com

Move.com is a real estate web site, parent company Move, Inc., which also operates Realtor.com. Move provides search tools for rentals and new homes, in addition to operating several subsidiaries....
, which operates real estate information services.

In August 2006, Elevation announced that it had made an investment in Forbes Media, the parent company of Forbes magazine and Forbes.com.

On June 4, 2007 Elevation Partners announced an investment of $325m (€242m) for a 25 percent stake in Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a personal digital assistant and smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, California that is responsible for popular products such as the Zire Handheld, Tungsten Handheld personal digital assistant, Treo smartphones and the LifeDrive....
. On December 22 2008 the deal was followed up with an additional $100 million equity investment in Palm, and is made with newly issued preferred stock of convertible type.

On July 11, 2007 Elevation Partners acquired SDI Media Group
SDI Media Group

SDI Media Group is a major provider of subtitling, translation, and language dubbing services to the entertainment industry. The headquarters are located in Culver City, California....
, the world's largest provider of subtitling and language dubbing service to the entertainment industry. Elevation purchased the company from Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus is a private equity firm with offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. It has been a private equity investor since 1971. The firm currently has approximately $35 1,000,000,000 under management and invests in a range of industries including Information technology, financial services, healthcare, leveraged buyouts and spe...
, the private equity firm
Private equity firm

A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity, i.e. an equity security class that are not publicly traded, of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including Leveraged Buyout, Venture Capital and Growth Capital....
 that acquired SDI Media in 2004.

On October 11, 2007, it was announced that EA had negotiated a deal with Elevation to pay $860 million (USD) in order to acquire both Bioware and Pandemic Studios.

Relationship with Wikimedia

On March 20, 2008, the Associated Press
Associated Press

The Associated Press is an Media of the United States news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, Radio station and Television station stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers....
 published a story saying members of Elevation Partners had donated and raised more than a million dollars for the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation

File:Edit 01-12-09 small.oggThe Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit Foundation headquartered in San Francisco, California, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based....
, and may be examining a deeper relationship.

Portfolio companies

  • Forbes
    Forbes

    Forbes is an United States publishing and mass media company. Its flagship publication, Forbes magazine, is published bi-weekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune , which is also published bi-weekly, and Business Week....
  • Move.com
    Move.com

    Move.com is a real estate web site, parent company Move, Inc., which also operates Realtor.com. Move provides search tools for rentals and new homes, in addition to operating several subsidiaries....
     (formerly Homestore, Inc.)
  • SDI Media


External links