Madison Dearborn Partners
Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; balance sheet restructurings; acquisition financings; and growth capital investments in mature companies. MDP operates using an industry-focused investment approach and focuses on the following sectors: basic industries, business & government software and services, financial & transaction services, health care, and TMT services. Since the founders established MDP as an independent firm in 1992, the firm has raised seven funds with aggregate capital of approximately  $23 billion, and has completed investments in more than 130 companies. History. Madison Dearborn Partners was founded in 1992 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The founders, John A Canning Jr, Paul J. Finnegan, Samuel M. Mencoff, and Nicholas W. Alexos had previously made private equity investments for First Chicago Bank. The north-east corner of First Chicago's then-headquarters was at the intersection of Madison and Dearborn Streets. Madison Dearborn's chairman, John Canning, Jr., is also a minority owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team and submitted an ultimately unsuccessful bid to buy the Chicago Cubs  Investments. In 1998, the firm bought Reiman Publications, based in Greendale, Wisconsin, from Roy Reiman for $640 million. In 2002, the firm sold Reiman Publications to Reader's Digest Association. In 2007, the firm joined forces with Michael Eisner's Tornante investment company to buy out baseball card maker The Topps Company. Madison Dearborn completed leveraged buyout transactions for a number of publicly traded and other significant companies in 2006 and 2007 including: Bell Canada. On June 30, 2007, Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) announced that the company entered into a definitive agreement for BCE to be acquired pursuant to  a plan of arrangement by an investor group led by Teachers Private Capital, the private investment arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Providence Equity Partners Inc. and Madison Dearborn Partners. The all-cash transaction is valued at C$51.7 billion (US$48.5 billion), including C$16.9 billion (US$15.9 billion) of debt, preferred equity and minority interests. The arrangement was approved on September 21, 2007 at a Special Meeting of shareholders by more than 97% of the votes cast by holders of common and preferred shares, voting as a single class. Investment funds. MDP invests through a series of  private limited partnerships and its investors include a variety of pension funds, endowments and other institutional investors: Sources: