The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Only three in ten operating partners at Providence were actually good
“And of the 10 operating partners, three were good, three were mediocre, four were not so good.
Not because they were bad.
They just didn't want to work.”
Salem: Providence cut thousands of idle workers at Eircom
“And so we had to get rid of thousands of workers who literally just weren't doing anything.”
Salem: Providence Consistently Beat New York PE Rivals by Being 'Nice Guys'
“Whenever I would go head to head with a New York Well-known private equity firm. We would always win because we were the nice guys.”
Salem: Thoma Bravo took Providence Equity's specialization model to a new level
“So the Toma Brava. They are reincarnated Providence Equity. We started off as specialists. They took it to a whole new level, this to a whole new level.”
Salem: Having a sector-specialist angle in private equity consistently pays off
“And it was funny because no one thought being a specialist private equity investor was a good idea. And we were kind of the first to really be specialized. And I guess the one thing I guess we proved is having some kind of angle and investing really pays off.”
Salem: PE managers will increasingly partner as quasi in-house teams for mega-LPs
“You're gonna see, I think, people partnering with these big sources of capital and almost become in-house private equity teams for them, because every big asset allocator now wants to have their own private equity team, and so if they structure it the right wa…”
Private equity firms scaling over ten funds inevitably suffer performance dips
“When you go from fund one to fund 10, you're going to have a dip in there, and you can look at all the firms that have had those dips, And we were one of them.”
Salem: Providence did more deals with Goldman Sachs PIA than any other PE firm
“We did more deals with Goldman Sachs PIA, you know, private equity division of Goldman Sachs than any other private equity firm because they knew we weren't a threat.”
Salem: Providence targeted $8B and received $18B in LP demand in 2007
“We went out to raise eight billion dollars. So the funds kept on doubling. And we had about eighteen billion of demand.”
Salem: Providence made 2.3x on Eircom over 2.3 years
“We made 2.3 times our money, and turns out it was coincidental when we took it public again in 2.3 years in the company.”
Salem: Providence Equity was first PE firm to sell GP stake to Dyal
“We were the first firm to ever do a deal with Dial Capital as a private equity fund, and we did a deal where we sold
A percentage of the general partner to a few LPs and to dial capital, and we didn't take the money out of the business.”
Salem: Providence Equity Owned More European Cable TV and Made More Money There Than in US
“We owned the most cable TV in Europe than anybody at the time, and we made more money in Europe on cable TV than we ever did in the United States.”