Private Equity · Profile from Private Equity Research Companion
Apollo Global Management, Inc.
Born from the wreckage of Drexel Burnham Lambert, Apollo built its reputation as the most ruthless value and distressed investor in private equity — "purchase price matters" — and then transformed itself, via Athene, into a retirement-services and private-credit origination powerhouse in which buyouts are now a minority of the business.
At a glance
- Founded
- 1990, New York
- Founders
- Leon Black, Joshua Harris, Marc Rowan, with Craig Cogut, John Hannan, Arthur Bilger, Michael Gross and Antony Ressler (Ressler left to found Ares in 1997)
- Headquarters
- 9 West 57th Street, New York; offices in London, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tokyo, Singapore and others
- Ownership / listing
- NYSE: APO (IPO March 2011; C-corp Sept 2019; merged with Athene Jan 2022; S&P 500 since Dec 2024)
- Leadership (2026)
- CEO Marc Rowan (since March 2021); Co-Presidents Scott Kleinman and Jim Zelter
- AUM
- ~$751bn (end-2024); ~$840bn+ reported mid-2025; stated goal ~$1.5tn by 2029
- Signature deals
- Executive Life junk portfolio (1991), Vail (1992), LyondellBasell (2009–10), Athene (2009–2022), ADT (2016), Yahoo (2021); failures: Linens 'n Things, Harrah's/Caesars, CEC, Rackspace
15 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1991
Executive Life Portfolio
Distressed Portfolio Acquisition
1992
Vail Resorts
Distressed-for-Control
2006
Linens n Things
Retail Take-Private
2007
Realogy
Residential Real-Estate Services Take-Private
2008
Harrahs Caesars
Casino Mega-LBO
2009
Athene
Building a Retirement-Services Insurer
2009
LyondellBasell
Distressed Debt-to-Equity Restructuring
2014
CEC Entertainment
Take-Private
2016
ADT
Take-Private and Combination with Protection One
2016
Rackspace
Take-Private of a Managed Cloud Provider
2021
Yahoo AOL
Carve-Out
2022
Venetian Las Vegas
Opco/Propco Carve-Out
2023
Arconic
Aluminium Products Take-Private
2023
Univar Solutions
Chemical Distribution Take-Private
2024
Intel Fab34 JV
Hybrid Capital Partnership