Billionaire financier Thomas H. Lee, a pioneer of leveraged buyouts best known for his hugely profitable buyout of Snapple in 1992, has died at age 78. Family members confirmed the death and said "Our hearts are broken," per the Boston Globe. They did not disclose a cause of death, but police sources told the New York Post that Lee was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Manhattan office. An NYPD spokesperson told the BBC that a 78-year-old man was found dead Thursday morning at 767 Fifth Avenue, which is the address of Thomas H. Lee Capital LLC.
Lee, a Harvard graduate who grew up in the Boston area, founded Thomas H. Lee Partners in 1974, a firm that was focused on corporate buyouts well before the industry's heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, the New York Times reports. At the time, leveraged buyouts were known as "bootstrapped" deals because they relied heavily on debit financing to acquire companies, the Financial Times notes. In the Snapple deal, Lee's company bought the firm for $135 million and sold it to Quaker Oats two years later for $1.7 billion, 12 times what Lee's company paid for it. His other deals included the less profitable 2003 acquisition of Warner Music from Time Warner in 2003.
Lee stepped down from his company in 2006 and founded a new firm focused on midsized buyouts. According to Forbes, his net worth was around $2 billion at the time of his death. After he made his fortune, he became a well-known philanthropist and was a trustee at institutions including the Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art. His gifts to Harvard included a $22 million donation in 1996, some of which was used to provide financial aid to students. Scott Sperling, a co-chief executive of Thomas H. Lee Partners, described Lee as a "pioneer in private equity who became an industry icon." "He was an incredibly gracious and generous man who was committed to his family and community," Sperling said Thursday night. (More obituary stories.)
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