Private Equity Management

The firm's investment banking division developed out of its principals' track record in originating and managing a successful media private equity portfolio.

From 2000 to 2004, Michael C. Alcamo was Chief Executive Officer and a General Partner of HPJ Media Ventures Fund, LLC, a $21.7 million buyout and venture fund in communications and media. He originated and managed HPJ's five media investments from their inception through a successful exit in October 2004.

HPJ's first investment was made in October 2000, when the fund invested in Expression Engines, Inc. (later renamed Bigfoot Interactive, Inc.) Under an outstanding management group led by CEO Al DiGuido, Bigfoot Interactive, Inc. rapidly grew to become the market's leading provider of email technologies and marketing solutions.

In October 2005, Bigfoot Interactive, Inc. was sold to Epsilon Interactive, a division of Alliance Data Systems Corp., the NYSE-listed marketing firm. The sale yielded HPJ a 4.1x investment multiple and a 36.1% per annum IRR over a five-year holding period, compared to a -6.1% IRR in the benchmark investment during the same period.

In May 2001, Michael Alcamo founded and served as Chairman of APN Media LLC, which acquired and published of twenty guidebooks for visitors to national parks.  APN provides advertisers with the fifth largest circulation of any magazine in the United States.  Under Mr. Alcamo's leadership leadership, the company established new content partnerships, expanded and diversified its distribution model, and broke significant new advertising accounts. 

In July 2005, APN Media LLC was sold to its management. The sale yielded a 1.6x investment multiple and a 21.1% per annum IRR over a four-year holding period, compared to a 4.1% IRR in the benchmark investment during the same period.

Mr. Alcamo also established three specialty media businesses within the HPJ portfolio.  He acquired and served as Chairman of The Santa Fean, Vail/ Beaver Creek Magazine, and Rocky Mountain Golf, three publications that together form the core of a luxury and lifestyle media group reaching the nation's most affluent readers.

Four portfolio realizations occurred in 2005, with superior returns. To this day, the regional print media assets remain actively managed as an integrated specialty publishing platform.

In 2005, Mr. Alcamo became President of Baltic Investments Limited, an institutional fund investing in growth assets in Central Europe.  Mr. Alcamo managed the successful structuring and sale of the fund's assets to joint venture partners and to a strategic acquirer.