Track Record

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. HPJ was operated in partnership with Frank N. Magid Associates, the nation's leading consultancy to television broadcasters and other media and entertainment firms.

Michael Alcamo originated and managed HPJ's five media investments from their inception through a successful exit in October 2004. HPJ's first investment was completed 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. grew rapidly 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, Mr. Alcamo sourced the acquisition of platform company APN Media LLC and served as its first Chairman. APN Media LLC owns and publishes twenty guidebooks for visitors to national and state parks. With circulation of 5.3 million, the company provides advertising clients with the fifth largest audience of any consumer publication in the United States. From 2001 to 2004, the company established new content partnerships, expanded and diversified its distribution models, improved its editorial and graphical content, and broke significant new advertising accounts, and created an important online business.

In July 2005, APN Media LLC was acquired by 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 originated and 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 publishing groups that together form the core of a luxury and lifestyle media group that today reaches the nation's most affluent readers.

Four portfolio realizations occurred in 2005, with superior returns. The regional print media assets remain actively managed as an integrated and expanding specialty publishing platform.

In 2005, Mr. Alcamo was named President of Baltic Investments Limited, an institutional fund investing in real estate and 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.