Silver Lake Sumeru Closes $1.1 Billion Middle-Market Technology Fund

Silver Lake Sets New Benchmark as Global Leader with $16 Billion in Assets Under Management Devoted to Technology Investment

MENLO PARK, Calif. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silver Lake, the leading private investor in technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries, announced today the final closing of Silver Lake Sumeru, its inaugural middle-market investment fund, with $1.1 billion of equity capital commitments.

Ajay Shah, the Silver Lake managing director who heads the Silver Lake Sumeru team, said, “Silver Lake has gained a well-deserved reputation as the partner of choice among the world’s leading technology management teams, and Silver Lake Sumeru is now able to build on that reputation as we look for opportunities to assist attractive middle-market technology companies in undergoing the transformation required to reach the next level of growth and profitability.”

Silver Lake Sumeru invests in middle-market technology and technology-enabled companies – in sectors including hardware, software, internet, and technology-oriented services – and brings significant investing and operating experience to those domains. The group pursues growth opportunities in the technology industry, primarily focusing on investments in which a transformative shift in business performance or market growth, or both, is the basis for value creation.

In late 2007, Silver Lake Sumeru completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Mobile Messenger, a rapidly growing provider of technology and services for mobile content management and distribution. Mobile Messenger services small and mid-sized direct marketers and mobile content providers by providing turnkey technology and services solutions that enable the marketing and distribution of digital content to mobile communication consumers. Silver Lake Sumeru is providing growth and acquisition capital and operating experience to assist the company in fully exploiting the robust global growth of internet advertising and mobile marketing.

Recently, in April 2008, Silver Lake Sumeru announced that it had provided financing to support the merger of AVI and SPL, creating the world’s largest provider of video and audio conferencing solutions and integration services. The fund will own a majority stake in the combined company with more than 1,200 employees at the leading edge of designing and delivering high definition audio and video solutions. Silver Lake Sumeru will provide experience with enterprise and global expansions to create a company well positioned to meet customers’ evolving needs in an accelerating market for real-time, high definition video and audio communications.

For both of these existing portfolio companies, Silver Lake Sumeru is working with the existing management teams to pursue value-creating transformations.

As a part of its investment strategy overall, the fund also seeks opportunities involving divisional spin-off and take private transactions. For example, Silver Lake Sumeru recently announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with ChoicePoint Inc. (NYSE: CPS) to acquire i2, ChoicePoint's investigative analysis and visualization software technology business. i2 offers customers advanced analysis and visualization technology to more effectively monitor, manage and solve investigations. Customers include law enforcement, military, homeland security/defense, intelligence and other government agencies. The company has approximately 300 employees and is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom with another primary base of operation in McLean, VA. Silver Lake Sumeru plans to work with i2 in developing a strategic plan to grow the company’s core products and customer base.

Late last year Silver Lake closed Silver Lake Partners III, its flagship private equity fund dedicated to large-scale investments in technology businesses, with $9.3 billion of equity capital commitments. Including Silver Lake Sumeru, Silver Lake has a total of $10.4 billion in new equity capital dedicated exclusively to private investments in technology-related opportunities, and a total of more than $16 billion in assets under management including its earlier private equity funds.

Investors in Silver Lake Sumeru, Silver Lake Partners III and Silver Lake’s other private equity funds include public and corporate pension funds, endowments, foundations, funds of funds, and individuals including a number of technology company executives.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal advisor for the Silver Lake Sumeru fund.

About Silver Lake

Silver Lake is the leading private investor in technology, technology-enabled, and related growth industries. Silver Lake seeks to achieve superior financial returns by investing with the strategic and operating insights of an experienced industry participant. Silver Lake’s mission is to function as a value-added partner to the management teams of the world’s leading technology franchises. Its portfolio includes or has included technology industry leaders such as Ameritrade, Avago, Avaya, AVI-SPL, Business Objects, Flextronics, Gartner, Gerson Lehrman Group, Instinet, IPC Systems, MCI, Mobile Messenger, NASDAQ, NetScout, NXP, Sabre Holdings, Seagate Technology, Serena Software, SunGard Data Systems, Thomson and UGS.