MSD Partners, a company founded by Michael Dell, merges with Byron Trott’s merchant bank BDT, creating a consulting and investment group that serves some of the world’s highest profile billionaires and entrepreneurs.
The new group aims to capitalize on the wave of new fortunes entrepreneurs were creating during the two-decade tech boom, while also advising the heirs of older family businesses. The two companies will collectively manage approximately $50 billion.
A former Goldman Sachs partner known on Wall Street as the banker to billionaires, Trott is a close advisor and co-investor to Warren Buffett, the Pritzker family behind the Hyatt hotel empire and the descendants of Walmart founder Sam Walton .
Trott will lead the combined company with Gregg Lemkau, who has led MSD since joining the group from Goldman in 2021. Lemkau is best known as a key advisor to some of Silicon Valley’s most colorful billionaires, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter founders Jack Dorsey and Travis Kalanick, who founded Uber.
The deal marries BDT and its Rolodex of some of the world’s wealthiest people with MSD, a fast-growing private equity group founded by Dell.
Chicago-based BDT, which has advised on a number of transactions including the $19 billion purchase of Dr.
It has also arranged large private equity buyouts. In 2010, BDT took a majority stake in Weber, a popular barbecue maker, which then went public in 2021 at a valuation of nearly $5 billion. Weber’s stock has fallen about two-thirds since its IPO.
“The cultures of the two firms are very consistent and I am committed to supporting Gregg, Byron and their combined team as they continue to build a special investment firm that will last for generations,” said Dell, who will chair the combined group .
While Dell built his fortune from Dell Technologies, the computer manufacturer he founded, he has since built on the family office he founded to manage his wealth.
After the financial crisis, Dell expanded its family office to create MSD, which has evolved into an investment company raising funds from outside investors and pursuing mid-sized acquisitions, as well as investing money in real estate and loans.
Faced with the risk of being rendered obsolete by new technologies, the PC maker has reinvented itself over the past decade into a broader tech empire with close ties to buyout group Silver Lake Partners.
Ardea Partners, a boutique investment bank founded by former Goldman Sachs bankers, acted as financial advisor on the transaction.