User:MaryGaulke/sandbox/TA Associates mockup

TA Associates, founded in 1968, is one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States. The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA Associates has invested invests across a range of industries, including five industry groups: technology, healthcare, consumer products, financial services and business services.

TA Associates has raised $47.5 billion of capital since inception. Since its founding, the firm has been a lead investor and director in more than 500 companies, invested in more than 560 companies, and been ranked among the 50 largest private equity firms (ranked 41 in 2014) (ranked 27 in 2022) globally.

The firm is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with additional offices in Menlo Park, Austin, London, Mumbai and Hong Kong. As of January 1, 2015, TA had more than 130 employees, including 80 investment professionals in Boston, Menlo Park, London, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hong Kong. As of July 2022, TA had more than 110 investment professionals.

Founding and early growth
TA Associates was founded in 1968 by Peter Brooke with the backing of his former firm, Tucker, Anthony & RL Day, an investment banking and brokerage firm. Prior to founding TA, from 1963 to 1968, Brooke had headed the corporate finance and venture capital activities of Tucker Anthony. Previously, Brooke had been responsible for expanding the private equity activities of Bessemer Securities and had founded the High Technology Lending Group of First National Bank of Boston. At the time it was founded, the firm focused primarily on making venture capital investments in earlier stage companies.

The firm expanded significantly through the 1970s growing from $5 million of capital in 1969 to $125 million by the beginning of the 1980s, making TA the largest independent venture capital firm in a 1980 ranking. Through the 1970s, the firm's investments averaged 30% to 40% annually. Among the firm's notable investments of the 1970s were Biogen, Artificial Intelligence Software, Immunogen and Digital Research. Jacqui Morby, one of the first women to become a partner at a venture capital firm, secured TA's earliest investments in software companies, including Digital Research as well as Capex, McCormack & Dodge, and others.

Early C. Kevin Landry era
As the 1980s developed, TA found itself increasingly investing larger amounts in more mature, profitable companies as opposed to the small early stage investments in start-up companies that had characterized the firm's first decade and a half. By the mid-1980s, TA was no longer describing itself as a "venture capital firm", instead using the more general "private equity" description. By the early 1990s, the firm found itself rarely investing in early stage start-up companies, focusing primarily on later-stage growth capital investments in more mature businesses.

Much of this evolution from a regional venture capital investor to global growth private equity firm has been credited to C. Kevin Landry. Landry began his career with TA in 1968, became a General Partner in 1972, Managing Partner in 1982, CEO in 1984 upon the firm's incorporation, and Chairman in 2007. After retiring in 2012, he remained actively involved in the firm and was serving as a Senior Advisor at the time of his death in 2013.

TA co-led first-round funding for McAfee, valuing the company at $20 million a year before McAfee's 1992 initial public offering (IPO) raised $42 million. In 1999, TA invested $75 million in Datek Online Holdings (now part of TD Ameritrade ). In 2001, TA invested $59 million in Asurion. TA and Friedman Fleischer & Lowe acquired Tempur World, now Tempur-Pedic, in 2002, with TA investing $130 million. Also in 2002, TA paid $60 million to purchase a minority stake in Sophos, which it sold to Apax Partners in 2010.

Global expansion
TA opened its office in London in 2003. That same year, the firm purchased a minority stake in UK-based GlobeOp Financial Services for $82 million ahead of GlobeOp's IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. TA invested in Intercontinental Exchange in 2004, a year before Intercontinental Exchange's IPO multiplied the investment by seven. In 2006, TA purchased a minority stake in Indian company Idea Cellular, marking TA's first investment in Asia; TA exited the investment in 2011, after Idea's IPO. TA supported a management buyout at Jupiter Fund Management in 2007, joining management in buying the company from Commerzbank for more than €1 billion. During Jupiter's IPO in 2010, TA increased its stake in the company to 22.3 percent. When Jupiter acquired TA-owned Merian Global in February 2020, TA's stake became 16 percent.

TA opened an office in Mumbai in 2009 and one in Hong Kong in 2011, expanding its presence in the Asia Pacific region.

In 2012, certain members of TA Associates leadership, independent of the firm, began financially supporting various conservative political action groups backing candidates in favor of repealing the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act publicly claiming it was "government regulation run amok." Landry was among of the leading Super PAC donors to the 2012 Mitt Romney presidential campaign. Landry told the Boston Globe the Dodd-Frank legislation costs TA more than $600,000 a year in compliance-related costs which would be better spent supporting job growth fueled by private equity firms such as Bain Capital and TA Associates.

TA bought Hong Kong-based Speedcast in 2012 for $32.2 million and sold its stake for $170 million in a block trade via Macquarie in 2018. In 2014, TA Associates helped organize a syndicated loan worth $1.77 billion for Millennium Health LLC. Most of the loan – $1.27 billion – was channelled back to TA Associates and others, who used it to hand out special dividends. Shortly thereafter, Millennium Health LLC declared bankruptcy. Voya Investment Management, the creditor, subsequently, and unsuccessfully, filed a racketeering lawsuit against TA Associates and Millennium Health founder James Slattery.

Recent history
In 2014, TA purchased a majority stake in SkinnyPop for $320 million and brought its parent fund, Amplify Snack Brands, to an IPO the next year. Also in 2014, TA invested $90 million in ZoomInfo, an investment that had a value of $6.12 billion when ZoomInfo had its IPO in June 2020. TA purchased the asset management arm of Russell Investments, a Seattle-based firm, in 2015 for $1.15 billion. TA acquired a majority interest in Access Technology Group (now The Access Group) in January 2015; as of 2022, it had become one of the largest software companies headquartered in the UK. In 2018, TA and consulting firm ST6 formed software company Insightsoftware; in 2021, Insightsoftware received a $1 billion investment from Hg, giving Hg joint control of Insightsoftware with TA.

Ajit Nedungadi, a managing partner who first joined TA in 1999, became CEO of the company in January 2021. On 8 February 2021, TA Associates -owned British digital auction platform Auction Technology Group (ATG), chaired by WorldRemit CEO Breon Corcoran, announced plans to float in the London Stock Exchange in March 2021. The listing is was expected to value ATG at £600 million, and the firm said it is hoping hoped to raise £250 million through the IPO. ATG began trading on the London Stock Exchange on 23 February 2021. TA purchased Netherlands-based software company Unit4 in March 2021 for $2 billion.

TA raised $12.5 billion for its 14th flagship fund, TA XIV, in June 2021.

In 2019, the firm completed fundraising of $1 billion for TA Select Opportunities Fund I, followed by $1.5 billion in 2021 for TA Select Opportunities Fund II. Through the Select Opportunities Funds, TA invests in portfolio companies held by the firm’s main funds. This is part of a broader trend of private equity firms finding ways to increase hold periods on strong investments.

As of 2021, Vatterott College, an investment of TA Associates before it closed, owes the US Department of Education $244 million.

Spin-out firms
As one of the earliest venture capital firms, there are many successful investment firms that trace their lineage back to TA Associates.