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Siris Capital, a PE Firm Focused on Companies in the Midst of Transition

Siris Capital Group LLC is a New York City-based private equity firm focused on making control investments in data/telecommunications, technology and technology-enabled business service companies in North America.

The firm was founded in 2011 by Frank Baker, Jeffrey Hendren and Peter Berger, after the three had worked together for over 16 years starting with their employment at private equity and venture capital firm Ripplewood Holdings.

The trio left SAC Capital’s private equity group in 2007 to spin off their own independent buyout firm. SAC’s Steven Cohen seeded the new fund targeted at $400 million. Since its launch, Siris has raised over $2.4 billion of cumulative committed capital. The firm is currently targeting investments with transaction values between $250 million and $2 billion.

Siris targets complex technology situations, typically where businesses are stuck in the midst of a technology transition. “If your industry is in transition, your investors struggle to understand your story, or your business is undervalued, let’s talk,” reads Siris’ website.

The private equity firm specializes in helping technology companies reposition themselves, making sure to balance a focus on profitable businesses and investments in emerging technology.

Out of the firm’s most recent notable buyouts include October’s $1 billion acquisition of Synchronoss Technologies Inc.’s cloud software subsidiary, Intralinks Holdings Inc. The New Jersey-based company, which was acquired by Synchronoss in January, offers inter-enterprise content management and collaboration solutions to financial services and enterprise companies.

In 2016, the PE firm completed its $2 billion acquisition of voice and video clip conferencing company Polycom Inc. Since then, San Jose, Calif.-based Polycom has revamped its executive leadership team, unveiled a handful of new products and solutions and has landed new partnerships.

In February 2015, Siris completed fundraising for Siris Partners III, which officially came to market in late September 2014 and closed at $1.81 billion of aggregate capital commitments. The fund’s initial target was just $1 billion. Siris III invests in established mid-market technology and telecom companies with revenue between $100 million and $1 billion. Less than two years earlier, Siris closed its debut vehicle, Siris Partners II LP at $650 million.

“We are thankful for the overwhelming level of support we received from both our existing and new investors committing to Siris III,” said Baker upon the fund’s close. “Technology disruptions continue to create unique investment opportunities at attractive valuations. Leveraging our deep operational expertise, we are well positioned to continue to benefit from this trend.”

At the helm of Siris are the firm’s three co-founders, each with a top notch resume full of private equity experience. Prior to Siris, Managing Partner Peter Berger founded Ripplewood Holdings LLC. He began his career as a senior partner and global head of the Corporate Finance Group at Arthur Anderson and was a Managing Director at Bear Stearns investment bank for two years. Berger received an MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and a B.Sc. from Boston University.

Frank Baker began his career with Goldman Sachs’ Mergers & Acquisitions group and later worked with JPMorgan’s Securities Capital Markets Group before joining Ripplewood in 1999. Baker received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago. He serves as a trustee at the University of Chicago.

Jeffrey Hendren, the private equity firm’s other co-founder and Managing Partner, also worked within Morgan Stanley’s M&A Group before Ripplewood. He started his career at Georgia Pacific, a manufacturing subsidiary of Koch Industries. Hendren earned a B.Sc. with honors in Accounting and Finance from Indiana University and has an MBA from Harvard.

All three co-founders are board members at all of Siris portfolio companies.