GTCR Backs Time Warner Vet Joe Ripp.(News)

Byline: Ken MacFadyen

Chicago private equity firm GTCR launched a new effort in the marketing segment, backing Time Warner veteran Joseph Ripp. The new platform, which will have $300 million of funding to start, will look to acquire data-enabled information and marketing companies.

For Ripp, the initiative helps put in the rearview his experience at AOL Time Warner, which ended on a sour note when the Securities and Exchange Commission included Ripp in a civil lawsuit related to fraud filed against eight former AOL executives in 2008. Ripp, as the New York Times reported at the time, had actually been credited as the whistle blower to questionable accounting practices at AOL following the merger.

Ripp, who put in more than two decades at Time Warner, left the company in 2004. He subsequently assumed the president and COO posts at Dendrite International, until the company's sale to Cegedim in 2007.

The new company, Cannondale Holdings, will be based in Wilton, Conn. Ripp has recruited executives Jonathan Flatow and Robert Bies to join him as COO and CFO, respectively. Both previously served in executive roles at internet marketing and survey company Greenfield Online. Microsoft acquired the company for north of $500 million, topping a previous deal sealed by The Quadrangle Group.

The investment comes just as GTCR is reported to be putting the finishing touches on its latest fund. LBO Wire, earlier in February, reported that the firm will likely hit a $3.5 billion cap for its tenth vehicle.

A call to the firm was not returned by press time.