Guggenheim Partners
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Guggenheim family |
| Headquarters | New York City , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Mark Walter (CEO) |
| Products | Investment banking, asset management, capital markets, insurance solutions |
Number of employees | 2000 |
Guggenheim Partners, Inc is an international investment and advisory firm specializing in financial services, with its main office located in New York City. The company delivers expertise in investment banking, asset management, capital market activities, and insurance solutions. Employing roughly 2,000 professionals, Guggenheim maintains additional branches in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Its clientele spans a wide range of financial and industrial sectors across the globe.
Organization
Established in 1999 through a collaboration with the Guggenheim family, Guggenheim Partners is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan and oversees assets exceeding US$330 billion. The firm’s strategic direction is led by CEO Mark Walter, a prominent figure in its executive leadership.
Guggenheim’s operations encompass both asset management and investment banking divisions, with Guggenheim Investment Advisors managing close to $50 billion in assets. This broad asset base supports the company’s strong competitive positioning and influence within international markets.
Background
Guggenheim provides advisory services on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring, capital raising, and other critical strategic transactions. Its client base includes corporations, family offices, governmental bodies, and special committees. The firm’s transactional experience covers sectors such as consumer goods and retail, energy, financial institutions, healthcare, industrials, technology, media, and telecommunications.
Advisory
Since 2009, Guggenheim has enhanced its leadership team by recruiting influential executives including Mark Van Lith—previously head of Media Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan—as Head of Investment Banking, and Henry Silverman—formerly with Apollo Global Management—as vice chairman of asset management. In 2013, Ross Levinsohn, who served as interim CEO of Yahoo!, was named CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media. The firm also attracted senior bankers from Goldman Sachs and Barclays to strengthen its investment banking division.
In 2013, Guggenheim Securities acted as financial advisor to Verizon during its $130 billion acquisition of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless. Further sector-focused hires included Eric Mandl (Technology, Media & Telecom) in 2014 and Joel Foote (Energy) in 2016.
Toward the end of 2015, Guggenheim divested its media assets by spinning them off into Eldridge Industries under the leadership of president Todd Boehly. This portfolio included entities such as Mediabistro, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and Dick Clark Productions.
In April 2018, the firm sold its ETF business—which managed $38.8 billion in assets—to Invesco for $1.2 billion in cash. Later that year, Guggenheim Securities served as lead financial advisor to Red Hat during its $34 billion acquisition by IBM—the largest software deal at that time.
In 2019, key executive appointments included Donini as Chief Operating Officer and Andrew Rosenfield as president. Robert S. Khuzami joined as Managing Partner and Chief Legal Officer; his career includes significant roles at the SEC and Deutsche Bank.
Recent advisory engagements include acting as financial advisor to Gilead Sciences on its $4.3 billion acquisition of CymaBay (2024), advising Insight Sourcing on its sale to Accenture (2024), co-managing Arm Holdings’ $4.87 billion initial public offering (2023), leading Jersey Mike’s Subs’ $8 billion acquisition by Blackstone (2024), and advising Major League Baseball on a $9 billion debt restructuring (2025).
Guggenheim’s restructuring group offers advisory services across numerous sectors such as automotive, consumer products, energy, financial institutions, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, media & communications, retail, shipping, steel production, and transportation.
The firm competes with prominent independent advisory companies including Centerview Partners, Evercore, Greenhill & Co., Moelis & Company, Lazard, and Perella Weinberg Partners in delivering strategic advisory solutions.
Investments
In May 2009, Guggenheim Partners secured a majority stake in Transparent Value LLC, a firm specializing in financial services. Shortly after, in July 2009, the company acquired Claymore Group, recognized for its exchange-traded funds and unit investment trusts. By December of the same year, Guggenheim had taken ownership of a division from Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, which was subsequently rebranded as Guggenheim Life & Annuity. The acquisition of Security Benefit Corp, the parent company of Rydex Funds, followed in February 2010. Later, in October 2011, Guggenheim purchased EquiTrust, a life insurance provider formerly under FBL Financial Group. In 2012, affiliates of Guggenheim expanded their portfolio by acquiring the U.S. annuities operations from Canadian insurers Industrial Alliance and Sun Life Financial.
Guggenheim broadened its international reach in 2014 by opening an office in Tokyo and appointing Atsuhito Sakai as Senior Managing Director and Representative for Japan. That year also saw the acquisition of Lazard Capital Markets' London division. Further growth occurred in July 2019 when Guggenheim Securities strengthened its investment banking team in Chicago by recruiting senior bankers from William Blair’s technology sector.
In the entertainment sector, Guggenheim acquired a stake in Dick Clark Productions in September 2012, a company renowned for producing events such as the American Music Awards and Golden Globe Awards. Early the following year, in January 2013, it completed the purchase of the remaining shares of Prometheus Global Media, a business-to-business media enterprise, and later that year acquired CardCash. In February 2014, Guggenheim Partners expanded into sports ownership by purchasing the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.
More recently, in November 2021, Guggenheim Investments collaborated with actor Channing Tatum and investment firm Endeavor to provide financial backing for the $1 billion merger involving SPAC Bright Lights and Manscaped.
Through these calculated acquisitions and international expansions, Guggenheim has broadened its product range, diversified its subsidiary holdings, and solidified its position within financial services as well as media and entertainment industries.
See also
- List of investment banks
- Boutique investment bank
- Asset management
- Guggenheim Baseball Management
- Investment banking
External links
- Articles with short description
- Investment banks in the United States
- Investment management companies of the United States
- Exchange-traded funds
- Guggenheim family
- Investment companies based in New York City
- Companies based in Chicago
- Financial services companies established in 1999
- American companies established in 1999
- 1999 establishments in Illinois
- 1999 establishments in New York (state)
- Los Angeles Sparks owners
- 5
- Companies of the United States by year of establishment