Tangled web under construction: Andersen, Jacobs & private equity
If you cannot beat ’em, join ’em
In a post headed “XPO’s Billionaire Chairman Brad Jacobs Is Hunting for His Next Big Deal“, which confirms recent remarks made by Brad Jacobs to the press, TIME reported on Sunday:
Serial deal maker Brad Jacobs looks forward to a looming U.S. recession while he hunts for another takeover. “It’s a good time to do my next big thing,’’ the 66-year-old billionaire explains. “A downturn creates buying opportunities for acquirers with capital like me.”
Jacobs has done more than 500 takeovers during his long career, typically by swallowing smaller players in fragmented markets. He stepped down this fall as chief executive of XPO Logistics, the transportation giant he built through aggressive acquisitions and organic growth.
He remains executive chairman of the Greenwich, Conn., company, focused on its less-than-truckload freight operation following the Nov. 1 spinoff of XPO’s freight brokerage into a separate, publicly traded entity called RXO.
The executive says he can now spend most of his time pursuing a fresh target—perhaps a financial services, healthcare, homebuilding, or special-purpose acquisition company. (SPACs buy businesses and effectively take them public.)
Jacobs also founded or co-founded four companies in the oil, waste disposal, and equipment-rental industries. Each grew into enterprises with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. In 2011, the entrepreneur gained majority control of Express-1 Expedited Solutions, a freight-services provider with a market value of about $72 million that he renamed XPO Logistics. Its market capitalization peaked at $16.8 billion a decade later.
Jacobs, a math and music major at Bennington College and Brown University, never completed his degree. Music offered the trained classical pianist lessons relevant to business, such as “when to go fast and when to go slow,” he adds.
TIME recently spoke with Jacobs, about possibly reinventing himself via a $30-billion company, cures for clogged supply chains, and integrating takeovers successfully.
The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity… click here for the Q&A.
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