Apollo Global Management
“Chuck E. Cheese went bankrupt. Michaels is drowning in debt. Somehow Apollo keeps getting handed the keys to more companies.”
Apollo Global Management currently owns 5 consumer brands we track, including Michaels, ScionHealth, Yahoo and Brightspeed, across 3 categories. It has since exited 2 more.
Apollo manages about $1.05 trillion and has a habit of acquiring consumer brands that end up in bankruptcy court. They bought Chuck E. Cheese for $1.3 billion, debt included, in 2014; it filed for bankruptcy in 2020. They took Michaels private for $5 billion in 2021, loading the craft chain with debt. The firm was founded by people who cut their teeth at a Wall Street firm so notorious for risky deals that it collapsed — the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Founded 1990 · New York, NY