Private equity firms bid for Munder – Reuters

Private equity firms Thoma Bravo, Blackstone Group in partnership with Advent International and Corsair in partnership with Flexpoint Ford LLC have submitted bids for Munder Capital Management in a deal that could be valued at up to $400 million, writes Reuters. New York-based private equity firm Crestview Partners is looking to sell Birmingham, Michigan-based Munder after owning it since 2006.

Reuters – Private equity firms Thoma Bravo, Blackstone Group (BX.N) in partnership with Advent International and Corsair in partnership with Flexpoint Ford LLC have submitted bids for Munder Capital Management in a deal that could be valued at up to $400 million, a number of sources told Reuters this week.

New York-based private equity firm Crestview Partners is looking to sell Birmingham, Michigan-based Munder after owning it since 2006. The firm has tapped Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to oversee the sale. It could not be determined if there were other firms that bid for the business.

Calls and emails to Flexpoint Ford were not immediately returned. Crestview, Advent, Blackstone, Goldman, Thoma Bravo and Corsair declined to comment.

During the dot-com boom, Munder was best-known for managing the NetNet Fund, which in 2000 was the largest Internet fund, with $11.5 billion in assets.

But after the industry crashed in the early 2000s, Munder struggled to recover. The firm currently has eight mutual funds with $7.2 billion in assets, according to Morningstar (MORN.O).

Blackstone and Advent are looking at jointly buying Munder as a first step toward creating a multi-boutique investment management firm along the lines of Affiliated Managers Group (AMG.N) and Legg Mason (LM.N), sources have told Reuters.