Fortress Investment Group

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Fortress Investment Group LLC

Type	Public (NYSE: FIG)
Founded	1998
Headquarters	New York, NY
Key people	Wesley R. Edens, CEO & Chairman & cofounder Robert Kauffman, President - Europe & Director & cofounder Randal A. Nardone COO & director & cofounder
Industry	Private Equity, hedge funds, Real Estate and railroad-related assets
Products	Asset Management
Net income	▲ $192.7 million USD (2005)^{[citation needed]}
Employees	707 (2007)
Website	www.fortress.com

Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG) is a New York, NY-based asset management firm which manages private equity, hedge funds, and real estate and railroad-related investments, with announced plans to move into casinos and horse racing. The company went public on February 9, 2007.^[1]

[edit] History

Fortress Investment Group LLC was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wesley R. Edens, a former partner at BlackRock Financial Management, Inc.; Robert Kauffman, a managing director of UBS; and Randal A. Nardone, also a managing director of UBS. Fortress quickly expanded into hedge funds, real estate-related investments and debt securities.

Fortress Investment Group's investments grew rapidly, with its private equity funds netting 39.7% between 1999 and 2006.^[2]

As of September 30, 2006, the most recent date for which figures were available before Fortress Investment Group's IPO the firm held around $17.5 billion in private equity, around $9.4 billion in hedge funds and managed two publicly-traded investment companies:

Newcastle Investment Corporation (NYSE: NCT),
Eurocastle Investment Limited (Euronext AMS: ECT

In 2006, Fortress paid Sen. John Edwards, candidate for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for president, and the 2004 nominee for vice president, $479,512 for his consulting services, a part-time job. [1] The November 19, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal reported Edwards had invested $16 Million in Fortress and Fortress had bought poor performing New Orleans mortgages with the intention of foreclosing on properties in the Hurricane Katrina affected area through affiliates. The charges were repeated in the November 25, 2007 edition of FoxNews' Hannity's America.

Fortress has returned several of its private equity investments to public trading, including Aircastle Ltd., Brookdale Senior Living Inc. and GateHouse Media.

On May 8, 2007, Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), parent company of Florida East Coast Railroad, announced that following a unanimous vote of the FECI Board of Directors, Fortress would acquire FECI in a transaction valued at $3.5 billion.^[3]

On June 15, 2007 Fortress announced it would partner with Centerbridge Partners to acquire Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ: PENN), an operator of casinos and horse racing venues, for $6.1 billion. Fortress and Centerbridge will assume 2.8 billion in debt. The buyout still has to be passed by Penn National shareholders, who will get $67 cash for each share.^[4]

Fortress Investment Group has backed a patent holding firm IP-Com. This firm is now suing Nokia for patent infringement for $17.77 billion.^{[citation needed]}