I came to America from Palestine with nothing. That experience teaches you that opportunity exists everywhere if you are willing to work for it.
The businesses nobody wants are the businesses with the most potential. A Fortune 500 company divesting a division is handing you a diamond they do not know how to polish.
We have done 450 carve-outs. The pattern is always the same: the parent company underinvested, the employees are demoralized, and the product is actually good. Fix the first two and the third takes care of itself.
Detroit is not a lost cause. It is a city full of people who know how to build things. Investing in Detroit is investing in resilience.
I bought the Pistons because I believe in Detroit. Sometimes the best investments are the ones that are also the right thing to do.
Corporate carve-outs are the purest form of value investing in private equity. The seller is motivated by strategy, not price. That is your edge.