Hi. I'm Aaron Weinman. Julian Robertson has died at the age of 90. The hedge-fund titan founded Tiger Management in 1980.
He turned about $8 million in start-up capital in the 1980s into more than $20 billion in assets under management throughout the 1990s.
Robertson's fund accurately predicted the dot-com bubble and underweighted the sector based on the belief that tech companies were overvalued due to a lack of cash flow. His fund still lost billions of dollars as a result of that bet, but it was Robertson's "I told you so" moment to many on Wall Street.
Another mea culpa might be Tiger's big bet on US Airways — it controlled about a quarter of the airline at one point. It got in on the company's stock for about $17 apiece, and while this peaked to $80, it then spiraled back into the $20 range.
In investing — like gravity — what goes up, inevitably comes crashing down. Robertson closed his firm in late 2000 and returned money to investors.
One of his greatest achievements, however, is arguably the impact Robertson had on other investors. His mentorship helped coin the term "Tiger Cubs," used to describe well-known investors like Chase Coleman and Philippe Laffont who cut their teeth under the Tiger Management founder.
Today, we are taking a look back at Robertson's legacy.
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1. Julian Robertson, a pioneer in hedge funds and founder of Tiger Management, has died at 90 years of age. At its peak, Tiger Management managed about $21 billion in assets.
Since closing his fund in the year 2000, Robertson had been closely linked to some of the hedge-fund world's biggest names, many of whom he helped launch.
The Tiger Cubs — like Tiger Global founder Chase Coleman, Lee Ainslie who started Maverick Capital, and Philippe Laffont of Coatue fame — learned the ropes under Robertson and went on to found some of Wall Street's most successful hedge funds.
Coleman, in a statement to Insider, described Robertson as a "pioneer and a giant in our industry."
"He made the time to be a true mentor, always leading by example and pushing all of us to become the best versions of ourselves," Coleman said. "For that and for his friendship, I am forever grateful."
Insider's Alyson Velati took a look back at Robertson's legacy, and how the legendary investor stood at the center of a quarter-trillion-dollar web of hedge-fund spinoffs.
For more on the Tiger Cubs, check out this story from Alyson on how the funds dumped tech stocks and diversified their holdings.
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Done deals:
- Private-equity shop Alpine Investors has sold portfolio company Mindful to Medallia, a customer and employee experience company. Mindful provides automated callback services.
- Cloud developer DigitalOcean has agreed to buy Cloudways, a cloud-hosting software provider, for about $350 million in cash.
Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email aweinman@insider.com or tweet @aaronw11. Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.