-- Menlo Park, Calif.
o Elevation Partners Heads Out To Raise $1B For Entertainment Deals
By Robert Dunn of The Private Equity Analyst
Private placement memorandums are set to go
out for the debut fund from Elevation Partners,
the LBO firm set up by Silver Lake Partners Co-Founder
Roger McNamee, rock star Bono, two former technology
company executives and two buyout firm partners.

The fund, which has a $1 billion target, would
be invested in entertainment opportunities, with
a particular focus on securing the rights to music
and film libraries and investing in technology that
relates to music, such as downloading songs and
managing music libraries, according to a source
familiar with the effort.
Menlo Park-based Elevation Partners plans to
focus on drawing commitments from individuals, endowments
and foundations, and possibly one or two public
pensions. The firm anticipates holding a first closing
as early as this summer, and could end up raising
as much as $2 billion for the fund. Merrill Lynch
Private Equity Group is helping to market the fund
to investors.
Elevation Partners' lineup seems well suited
to its investment focus. Mr. McNamee, who will be
a managing director, already has experience making
control investments in new technologies through
his work at Silver Lake, which he helped form in
1999. The firm has made control investments in hard
drive maker Seagate Technologies, telecom company
MCI Inc. and online brokerage Ameritrade Holding
Corp.
Bono, the lead singer for Irish rock band U2,
also would have the title of managing director and
would focus on deal sourcing by tapping his network
of contacts, which includes Bill Gates, George Soros
and former U.S Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill,
as well as music industry executives. "He won't
be doing due diligence, or meeting with bankers,
or structuring deals," the source said, although
Bono would consult with portfolio companies on creative
issues and would sit on the firm's investment committee.
Elevation Partners is now working on three deals
sourced by Bono, according to the source.
A large portion of the fund's PPM cites the
recent corporate experience of Managing Directors
John Riccitiello and Fred Anderson. Mr. Riccietiello,
the former CFO of Electronic Arts Inc., managed
to secure the rights to the James Bond catalogue
of films for use in the videogame makers' titles.
While at Electronic Arts, Mr. Riccietiello also
negotiated with music publishing companies to acquire
the rights to use songs as background music in videogames.

Mr. Anderson, who retired this month as Apple
Computer Inc.'s CEO, was one of the executives who
led the negotiations with record labels for the
right to sell songs on Apple's ITunes Web site.
Mr. Anderson also helped improve Apple's performance
in the late 1990s prior to Steve Jobs returning
to the company.
Mark Bodnick, a founding principal of Silver
Lake Partners, and Bret Pearlman, a former senior
managing director with New York-based buyout firm
Blackstone Group, round out Elevation Partners's
senior professionals. While at Blackstone Group,
Mr. Pearlman worked on a number of telecommunications
and technology-related investments and also worked
on the firm's buyout of CD and DVD retailer Columbia
House.
Elevation Partners expects to put together an
investment team of 15 professionals. For the time
being, the firm is working out of space in Silver
Lake Partners' Menlo Park headquarters.