Last summer, MBW reported that Shamrock Capital had raised $400 million in a new fund – and that it intended to spend that money on entertainment IP, including music copyrights.
In November, we learned that Shamrock had spent around $300 million to buy the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums from Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.
Now, the Los Angeles-based investment firm, which has approximately $3.5 billion of total assets under management, has closed a new $1 billion growth fund, entitled Shamrock Capital Growth Fund V.
While Shamrock’s announcement of the new fund doesn’t list music-related investments as a target specifically, it does state that the fund will be focused on buyouts and later-stage “growth equity investments” within three target industries: media, entertainment, and communications.
Shamrock’s owned content portfolio currently consists of an interest in over 800 films, over 1,000 television episodes, and over 20,000 music compositions.
Prior to its ≈$300m acquisition of Swift’s masters in November, one of the biggest music-related acquisitions for Shamrock came in 2018, when the company acquired a music publishing catalog owned by Stargate – the writers behind hits for Rihanna, Beyoncé, Katy Perry and more.
Alongside the news of the new fund, Shamrock Capital has also made two senior promotions.
Sam Halls has been promoted to Principal and Alicia Zhu to Vice President.
Halls joined Shamrock in 2016 and prior to that, he was an Associate at Silver Lake Sumeru.
Zhu joined Shamrock in 2019 and prior to that, she was at The Walt Disney Company where she focused on M&A and long-term strategic initiatives.
“Shamrock will continue to invest in companies that are involved in the convergence and transformation taking place within media, entertainment and communications.”
Steve Royer, Shamrock Capital
“We are grateful for the continued support of our longstanding investors and welcome our new investors as Shamrock looks to continue generating compelling returns for our limited partners around our investment themes,” said Steve Royer, Partner at Shamrock Capital.
“We see tremendous opportunities ahead within our targeted sectors and are honored to be working with our talented executives that lead our portfolio companies as they grow their platforms.”
Added Royer: “Shamrock will continue to invest in companies that are involved in the convergence and transformation taking place within media, entertainment and communications.
“We will continue to partner with management teams that are leading companies in some of the most dynamic parts of our economy, including the creator economy, talent and content, gaming, sports betting, marketing services, infrastructure, personal/professional betterment platforms, and the technological platforms that power this transformation.”
Shamrock’s current private equity investments in media include the likes of Ad Results Media, Adweek, Appetize, Bayard Advertising, Branded Cities, Canopy Spectrum, DeCurtis, Excel Sports Management and others.Music Business Worldwide