Len Blavatnik is the Founder and Chairman of the New York, NY-headquartered Access Industries
Blavatnik and Access Industries’ focus is deploying long-term capital to companies.
Access Industries entertainment holdings include Warner Music Group, DAZN, and Deezer.
Blavatnik has a reported net worth in the region of approximately USD $33 billion.
Len Blavatnik: Career history
Len Blavatnik founded Access Industries in 1986 while pursuing his MBA at Harvard Business School. The company’s initial focus was on industrial investments, including aluminum producers and oil companies. Access Industries focused on these investments until the early 2000s.
Many of Access Industries’ investments are focused on natural resources and chemicals, specifically in the fields of oil, petrochemicals, power generation, aluminum, and biotech. Through various mergers and investments, Access Industries played a crucial role in forming RUSAL, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers.
Blavatnik also led the efforts to combine several companies and form LyondellBasell, one of the world’s largest chemical companies. Access has additionally played critical roles in expanding Israeli industrial companies and North American natural gas and oil companies.
In 2004, Access Industries began to expand into fashion, entertainment, and media investments.
Its first investment in these fields was a substantial stake purchase in Tory Burch in 2004.
Over the next few years, Access Industries would continue its expansion with investments in Top Up TV, Perform Group, Icon Film Distribution UK, and most notably, Warner Music Group. Access Industries acquired WMG in 2011 for $3.3 billion.
Other companies in entertainment that Access Industries invested in include RGE Group, Amedia, AI Film, Bad Wolf, and RatPac Entertainment.
Len Blavatnik would also lead his company to invest in social media and technology apps including Acision and Facebook before its IPO. Other tech companies invested in by Blavatnik include Snap, Square, Yelp, Alibaba, Deezer, Spotify, First Access Entertainment, and Opendoor.Music Business Worldwide