From WSJ:
After bad bets on cars and home loans, Cerberus Capital Management is turning to guns and bullets. The private-equity firm is in advanced preparations for an initial public offering of Freedom Group Inc., said people familiar with the situation, hoping to sell shares in a little-known company it has built into a dominant player in the red-hot rifle-and-ammunition business.
...Over a three-year span, Cerberus -- while under the spotlight for ill-fated acquisitions of auto maker Chrysler LLC and lender GMAC LLC -- has acquired at least seven U.S. gun-and-ammunition makers.
Those companies have been consolidated into a Madison, N.C.-based company called Freedom Group Inc. It is on track to generate about $900 million in sales this year, according to a person familiar with the results. That makes Freedom one of the world's largest manufacturers of firearms and ammunition....
The origins of Freedom Group date to April 2006, with Cerberus's acquisition of Bushmaster Firearms. A year later, it paid $118 million for Remington Arms Co., the country's largest and oldest maker of rifles. Since then, Cerberus and its affiliates have acquired Marlin Firearms, a maker of lever-action rifles; Cobb Manufacturing; Dakota Arms LLC and DPMS Panther Arms, a large manufacturer of AR-15 rifles. Its acquisition binge shows no signs of slowing. Earlier this month, Remington purchased Advanced Armament Corp., a Norcross, Ga., maker of pistol silencers. While each of its brands has a Web site, none mentions Freedom Group. ...
After bad bets on cars and home loans, Cerberus Capital Management is turning to guns and bullets. The private-equity firm is in advanced preparations for an initial public offering of Freedom Group Inc., said people familiar with the situation, hoping to sell shares in a little-known company it has built into a dominant player in the red-hot rifle-and-ammunition business.
...Over a three-year span, Cerberus -- while under the spotlight for ill-fated acquisitions of auto maker Chrysler LLC and lender GMAC LLC -- has acquired at least seven U.S. gun-and-ammunition makers.
Those companies have been consolidated into a Madison, N.C.-based company called Freedom Group Inc. It is on track to generate about $900 million in sales this year, according to a person familiar with the results. That makes Freedom one of the world's largest manufacturers of firearms and ammunition....
The origins of Freedom Group date to April 2006, with Cerberus's acquisition of Bushmaster Firearms. A year later, it paid $118 million for Remington Arms Co., the country's largest and oldest maker of rifles. Since then, Cerberus and its affiliates have acquired Marlin Firearms, a maker of lever-action rifles; Cobb Manufacturing; Dakota Arms LLC and DPMS Panther Arms, a large manufacturer of AR-15 rifles. Its acquisition binge shows no signs of slowing. Earlier this month, Remington purchased Advanced Armament Corp., a Norcross, Ga., maker of pistol silencers. While each of its brands has a Web site, none mentions Freedom Group. ...