LionTree LLC is an American boutique investment and

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage, it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in comm ...

that has a focus on industries related to technology, media and telecommunications (TMT). Although the firm is based in the United States, it also has a significant presence in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. LionTree also has a media company called Kindred Media.

History

LionTree was founded in June 2012 by Aryeh Bourkoff, former head of UBS's investment banking in the Americas, alongside fellow UBS alum, Ehren Stenzler who joined in July 2012. In 2016, LionTree opened additional offices in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 2017, an office in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

was opened. During the same year, LionTree founded Ocelot Partners, a

special-purpose acquisition company A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...

that focuses on investment opportunities in the European TMT sector, along with Andrew Barron and Martin E. Franklin. In March 2018, Ocelot Partners acquired Ocean Outdoor, a U.K.-based digital billboard company, from Searchlight Capital. In 2017, LionTree started its own media company, Kindred Media which produces the KindredCast podcast. On June 16, 2022, the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

renamed the RIMAC Arena to Liontree Arena after Liontree donated $5 million for scholar-athletes.

Business overview

LionTree Advisors

The investment banking unit is called LionTree Advisors and provides services such as

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

, capital raisings, and

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

s. Notable deals LionTree was involved in include: * CK Hutchison's acquisition of Italian mobile operator, Wind Tre, * Verizon's acquisition of AOL and

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

, * The 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom, *

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

's acquisition of MGM studios, *

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major Imprint (trade name), publishing labels, Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K ...

's acquisition of Zynga *

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

acquisition of

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories ...

LionTree Partners

LionTree Partners acts as the investment arm of Liontree. It mainly invests in companies from the TMT sector. Notable investments include Astra, Fanatics, Inc. and FuboTV.

References

External links

* {{authority control Investment banks in the United States American companies established in 2012 Financial services companies established in 2012 Companies based in Manhattan