The little-known buyout firm behind the $7.4b Chelsea deal
The sale of the storied soccer club to the owner of the LA Dodgers was born from a failed M&A deal involving unheralded private equity firm Clearlake Capital
When private equity giant Carlyle Group was working to buy debt manager CBAM earlier this year, it was locked in a bidding war with an unheralded US-based buyout firm named Clearlake Capital.
Though Clearlake flinched at the $US787 million ($1.1 billion) price, leaving Carlyle to win the auction, it led to a far bigger prize.
