The wealthiest Black man in America just became richer.
Robert F. Smith, who’s worth a reported $8B, closed a deal with IBM that included the sale of Apptio, a software company that Smith’s private equity firm Vista Equity Partners owns. The sell is valued at a reported $4.6 billion, which is a 142 percent return on investment.
“As investors, we were immediately drawn to what Sunny and his team were doing,” Vista Equity Partners said in a statement. “Not only were they innovating an entirely new category with tremendous growth potential, but Sunny was also an established visionary founder having co-founded iConclude, which pioneered the IT runbook automation market through its acquisition by Opsware.”
IBM said in a statement that the deal will be finalized later this year.
“At a time when exit activity within private equity has fallen considerably, Vista has continued to maintain its momentum. Since November 30, 2021, the firm has completed or signed 18 monetization events across full and partial exits, recapitalizations, block sales, and a follow-on offering,” the company said in a statement. “Across these events, we have generated $18.0 billion in total value, including monetizations of $14.3 billion (including co-investment) and $3.7 billion in unrealized value still to be captured.”
This major business feat comes on the heels of Smith’s incredible generosity.
In 2019, he vowed to pay the full tuition of Morehouse College’s graduating class, according to an AJC report from that year.
“On behalf of the eight generations of my family that have been in this country, we’re gonna put a little fuel in your bus,” Smith said. “This is my class, 2019. And my family is making a grant to eliminate their student loans. I know my class will make sure they pay this forward…and let’s make sure every class has the same opportunity going forward because we are enough to take care of our own community.”