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Cerberus Capital Management LP is one of the largest private equity investment firms in USA. The firm is based in New York, N.Y., and run by 45-year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former Vice President Dan Quayle has been a prominent Cerberus spokesperson and runs one of its international units.

Founded in 1992, Cerberus invests primarily in companies which are near bankruptcy and hopes to make the businesses it acquires profitable.

The company has been a voracious acquirer of businesses over the past several years and now includes sizeable investments in sportswear, paper products, military services, real estate, energy, retail, glassmaking, transportation, and building products. Its holdings amounted to $24 billion in 2006.

On October 19, 2006, John W. Snow, President George W. Bush's second United States Secretary of the Treasury, was named chairman of Cerberus.

Cerberus was recently involved in controversy surrounding its contributions to Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis. MCI, a company owned by Cerberus, had a $1 billion dollar contract to create the Navy/Marine computer network. However, the Defense Appropriations subcommittee released a critical report of MCI after receiving complaints about cost overruns and bad management. In response to this report, the committee had proposed to cut the MCI contract by 10%. In June 2003, Lewis, the head of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, received over $110,000 dollars in contribution from Cerberus. Shortly thereafter, Lewis decided to preserve full funding for the $1 billion dollar contract. In 2005, Lewis was elected as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He acknowledged that the fundraising efforts of Cerberus "played a very significant role" in winning the post. US Attorney Carol Lam began an investigation of Lewis's contributors in 2006. [1]

• Paper products - The company acquired MeadWestvaco's paper business for $2.3B in 2005 and renamed it NewPage Corporation. Cerberus also purchased, from Georgia Pacific Corporation, its Distribution Division/Building Products and all of its associated real estate. It renamed this new company BlueLinx, based in Atlanta, Ga.

• Government Services (Military, Energy, and Food & Drug) — owns IAP Worldwide Services, which bought Johnson Controls' World Services division in February 2005, and Netco Government Services.

• Real Estate - Through investment affiliate Blackacre Capital, the company has been making direct equity, mezzanine, first mortgage, distressed and special situation investments in all asset types. It also controls Miami Beach, Fla.-based LNR Property, a large real estate development and investment firm through subsidiary Riley Property. Cerberus also controls Kyo-ya, a Japan based group of entities that owns several Starwood managed assets in California, Hawaii and Florida.

• Retail - Cerberus purchased 655 of the 2,500 Albertson's, Inc., grocery stores, forming Albertsons LLC of Boise, Idaho, in June of 2006. They also own Mervyn's department stores, which was acquired from Target Corp.

• Transportation - Acquired bankrupt ANC Rental, owner of the National and Alamo car rental chains, for $230 million in October 2003 and purchased 45% of DaimlerChrysler's aircraft leasing business in May 2005. Also acquired North American Bus Industries, Optima Bus, and Blue Bird Corp. in the bus manufacturing sector. Air Canada.

• Automotive - Peguform and GDX

• Financial Services - General Motors sold a 51% stake in its GMAC finance unit to an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management. GM expects to receive $14 billion over the next three years from the sale of General Motors Acceptance Corp. In December 2006, Cerberus acquired the Austrian bank BAWAG P.S.K. for a reported €3.2 billion.

• Firearms - Acquired Bushmaster Firearms, Inc., from Windham native Dick Dyke for an undisclosed sum in April 2006.^{[citation needed]}

• Entertainment - To acquire 6 television stations owned and operated by CBS Corporation, pending FCC approval. Those stations are as follows:

DMA Rank	Market	Station ... Channel (DT)	Network
35.	Salt Lake City - St. George - Provo - Ogden - Orem	KUTV 2 (34) / KUSG 12 (9)	CBS
38.	West Palm Beach - Fort Pierce	WTVX 34 (50)	The CW
		WTCN-CA 43	MyNetworkTV
		WWHB-CA 48	Azteca América
51.	Providence - New Bedford	WLWC 28 (22)	The CW
53.	Austin	KEYE-TV 42 (43)	CBS

Other holdings of the investment group include Formica, Inc., and the Aozora Bank in Japan; U.S. tech firm SSA Global Technologies, and cable operator Galaxy Cable.

• Kelley, Matt. "The Congressman and the hedge fund." USA Today. 19 January 2006.
• Thornton, Emily. "What's Bigger Than Cisco, Coke, Or McDonald's?" Business Week October 2005.
• Stringer, Kortney. "Car Rental Companies are sold." Wall Street Journal. 16 October 2003.
• "Acquisition of LNR Property Corporation Completed" Business Wire. 3 February 2005.
• "Hirsch, Jerry. "Albertsons To Be Sold, Divided Into 3." Los Angeles Times. 24 January 2006.

• Official site