| History of private equity and venture capital |
|---|
.jpg) |
| Early history |
| (origins of modern private equity) |
| The 1980s |
| (leveraged buyout boom) |
| The 1990s |
| (leveraged buyout and the venture capital bubble) |
| The 2000s |
| (dot-com bubble to the credit crunch) |
| The 2010s |
| (expansion) |
| The 2020s |
| (COVID-19 recession) |
American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) was a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 1946 by Georges Doriot, Ralph Flanders,[1] Merrill Griswold, and Karl Compton.[2]
ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story[2] when its 1957 investment of $70,000 in equity ("70% of the company")[3] and approximately $2 million in loans in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) became valued at many times the amount invested after the company's success after its initial public offering in 1966.
ARDC continued investing until 1971 with the retirement of Doriot. In 1972, Doriot merged ARDC with Textron after having invested in over 150 companies.[4]
- ^ Flanders, Ralph E. (1961), Senator from Vermont, Boston: Little, Brown, pp. 188–189
- ^ a b Hsu, David; Kenny, Martin (2005). "Organizing Venture Capital: The Rise and Demise of American Research & Development Corporation, 1946-1973". Industrial and Corporate Change. 14 (4): 579–616. doi:10.1093/icc/dth064. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
- ^ DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION - Nineteen Fifty-Seven To The Present (PDF). Digital Equipment Corporation. 1975.
- ^ "Creative Capital". www.businessforum.com. Retrieved 2022-06-08.