run by 47-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. Before her dismissal, US Attorney Carol Lam began an investigation of Lewis's contributors in 2006. [1]
On May 14, 2007, Cerberus aquired an 80% share of Daimler's Chrysler Division for $7.4B. In 1998, Daimler purchased Chrysler Corporation for $37B, which means the 80% share was sold by Daimler at a 75% loss.
