Marlin Equity Close To Finishing Fund II

Firm: Marlin Equity Partners

Fund: Marlin Equity II

Hard Cap: $350M

Placement Agent: Probitas Partners

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Marlin Equity Partners, which recently bought a TV infomercial company out of bankruptcy, appears close to holding a first and perhaps final close on its second fund, Marlin Equity II, which has a hard cap of $350 million, said a source familiar with the process. The firm plans to acquire companies hitting on fewer than all cylinders in technology, health care and consumer sectors

Led by Managing Director Dave McGovern, Los Angeles-based Marlin Equity Partners was founded in 2005 with a spin-out team from tech buyout shop Gores Technology Group, now called The Gores Group. McGovern, a former lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and a former investment banker at CIBC World Markets, had been the head of M&A at Gores Technology Group. There he and his team executed the turnaround of The Learning Company and of Hewlett Packard’s electronic payment systems unit VeriFone, among other companies.

Marlin Equity closed its first fund in August 2005 with $60 million in commitments. Other ex-Gores Technology Group members of the Marlin Equity Partners team include Nicholas Kaiser, a former associate, and P.J. Nachman, who worked in the M&A group. McGovern didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Marlin Equity typically backs companies generating sales of between $10 million and $500 million, but that aren’t necessarily generating any profits. On its Web site the firm describes itself as backing companies “undergoing varying degrees of operational, financial or market-driven change.”

The firm has eight companies in its portfolio. Its most recent deal was the buyout of bankrupt Ronco Corp., a TV infomercial company known for selling products like the Pocket Fisherman, the Veg-o-Matic and the Showtime Rotisserie Oven.

Marlin Equity recently expanded its health care business, adding Victor Otley as an operating partner to evaluate acquisition opportunities and oversee the portfolio. He was the founder and CEO of IntelliCare, which he sold in 2005. Placement agency Probitas Partners is raising the fund.—M.C.