CVC Partners can thank weak credit markets for being the last firm standing with enough interest to bid on Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Central and Eastern European businesses.  TPG and KKR had also planned bids but are “blaming” weak credit conditions for bowing out of the process.  Given KKR’s very recent successful close of InBev’s Korean assets, you’d think they’d have the process down.  In that deal, KKR put down 50% (later split with Affinity Equity Partners), which is also what CVC is rumored to be plunking down for InBev’s latest divestiture.  Either way, given the similarty, perhaps we’ll see a familiar name emerge alongside CVC if a sale actually comes through.

It’s no secret the power and benefit of not only knowing how much internet traffic your website receives, but also how people got there, how long they stay, and what content they find most interesting.

While knowing traffic figures may not alter a private equity firm’s web strategy - (essentially just having a website), it is somewhat surprising that many firms don’t track at all.  Tracking site visitors doesn’t cost anything (Google Analytics seems to be the most popular), and is no more difficult than having your web admin insert a little chunk of code into the site footer.

So which firms don’t seem to care?  Checking for tracking code on a short list of websites yields a few notables . . .

Firm
Abry Partners	surprising given recent re-design and emphasis on media/communications opportunities
TPG	not too surprising given stagnant site
The Gores Group
TA Associates
Nautic Partners
First Reserve
HIG
The Blackstone Group	somewhat shocking

So which firms do care (or at least have an IT person who cared to set it up)?  Well many do.  KKR, Francisco Partners, CD&R, Carlyle, Candover, Cinven, Summit Partners, all track, but one surprise is Cerberus.

Cerberus doesn’t seem to care about keeping an up to date web presence - their last news update is still from ‘07, yet they do have Google Analytics set-up.  Now if Cerberus actually checks is another story.

Whether private equity firms as a whole track their web traffic more or less than then rest of the internet population would need a more detailed survey.  My guess is significantly less.  The quick survey above only checked mega sized firms.  Sampling several small firms yields even fewer . . .

As the NY Times points out, KKR just launched a slick re-design of its internet site featuring significantly more information than what was provided before.  As KKR readies for a possible IPO, one of the biggest differences is the clear breakdown of KKR’s business into three segments; private equity, fixed income, and strategic initiatives (infrastrucutre, mezzanine, other).  Another notable improvement is the inclusion of professional information with detailed bios.

You can see the design evolution below . . .

11/2003

02/2005

01/2007

10/2008