Bain Capital Wants a Piece of Gawker
After we published nearly 1,000 pages of Bain Capital's confidential financial records—including audits revealing for the first time that Bain employed a potentially illegal tax dodge currently under investigation by the New York attorney general—we thought we might hear from the good folks at Mitt Romney's former private equity firm, perhaps asking us to take down the documents. Well, Bain finally got in touch yesterday. And they want to explore investing in Gawker Media.
Our corporate overlord Nick Denton received the following email yesterday from Mike Griffin, an analyst at Bain Capital Ventures, Bain's venture capital arm. Griffin wanted to explore "synergies between Gawker and Bain Capital Ventures and...find ways that we could be helpful as you continue to grow."
I just called Griffin to confirm that he had indeed sent the email, and that Bain Capital Ventures was indeed interested in pursuing an investment in us. I asked him if he was familiar with Gawker's previous reporting on Bain. He was not.
"I've been working here for like a week now," he said. "I just thought it was a unique idea. We work with a lot of similar companies. I had no idea about the [Bain stories]. I'm not sure it would work out. This is awkward."
We are grievously disappointed that Griffin no longer wants to pursue a relationship, not least because Bain's interest in Gawker serves as a paramount example of the fundamental and irreducible amorality of capital. But it turns out even Bain has standards.
