Jeffrey Stevenson: Managing Partner at VSS
Jeffrey Stevenson is a renowned businessman. He serves as the managing partner at Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), a private equity company located in New York. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1982 and later joined VSS working as an associate in the mergers and acquisitions department. By then, the company specialized in the media and magazine industry across New York. Around 1987, Jeffrey Stevenson managed to launch the company’s private investment fund, which they solely invested in the media industry. He later engineered the transformation of the firm. He led to the birth of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which mainly focused on structured finance and funding of small businesses based on information companies, healthcare, tech businesses, and education.
During a phone interview, when he was asked about the fundraising, he said that the purpose of the amount collected which $ 57 million was to invest in media companies. Jeffrey Stevenson said that the fundraising was impressive, but the fund received a blow between the first and last close of business. However, he further explained that they had to persevere and keep the funds working. They were later able to close their first deal with a television station in Kansas. When Stevenson asked to explain why the funds grew in the 1980s, he said they launched their second funding program. And another fund in the 1990s. And they kept implementing similar strategies which led to another successful fund in mid-2004 and extended to 2005. He also stated that the media had undergone exclusive transformations and were consolidated.
He acknowledged that technology was changing, and print media was slowly fading away, and the worst followed where the country suffered recession. Jeffrey Stevenson further explained that during past recessions, media companies implemented strategies that could reduce the amount spent on advertising, and then when the period is over, they will then go back to regular business. But unfortunately, during the 2008 recession, this never happened. Instead, the media industry went a notch higher and started digital advertising. When he was also asked to explain how they coped with the situation, he said that many companies were moving to digital media. And they implemented the strategies that were adopted by key players in the media industry.