L1Data study
Francisco Liquido, Peter Kelly, Antonio Dávila, Robert Johnson. (2011)
IESE ST-336-E, 16 pp
First IESE edition. The PDF title page names Liquido as lead author and carries "November, 2013" and "Copyright 2013"; the IESE hub page lists the same PDF under Kolarova, Kelly, Dávila and Johnson, so cite from the PDF. Sample: "a pool of 21 first-time search funds, the earliest of which was formed in 1992"; "excludes search vehicles that are self-funded" (p5); "Two search funds in Brazil refused to participate in the study and three search funds in the United Kingdom were unresponsive" (p5 fn 2). Status at year-end 2011: four searching, four operating, six deviated from the model, seven terminal (two exited for a positive return, two shut down at a loss, three ended without an acquisition) (p5 to p6). No return figures: "it is too early to publish meaningful performance data" (p8); eight acquisitions in total, median "$5.5 million in revenues, EBITDA margin of 20% and a purchase price to EBITDA multiple of 4.3x" (p7 to p8).
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L2Data study
Lenka Kolarova, Peter Kelly, Antonio Dávila, Robert Johnson. (2014)
IESE ST-342-E, 18 pp
Dated June 2014; data as of year-end 2013. Sample: "a pool of 28 first-time search funds, the earliest of which was formed in 1992", self-funded searches excluded, "international searchers in 12 countries across four continents" (p5). Status: eight searching or raising acquisition capital, seven operating, five deviated, eight terminal (four exited for a positive return, two shut down at a loss, two ended without an acquisition) (p5 to p6). Again no return figures ("it is too early to publish meaningful performance data", p8); exhibit median purchase price / EBITDA 5.6x and purchase price / revenue 0.9x (p12). Caveat: "additional searchers may be retroactively added to the sample set as they become known" (p5).
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L3Data study
Lenka Kolarova, Peter Kelly, Antonio Dávila, Robert Johnson. (2016)
IESE ST-415-E, 26 pp
Dated June 2016; data as of December 31, 2015. Sample: "a pool of 45 first-time search funds ... in 14 countries on four continents" (p3), "excluding self-funded searches and second-time search funds" (p5). Status: 13 searching, 13 operating, six deviated, 13 terminal (seven exited for a positive return, two exited with a loss, four ended without an acquisition) (p6). First edition with returns: "Of the 26 funds eligible ... 16 were included in the calculations of returns" (four unsuccessful searches and 12 acquisitions) (p10); "As an asset class, international search funds have achieved an ROI of 2.8x and an IRR of 33.4%. ... The median fund returned 1.9x ... whereas the top-performing fund returned 9.2x" (p11). Caveat: "it is too early to draw firm conclusions about the financial performance of the international search fund asset class" (p11); operating companies valued on "principals' estimates of market value".
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L4Data study
Lenka Kolarova, Peter Kelly, Antonio Dávila, Rob Johnson. (2018)
IESE ST-483-E, 32 pp
Dated September 2018; data as of December 31, 2017. The IESE hub and the Stanford hub both link a dead URL (awaytolearn.iese.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-Intl-Search-Fund-Study.pdf); the media.iese.edu URL above works. Sample: "83 first-time search funds ... in 22 countries on four continents" (p1), "excluding self-funded searches, second-time search funds and single-sponsor searches" (p3). Status: 40 searching; "Of the 43 others, 30 had acquired a company, five had ended their search without an acquisition and eight had deviated from the search fund model" (p4). Returns: "Of the 35 funds eligible ... 28 were included" (five unsuccessful searches, 23 acquisitions) (p10); "international search funds have achieved an ROI of 2.3x and an IRR of 33.3%. The median fund returned 2.0x ... The overall asset class ROI declined from 2.8x in 2016 to 2.3x in 2018" (p11); median acquisition "purchase price of $9.3 million ... a purchase price to EBITDA multiple of 4.9x" (p9).
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L5Data study
Lenka Kolarova, Peter Kelly, Antonio Dávila, Rob Johnson. (2020)
IESE ST-603-E, 36 pp
Dated September 2020; data as of December 31, 2019. Sample: "132 first-time search funds ... in 25 countries on five continents" (p3); same three exclusions (p5). Status: 50 searching; "Of the 82 others, 56 had acquired a company, 18 had ended their search without an acquisition and eight had deviated from the search fund model"; "Data from funds that had deviated from the search fund model were not included" (p6). Returns: "Of the 74 funds eligible ... 55 were included" (18 unsuccessful searches, 37 acquisitions) (p14); "international search funds have achieved an ROI of 2.4x and an IRR of 28.7%. When excluding unsuccessful searches ... ROI increases to 2.5x and IRR increases to 30.7%. The median search fund returned 1.1x ... the top-performing search fund returned 23.4x" (p14); median acquisition "purchase price of $11 million ... purchase price to EBITDA multiple of 5.6x" (p13). Follow-on financing excluded for operating companies but included for exits (p13 fn 10).
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L6Data study
Lenka Kolarova, Peter Kelly, Jan Simon, Rob Johnson. (2022)
IESE ST-629-E, 32 pp
Dated October 2022; data as of December 31, 2021. Sample: "211 first-time search funds ... from 34 countries on five continents" (p7); excludes "self-funded searches, second-time search funds, and single-sponsor searches" and "derived models, such as accelerators, entrepreneurs in residence, and other hybrid models", with an explicit warning against "extrapolating conclusions from traditional search funds and applying them to other forms or models" (p9). Status: 79 searching; "Of the 132 others, 94 had acquired a company, 24 had ended their search without an acquisition, and 14 had deviated" (p10). Returns: "Of the 118 eligible funds ... 93 were included" (24 unsuccessful searches, 69 acquisitions); "international search funds achieved an ROI of 1.9x and an IRR of 19.4%. The median search fund returned 1.1x ... the top-performing search fund returned 21.7x" (p16); median acquisition "purchase price of $11 million ... purchase price to EBITDA multiple of 5.8x". Only 12 positive exits and four failures to date, so "it is too early to draw firm conclusions" (p16).
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L7Data study
Ann-Sophie Kowalewski, Peter Kelly, Jan Simon, Rob Johnson. (2024)
IESE ST-658-E, 30 pp
Dated September 2024; data as of December 31, 2023. The IESE hub sends readers to a registration form (https://apply.iese.edu/study2024/, which showed "Registration not available" this session); the PDF was reached directly at the media.iese.edu URL above, with the note number taken from the page footer of a third-party copy. Sample: "320 search funds formed outside the United States and Canada ... in 40 countries and on five continents" (p4); first-time core search funds only, same exclusions as 2022 (p6). Status: 121 searching; "Of the remaining 199, 146 had acquired a company, 38 had ended their search without an acquisition, and 15 had deviated"; "as much as 79% of international search funds led to an acquisition so far" against 63% in the US and Canada (p8). Returns: "Of the 184 concluded funds ... 130 were included" (37 unsuccessful searches, 93 acquisitions held at least one year) (p16); "an overall ROI of 2.0x and an IRR of 18.1%. The median search fund returned 1.4x of investors' capital post-acquisition, whereas the top-performing search fund returned 31.4x" (p16); median acquisition "purchase price of $11.7 million ... purchase price to EBITDA multiple of 5.7x" (p14). Limits: "some identified searchers or CEOs did not answer all questions" (p6); valuations of operating companies rest on "the principals' reported market value" (p16).
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L8Case note
Rob Johnson. (2014)
IESE technical note (number ST-357-E taken from the file name; not seen printed in the extracted text), 16 pp
Copyright 2014. "This study is based entirely on interviews conducted in the summer of 2014 with 17 people who were involved in early search funds in the United States and the first one in the United Kingdom"; the text is "predominantly the words of those people". Organised around searcher ("the Jockey"), investor ("the Trainer"), business ("the Horse"), search process, fund structure, acquisition financing and board. Qualitative; interviewees are insiders of the funded model.
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L9Case note
Jan Simon. (2020)
IESE EN-34-E, 10 pp
Dated May 2020. An open letter from "investors, board members and mentors of search fund-operated businesses" to a young CEO facing the pandemic shock, drawing on the 1998 and 2008 crises and organised as "eight key leadership aspects". Opinion and practice advice; no data.
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L10Case note
Rob Johnson. (2023)
IESE OP-630-E, 8 pp
"Last edited: 25/5/23". Abstract: "more new investors are now trying to get into search fund deals. This paper highlights certain characteristics that are unique to search fund investing with the objective of sustaining key factors that have led to past successes in this ecosystem." Sections include "It is not Venture Capital or Private Equity", engagement, and access to new search funds. Opinion piece by a long-standing investor; no data.
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L11Case note
Jan Simon, Ann-Sophie Kowalewski. (2023)
IESE ST-647-E, 14 pp
Dated October 2023. Looks at "the search fund journey through a leadership lens" and argues "that leadership and leadership development are at the core of the search fund model"; sections on leadership "action logics" and transformations. Conceptual, with a reference list; no dataset.
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L12Case note
Sara Rosenthal, Jan Simon. (2024)
IESE ST-659-E, 16 pp
Dated October 2024; joint Stanford lecturer and IESE professor. Proposes a two-stage framework ("Act I" and "Act II") for value creation after acquisition and the business, leadership and board transformations each requires, noting that "with the average holding period being six years, many exits happen upon accomplishing Act I". Conceptual and practitioner-based.
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L13Case note
Jan Simon, Ann-Sophie Kowalewski. (2025)
IESE ST-667-E, 15 pp
Dated March 2025. Starts from "the accelerating growth of the asset class and its institutionalization", noting that some US searchers "had CapTables where individual investors accounted for less than 15%", and applies the shareholder engagement literature to search fund investors, ending with guiding principles. Conceptual; uses counts from the 2024 Stanford and IESE studies.
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L14Case note
Jan Simon. (2026)
Part I: Vendor Involvement and Leadership. IESE ST-680-E, 15 pp
Dated February 2026 (copyright line says 2025). A deliberate counterpart to Johnson (2014): "technical notes, newspaper and magazine articles, interviews, and podcasts almost exclusively praise the search fund model", yet "about a third of searchers close their funds without acquiring". Based on "observations from fellow investors shared during the 6th IESE Search Fund Investors' Summit held in Madrid on May 13, 2025" plus Center analysis; Part I covers the continuing role of the vendor and leadership failure at CEO and board level, each with remedies. Reproduces outcome trees for the US and Canada (Stanford) and the rest of the world (IESE). Investor-sourced and qualitative.
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L15Case note
Jan Simon. (2026)
Part II: Customer Concentration, Market Disruption, and Government Involvement. IESE ST-681-E, 18 pp
Dated February 2026. Sequel covering causes 3 to 5 (customer concentration, market disruption, government) with remedies, including risk assessment in due diligence and measures in a crisis. Same qualitative basis as Part I.
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L16Case note
Jan Simon. (2026)
IESE OP-638-E, 16 pp
Dated June 2026. A "reflective note ... based on Jan Simon's experience in the Belgian Regiment Para-Commando", with input from a former regiment sergeant major, translating special forces practice into advice for acquisition CEOs. Personal reflection; no data.
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L17Case note
Ian Nieboer, Mathieu Carenzo, Antonio Davila. (2011)
IESE EN-15-E, 23 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)
L18Case study
Rob Johnson. (2011)
IESE E-145-E, 25 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)
L19Case study
Ian Nieboer, Heinrich Liechtenstein, Peter Kelly, Lenka Menden, Rob Johnson. (2013)
IESE F-888-E, 14 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)
L20Case study
Peter Kelly, Francisco Liquido, Heinrich Liechtenstein. (2013)
IESE E-168-E, 19 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)
L21Case study
Rob Johnson. (2022)
IESE E-226-E, 11 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)
L22Case study
Jeroen Neckebrouck, Miguel Meuleman. (2023)
IESE E-228-E, 12 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)
L23Case study
Jan Simon. (2025)
IESE E-241-E, 12 pp
Existence verified against the publisher's catalogue; content not read.
SourceVERIFIED (existence only)