JAT Capital Management

JAT Capital Management is a multi-billion-dollar global equity investment firm that invests in the telecommunications, media and technology, travel, leisure and gaming sectors using a fundamentally-oriented, private-equity-style investment approach.

Background

JAT Capital is a multi-billion-dollar global equity investment firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. The firm was founded in 2007 by John A. Thaler, who is known within the hedge fund industry as a Tiger grand-cub, after previously working with Tiger cub Chris Shumway at Shumway Capital, who worked under Julian Robertson at Tiger Management. According to Institutional Investor’s Alpha, Tiger Cubs and Tiger Grand-cubs are some of the best-known, long-short managers and stock pickers in the hedge fund industry.

JAT Capital was ranked as the 17th best performing hedge fund in Bloomberg’s 2013 “Top-Performing Large Hedge Funds” list.

On May 11, 2015, JAT Capital returned $1.7 billion to investors and converted to a family office.

Investment process

JAT invests both long and short in U.S. and global equities. The firm’s investment teams use a bottom-up research process that focuses on developing investment theses versus individual stock ideas. The firm identifies businesses that are undervalued and overvalued and tends to hold long positions for two years or more and short positions for three to twelve months.

Management

John A. Thaler, JAT Capital’s Founder and Portfolio Manager, received his bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Chicago and then became a banking analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. and an associate at private-equity firm Spectrum Equity Investors LP. Thaler joined Chris Shumway’s Shumway Capital Partners LLC at its inception in 2002 as an analyst covering telecommunications, media and technology. He went on to manage the SCP Omni Fund before leaving in 2007 to open his own hedge fund with start-up capital from Chris Shumway.

Kenneth Palumbo is the President and Chief Operating Officer of JAT Capital. He previously worked with Thaler at Shumway Capital Partners, where Palumbo was a Partner and Chief Operating Officer.