The Incredible Force Behind DTZ, Cassidy Turley, and now Cushman

The news today that DTZ is acquiring Cushman begs the question—just how ambitious and determined is it to roll up a monster competitor to CBRE and JLL? There can be only one answer: David Bonderman.

Bondo, as he's known to aficionados, may be the most important, brilliant and successful DC businessman many have never heard of. Age 72, he grew up in LA, studied Russian and Arabic, was on the Harvard Law Review, became a partner in DC at Arnold & Porter, went to work for the Bass Brothers in Texas, and in 1992 created the Texas Pacific Group, now known as TPG and one of America's largest private equity firms. It's been involved in innumerable buyouts, from Burger King, MGM and SunGuard, to Nieman Marcus, First Data and Continental Airlines. For his 60th birthday, he hired the Rolling Stones. For his 70th, Paul McCartney. Forbes says he's worth $2.6B. He's on the board of CoStar and used to be on CarrAmerica's, among many companies and philanthropies.

The red in DTZ's logo was taken by some over the last six months as a sign it had its eyes on Cushman (also known for a red logo). As we reported last October as Cassidy Turley was getting acquired by DTZ, which in turn was getting bought from UGL, the giant behind all this was not DTZ, but a powerful consortium of TPG Capital, PAG Asia Capital out of Hong Kong, and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. In other words, two major private equity firms and a huge pension fund managing, respectively, $66B, $11B and $146B, including large portfolios of real estate. But there's a giant behind the consortium: David Bonderman. So if we have to guess, there will be continued industry consolidation and this will not be Bondo's last move.