Hicks’ Firm to Make Its 1st Purchase
By Katherine Yung, The Dallas Morning News
Nov. 28–Hicks Holdings LLC, Tom Hicks’ private investment company, plans to announce today that it is acquiring Ocular LCD Inc., a Richardson-based maker of high-performance liquid crystal displays.
The deal represents the first corporate purchase for the firm, formed in January as a holding company for the Hicks family’s sports teams, the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars, and for its real estate developments.
“Ocular represents the first of what we think will be a series of acquisitions different from what I’ve done in the past,” said Mr. Hicks, who retired last year from Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst
Inc., the Dallas buyout firm he co-founded.
Hicks Holdings will focus on smaller deals than Hicks Muse, using money from Mr. Hicks and his family instead of pension funds and institutional investors. The firm expects to seal another deal in the next 30 days.
Although Mr. Hicks wouldn’t offer details, he said the company is in the media industry.
Hicks Holdings is not a leveraged buyout firm. Instead, Mr. Hicks calls it a “private investment enterprise” because it also includes his sports teams and real estate projects.
The deals “are a good way to invest capital rather than investing in the stock market,” said Mr. Hicks, adding that he can utilize his years of experience in the buyout world.
Ocular is a nearly 20-year-old private company that makes complex, high-end liquid crystal displays used in gasoline pumps, home alarm systems, air conditioner thermostats, medical devices and other equipment.
The firm has about 15 employees in the U.S. and 723 in Zhaoqing, China, where it produces the displays.
Ocular will continue to be managed by its founders:
Ben Kwong, its chief executive and president, and Larry Mozdzyn, its executive vice president.
The two executives, who started the business in Mr. Mozdzyn’s garage with a $1,000 investment, will own a third of the company. Mr. Hicks would not reveal financial terms of the deal or Ocular’s annual sales.
Hicks Holdings intends to expand the company to three or four times its current size and eventually take it public, he said.
Mr. Hicks, 59, currently serves as chairman and chief executive of Hicks Holdings. In 2003, he ranked 350th on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans — with a net worth of $725 million.
His oldest son, Thomas Hicks Jr., 28, is Hicks Holdings’ vice president. He previously worked as an analyst at Greenhill & Co. LLC, a New York investment bank, and is currently vice president of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars.
Joseph Armes, the former chief financial officer of Mr. Hicks’ Southwest Sports Group, serves as chief operating officer.
Hicks Holdings’ real estate investments include half ownership of American Airlines Center; a one-third stake in the Victory Park development around the arena; a new urban town center near Ameriquest Field in Arlington; and a mixed-use development around the Dr Pepper/Seven-Up Ballpark in Frisco.
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