Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the oldest of the giant private equity firms, is dipping a toe into social media.
K.K.R. is sprucing up its long-dormant Twitter account for a debut on Thursday, when it is expected to post its first-ever tweet. The bite-size dispatch will coincide with the 38th anniversary of K.K.R.’s founding.
The private equity giant, which awed Wall Street in the 1980s with the leveraged buyouts of the Beatrice Companies and RJR Nabisco, and which recently reported that its assets under management had grown to more than $100 billion, is comparatively late to the social media service.
One rival, the Carlyle Group, has been tweeting since 2012. Another, the Blackstone Group, has been communicating in 140 characters or less since 2011, even posting pictures of otters and penguins roaming its office. (SeaWorld is a Blackstone portfolio company.)
But K.K.R.’s Twitter presence, which is being managed by the firm’s public affairs team, seems likely to be more serious for now.
“For the past several years, we’ve tried to be more transparent about our business and engage more with our investors and key stakeholders for K.K.R. and the companies in which we invest,” Ken Mehlman, a partner and the global head of public affairs at K.K.R., said in a statement. “We hope that Twitter provides another outlet for this conversation. We’ll use it to share news about our firm and perspectives on key issues impacting investing around the world.”