Athene provides retirement services through the issuing, reinsuring, and acquisition of fixed annuities. Founded during the Great Recession in 2009, as many insurers fled the retirement business, the firm took advantage of the downturn by acquiring substantial blocks of liabilities at discounted levels. For example, it acquired Aviva USA (now Athene USA) from Aviva in 2013, gaining $58 billion of assets and quadrupling its size. The company's investment manager is AAM, a subsidiary of Apollo, co-founder and 45% owner of Athene. The company has some $87 billion in total assets. Athene went public in December 2016.