Investment firm Blum Capital Partners targets small and middle-market US firms, providing capital for such transactions as share repurchases, acquisitions and divestitures, and privatizations. The partnership invests in a relatively small number of public or private companies (usually around five per year), but typically takes a substantial position either by acquiring a strategic block of the company's shares, or through a negotiated transaction. Blum Capital often takes an active role in management. It oversees investments for wealthy families, corporations, and university and philanthropic endowment funds, as well as its own account. Chairman Richard Blum founded the company in 1975.