Airborne Health Founder Slams Summit Partners
Summit Partners' investment in Airborne Health has turned out to be a massive headache. It featured a busted auction, a class-action lawsuit over false health claims and a violation of covenant agreements. Last month the firm finally got out of the mess, quietly selling the nutritional supplement maker back to its founder, former second grade teacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell. If only it were that simple. In an attempt to start anew, Knight-McDowell today released a commercial trashing the firm's management of her company (watch video at bottom of post). In it, she explains her buying back of the Airborne: Three years ago, I sold Airborne to a private equity group and went on to raise my family during this time. However, I became increasingly unhappy with how my company was being managed, and so, in October of 2008, I bought it back. The commercial leaves out a few big things. First of all, she was both a minority shareholder and board member during Summit's ownership ...
