Enter the Private Investor

Noel Wilens, managing director of First Atlantic Capital, says what made Golfsmith an attractive target for acquisition by First Atlantic was that it was a multichannel business and a quality company that still had the potential for further growth. “Certainly, we look at operations,” Wilens notes. “We look at the industry and the direction the market is headed.” With Golfsmith, he says, “We knew the market was moving to more of a multichannel environment, so it was good that Golfsmith already had all three elements of that — retail, catalog and Internet — working and in place. We liked the whole business model.”