D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.

D.E. Shaw & Co. is an investment and technology development company founded in 1988 by David E. Shaw. The founder would lead the company for over a decade, directing the company’s focus and growth from its inception to 2001. The 2000s would see the company go through a series of variegated investments, with acquisitions such as the toy store FAO Schwarz and KB Toys and injecting money into USG Corp. By 2010, the company would grow to have six members on its executive committee. The company operates on a global scale, utilizing a broad set of strategies in public and private markets to create sustainable risk adjusted returns. D.E. Shaw & Co. has a heavy focus on rigorous analytics and emphasizes investment activities in two broad areas: alternative investments and benchmark-relative and global asset class investments. Alternative investment strategies are focused on creating absolute returns and covers both ends of the spectrum, ranging from “larger, core multi-strategy investment vehicles” to “more focused, strategy-specific investment products.” Its latter area of investments is focused on major liquid assets, allow “institutional investors to customize their exposure to a particular index.” Its total investment capital is over $35 billion, with over $25 billion invested in alternative investments and over $10 billion invested in benchmark-relative and global asset class investments, which was launched in 2000. The firm is different from many other investment managers, including math puzzles in its rigorous screening process that only accepts one of every 500 applicants. Many of the firm’s 1300 employees are made out of mathematicians, scientists, and professors, who utilize math-heavy quantitative investing in order to conduct the company’s business. Not only does D.E. Shaw & Co. generate mathematical models of investment strategies, it also conducts business in offering debt and equity financing, venture capital investments, and organizing and developing new technology focused businesses.