Long Lake (Holding Company)

Long Lake was founded in 2023 and is backed by investors including General Catalyst, Alpha WaveAlpha Wave GlobalAlpha Wave Global (known as Alpha Wave) is an alternative asset manager founded in 2012, operating in private equity, private credit, and insurance and retirement solutions; its portfolio includes SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, Cerebras, and Long Lake.Open the full entry, Elad Gil, D1, Thrive, and other strategic partners. The company describes itself as the first “AI-native” holding company offering permanent capital, with a plan to buy services businesses and hold and improve them forever; it argues that services, which make up nearly two-thirds of global GDP, can be among the biggest beneficiaries of AI progress, and that the transformation should be driven from the inside, alongside the people already running the businesses.⁠[1][2][2][2][2]

As of May 2026, Long Lake had acquired and partnered with dozens of services businesses across a wide range of fields, using its proprietary Nexus AI transformation platform to improve their growth and customer experience.⁠[1]

After the special committee of the board of the corporate travel platform American Express Global Business Travel (operated by Global Business Travel Group, Inc., NYSE: GBTG; known as Amex GBT) launched a sale process, its financial advisor Rothschild & Co contacted 64 potential counterparties, including Long Lake, from December 18, 2025, through mid-February 2026. On March 24, 2026, Long Lake submitted a non-binding indication of interest at a preliminary price of $7.75 to $8.25 per share in cash; on April 22 it raised the price to $9.00 per share and said it had completed its business due diligence.⁠[3][3][3][3]

On April 29, Long Lake raised its offer to $9.25 per share, attaching fully committed debt and equity financing letters, and said the proposal was fully priced, citing disruptions in the travel market and surging jet fuel prices among other factors. The special committee then made a counterproposal of $9.50 per share, which Long Lake accepted, submitting a best and final offer on April 30, and the two sides signed an exclusivity agreement running through May 3.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3]

On May 2, 2026, Amex GBT signed a merger agreement with the acquisition vehicle Gaia Purchaser, Inc. and its subsidiary under which it would be acquired by Long Lake’s legal entity, Long Lake Management Holdings Inc.; the deal was announced on May 4. Under the agreement, Amex GBT shareholders would receive $9.50 per share in cash, valuing the transaction at about $6.3 billion, a 60.2 percent premium to the May 1 closing price and a premium of about 65.1 percent to the 30-day volume-weighted average price through that date. American Express, Expedia, Qatar Investment Authority, and BlackRockBlackRockBlackRock is a publicly traded investment management company headquartered in New York, founded in 1988 by Larry Fink and seven others and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker BLK); its businesses include the iShares family of exchange-traded funds and the Aladdin investment and risk management platform. As of June 30, 2026, its assets under management totaled $15.3 trillion.Open the full entry, together holding 69 percent of the shares, signed voting agreements supporting the deal, and the American Express brand licensing agreement remained in place.⁠[4][4][1][1][1][1][1][1]

The deal was financed with equity from Long Lake’s existing investors and Koch Equity Development LLC, the investment arm of Koch, Inc., and committed debt financing from JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, and MUFG; Long Lake guaranteed certain payment obligations of the acquisition vehicle. If the agreement were terminated in specified circumstances, Amex GBT would have to pay the buyer a $200 million termination fee. Long Lake co-founder and CEO Alex Taubman said the future of business travel would be defined by AI and human agents working together on behalf of every traveler; Ken Chenault, chairman of General Catalyst and former chairman and CEO of American Express, said the foundation of the Long Lake model was a strong commitment to customer service for the modern era.⁠[1][4][4][1][1][1][1]

On August 3, 2026, Amex GBT held a virtual special meeting of stockholders, which approved the merger with 495,937,250 votes for, 74,615 against, and 28,426 abstentions.⁠[5][5]

On September 29, 2026, the merger was completed and Amex GBT became a wholly owned subsidiary of the acquisition vehicle, with each common share converted into $9.50 in cash; trading of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange was halted and delisting was requested. On the closing date, the buyer signed a credit agreement with JPMorgan and other lenders, including a fully drawn $1.5 billion senior secured term loan and an undrawn $250 million revolving credit facility.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

Taubman wrote that day that this was Long Lake’s 40th acquisition and that its family of companies now employed nearly 30,000 people; Amex GBT serves 17,500 businesses in 140 countries and booked 35 million trips the previous year. He said Long Lake had not conducted a single layoff across its portfolio and had grown both headcount and revenue.⁠[2][2][2][2]

Long Lake calls Nexus an AI platform for knowledge work, handling work that is indispensable to running services companies but time-consuming, such as answering emails, searching documents, and managing financials; the platform is built on frontier models, so advances in AI directly benefit its companies. Its AI research and engineering team includes people from OpenAI, Ramp, Palantir, Glean, Google, and other companies, and its engineers and operators work inside its companies, co-designing systems with them. The company has offices in New York and San Francisco.⁠[2][2][2][2][7][7]

Long Lake: Official website: https://llmh.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

American Express Global Business Travel: Official website: https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]