Apollo Global Management, Inc.

Is Apollo Global Management publicly traded?
Yes. Apollo Global Management, Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker APO. The firm converted to a corporation in 2019 and has no dual class share structure, so common stockholders vote proportionally.

Who founded Apollo?
Apollo was founded in 1990 by Leon Black, Joshua Harris, and Marc Rowan, all former investment bankers at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Black resigned in January 2021 following scrutiny of his payments to Jeffrey Epstein, and Rowan has served as CEO since.

Does Apollo own Yahoo?
Yes. Apollo funds acquired Yahoo from Verizon in 2021 for approximately $5 billion. Apollo holds a 90% stake and Verizon retains 10%. Yahoo operates as an independent company under CEO Jim Lanzone.

What is Athene?
Athene is a retirement services company that sells fixed indexed annuities and related products. Apollo co-founded Athene in 2009 and merged with it in January 2022, making Athene its Retirement Services segment. Athene's premiums are invested largely in assets originated by Apollo's credit businesses.

How much does Apollo manage?
Apollo reported approximately $938 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2025, up 25% year over year. Fee-generating AUM was $709 billion. The firm added $228 billion in inflows and originated $309 billion of assets during 2025.

Does Apollo own ADT?
Apollo funds are ADT's largest shareholder with approximately 40% of outstanding stock. Apollo took ADT private in 2016, returned it to the NYSE in 2018, and reduced its majority position through secondary offerings in 2024, so it no longer controls the company.

Apollo was founded in New York in 1990 by Leon Black, Joshua Harris, and Marc Rowan, three investment bankers who had worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert, the investment bank that collapsed in February 1990 under the weight of the Michael Milken junk bond scandal. The founders raised their first fund, Apollo Investment Fund L.P., to purchase distressed securities in the wreckage of the late 1980s leveraged finance market. Buying the debt of troubled companies at deep discounts and working it through restructuring became the firm's signature approach.

Through the 1990s Apollo built a reputation as a distressed and value investor. It assembled significant stakes in distressed real estate, insurance assets, and corporate debt, and it pioneered what became known as distressed-for-control investing, buying a company's debt cheaply with the intention of converting it to equity ownership in a restructuring.

The 2000s marked Apollo's expansion into a full scale private equity platform. The firm raised successive flagship buyout funds and completed large leveraged acquisitions, including Realogy, the real estate franchisor, in 2007, and the $30.7 billion acquisition of Harrah's Entertainment with TPG in 2008, one of the largest buyouts of the pre-crisis era. Apollo also seeded a family of permanent capital vehicles, including Apollo Investment Corporation, a business development company listed on the NYSE in 2004.

In 2009 Apollo co-founded Athene with insurance executive Jim Belardi, creating an insurer that could buy annuity blocks and reinsure pension obligations while Apollo managed the assets. Athene became Apollo's single most important strategic asset. Separately, Apollo's contrarian purchase of LyondellBasell's debt during the chemical company's 2009 bankruptcy converted into an equity stake that generated billions in profit and remains one of the most profitable distressed investments on record.

Apollo listed its management company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011 and converted from a partnership to a corporation in 2019. In March 2020 co-founder Marc Rowan was named CEO designate, and in January 2021 Leon Black resigned as chairman and CEO after an outside review confirmed he had paid approximately $158 million to Jeffrey Epstein for tax and estate planning services between 2012 and 2017. The review found no evidence Black was involved in Epstein's criminal conduct, but the payments triggered an internal governance crisis. Joshua Harris also stepped back from day-to-day management, leaving Rowan, the third founder, in control.

Under Rowan, Apollo completed an all-stock merger with Athene in January 2022, bringing the insurer fully inside the management company. The firm then pursued an aggressive expansion of its credit platform: it originated $309 billion of assets in 2025 alone, launched large asset backed finance joint ventures, and in 2025 completed its acquisition of Bridge Investment Group, adding roughly $50 billion of real estate and private wealth focused AUM and about 600 employees.

Apollo funds have also held prominent operating company investments. The firm acquired Yahoo from Verizon in 2021 for approximately $5 billion and retains a 90% stake with Verizon holding 10%. Apollo's funds acquired a majority of ADT in 2016 and remain the largest shareholder with roughly a 40% stake. Other holdings have included Tech Data, now part of TD SYNNEX, and Rackspace Technology.

Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein: In January 2021 co-founder Leon Black stepped down as chairman and CEO after a review by law firm Dechert confirmed he had paid approximately $158 million to Jeffrey Epstein for personal tax and estate planning work between 2012 and 2017. The review found no evidence Black participated in Epstein's crimes. Black later fully separated from the firm, and a lawsuit by a former model accusing Black of misconduct was settled. The episode cost Apollo institutional support and remains the defining governance event in its history.

Private credit and insurance structure: Apollo's model of originating assets for its own insurance subsidiary has drawn scrutiny from regulators and credit analysts concerned about conflicts and asset quality inside life insurers' portfolios. The NAIC and international regulators have increased disclosure requirements around affiliated private credit. Apollo has responded by publishing more granular data on Athene's portfolio and stressing its investment grade composition.

ADT control: Apollo's funds took ADT private in 2016, returned it to the public market in 2018, and reduced their stake to roughly 40% through secondary offerings in 2024. Critics have pointed to the leverage placed on ADT during the take-private, though the company remains NYSE-listed and Apollo no longer controls it.