Private equity pioneer Thomas H. Lee dies at 78

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Private equity pioneer Thomas H. Lee dies at 78

Private equity pioneer Thomas H. Lee died at 78, his colleagues and family said late Thursday.

New York Police Department officials said on Thursday morning that first responders to an emergency call from Mr. Lee's office assistant found him dead inside a bathroom at 767 Fifth Ave. with what officers believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The officials said a gun found with Mr. Lee was registered to him.

There was no note found, and police are continuing to investigate the incident.

Lee was one of the first to engineer leveraged buyouts, using debt borrowed against the value of the asset being acquired to finance deals. In the early 1990s, his Boston firm acquired Snapple Beverage Corp. and sold it in the early 1990s was legendary, producing a more than 30 fold gain in about two years.

Other deals he led included the acquisitions of Warner Music Group Corp. WMG, from Time Warner in 2003, Boston book publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. and the Information Systems unit of TRW Inc., where he more than tripled the firm's investment in just a few weeks in 1997.