In 1986, Burkle founded
Yucaipa Companies, a
private equity firm During the
1992 Los Angeles riots, Burkle refused to close his inner-city stores, a move for which he received praise. He has been chairman of the board and controlling shareholder of numerous companies, including Alliance Entertainment,
Golden State Foods,
Dominick's,
Fred Meyer,
Ralphs, and
Food4Less. He has been a corporate board member of the boards of
Occidental Petroleum Corporation,
KB Home, and
Yahoo! Burkle is often seen as a businessman who maintains close relationships with labor unions and works with unions to solve business problems.
NHL Burkle is part owner of the
Pittsburgh Penguins of the
National Hockey League, although his stake in the team is unknown. In 1999, he helped save the team by partnering with former Penguin
Mario Lemieux to
bring the team out of bankruptcy. Burkle played an active part in negotiations to construct the
PPG Paints Arena for the Penguins. The Penguins, under the ownership of Burkle, are the only North American sports team with ties to private equity that has won a championship.
MLS On January 22, 2019, Burkle was announced as the new lead investor of
Sacramento Republic FC. On February 26, 2021, Burkle announced that he was pulling out his interests in
Major League Soccer expansion club in Sacramento due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in California. This move placed Sacramento expansion hopes in doubt.
NWSL In January 2021,
Lisa Baird, the commissioner of the
National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), announced that an expansion team in
Sacramento, led by Ron Burkle and in conjunction with Sacramento Republic FC's expansion bid into Major League Soccer, would join the NWSL in 2022. However, Burkle never confirmed the news publicly before exiting the Sacramento Republic's ownership group. Instead, on June 8, 2021, the NWSL announced San Diego as the location for an expansion team owned by Burkle, which began play as
San Diego Wave FC in the
2022 NWSL season.
Technology investments Burkle has invested in technology
startup companies through
A-Grade Investments, a
venture capital fund he founded with
Ashton Kutcher and
Guy Oseary. As of 2020, A-Grade's investment portfolio included
SeatGeek,
SoundCloud,
Uber,
Warby Parker,
Spotify,
Foursquare, and
Airbnb. He has also invested in technology
startup companies through Inevitable Venture, a venture capital fund founded by D. A. Wallach and
Chris Hollod. Inevitable Ventures's investment include Picnic Health,
8i,
Thrive Market, and Wiser Care.
Media investments In January 2012, Burkle invested in Artist Group International, a concert-booking firm whose clients include Billy Joel, Metallica, and Rod Stewart. In March 2013, Burkle invested in a branded entertainment company, Three Lions Entertainment, which focuses on branded entertainment events and cross platform marketing. In 2014, he bought Artist Group International and, through the Paradigm Talent Agency, partnered with London's CODA Music Agency and X-ray Touring. That same year, Burkle acquired a minority stake in Independent Talent through Yucaipa fund. Ron Burkle was a close friend and business partner of
Harvey Weinstein, with whom he produced several films. Burkle financed the Weinstein brothers' attempt to take over
Miramax in 2010. In 2018, Burkle attempted an unsuccessful takeover the bankrupt
Weinstein Company as part of an investor consortium. In 2018, Burkle's investment firm Yucaipa acquired a minority stake in the Spanish music festival
Primavera Sound. In 2020, Burkle made a major investment in the musical festival production
Danny Wimmer Presents. On April 5, 2023 it was announced that Burkle along with
Anthony Kiedis and
Bob Forrest had formed the production company Said and Done Entertainment. Their first project will be an animated series for
TBS called
Hellicious which is based on the comic book of the same name. Burkle, Kiedis and Forrest will also serve as
executive producers on the series. Burkle is an Executive Producer with Taylor Sheridan on the hit streaming show "Landman."
Other investments Wild Oats Markets was an operator of natural foods stores and farmers' markets in North America. Burkle started buying Wild Oats stock in February 2005. By the time
Whole Foods Market, a natural-foods grocer, agreed to pay $565 million for Wild Oats, Burkle was the largest shareholder of Wild Oats. Burkle sold his majority stake in supplier
Golden State Foods to St. Louis-based Wetterau Associates for about $110 million. Golden State, one of
McDonald's biggest suppliers, operates 11 distribution centers in the United States and abroad and two U.S. processing plants. In 2014, Burkle acquired
Soho House, a chain of hotels and private members’ clubs. In 2019, Burkle sold a 50% stake in the Sydell Group to MGM Resorts International. He maintains ownership stakes in a number of other hotel properties. Burkle's investments and transactions include: • Sold
Dominick's chain to
Safeway in 1998 for over $200 million in profit; • Owns 26% stake in Americold Realty Trust; • Leveraged buyouts of Jurgensen's,
Fred Meyer,
Food 4 Less, and
Ralphs supermarket chains, and sold to
Kroger for $13.5 billion; • Signed
Fleming Companies, Inc. as sole food supplier to
Kmart; • Majority stake in
Pathmark grocery stores; •
Cyrk, the former
Beanie Baby promotion agency; • Merged Alliance Entertainment with Source Interlink; • 49% of British jewelry brand
Stephen Webster purchased in 2007; • Invested $100 million in
Sean Combs's (
P. Diddy)
Sean John clothing line in 2003; • Purchased Enthusiast Media publications and assets of
Primedia for $1.2 billion; • Burkle's investment firm,
Yucaipa Cos., owns 18.7% of the common stock of
Barnes & Noble. In early 2010 he sought to raise his stake to 37% without triggering the shareholders' rights plan. B&N Chairman
Len Riggio, with 27.8% ownership of the bookseller's common stock, is
Barnes & Noble's largest shareholder. • Burkle offered to purchase the financially troubled
Sacramento Kings franchise and prevent the team from relocating to Anaheim; however, a conflict of interest as a part-owner of Relativity Sports forced him to drop out. • Debt holdings of
Relativity Media, an independent studio company. As part of the deal, Burkle joined the board of directors of the company. • Burkle provided
Amalgamated Bank with a $100 million loan in 2011, taking a combined 41% stake in Amalgamated along with Wilbur Ross. ==Political activities==