Luke Schaeffer is a senior managing director in the FTI Consulting Corporate Finance/Restructuring practice and is based in Los Angeles. Mr. Schaeffer is also a leader in the FTI Capital Advisors, an investment banking subsidiary of FTI Consulting and a member of FINRA/SIPC. He specializes in advising companies in the communications, media, technology and business services industries. Mr. Schaeffer’s work covers corporate finance, performance improvement, mergers and acquisition advisory, private capital financing, strategy and business plan development, business recovery and restructuring, due diligence and valuation. He has worked in the communications, media and technology industries for 14 years.
Experience
Mr. Schaeffer has worked with media businesses, including cable, magazines, newspapers, television and radio broadcasting and commercial printing; technology businesses, including semiconductors, network hardware and software, enterprise software, video conferencing and network storage; and traditional manufacturing and services companies. Some of the companies Mr. Schaeffer has worked with include Terremark, ViaWest, Hawaiian Telcom, Cincinnati Bell, T-Mobile, Metro PCS, LA Cellular (AT&T Wireless), Grande Communications, Powerband Communications (Tokyo), Integra Telecom, ITC^Deltacom, Conversant, Reach Communications (Hong Kong), Journal Communications, Apprise Media Group, Interprint, Amberwave Systems, and PictureTel.
Strategic advisory, performance improvement and interim management services Mr. Schaeffer has provided include a data, content and advertising strategic plan for a national wireless operator, interim management at a regional commercial printer, digital strategy assessment for an integrated traditional media business, a strategic and operational transformation of a billion-dollar incumbent local exchange carrier and an operational stabilization of a private equity owned incumbent LEC.
Restructuring engagements Mr. Schaeffer has advised on include an in-court balance sheet restructuring of a regional LEC, an operational and financial restructuring of a middle market magazine publisher, the restructure of a $185 million senior secured loan to a regional CLEC, $300 million restructuring equity raise by a sub-sea cable operator and a $325 million debt raise and balance sheet restructuring for a wireless carrier.
Transactions Mr. Schaeffer has worked on include multiple data center transactions, a $450 million secured debt raise for a regional CLEC, a $245 million CLEC strategic acquisition, $170 million senior secured debt raise for a regional CLEC, $75 million equity fundraise by a start-up mobile wireless carrier and a $50 million equity raise by an early stage cable over-builder.
Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Schaeffer was a managing partner at West Lake Partners, a niche strategic and transaction advisory firm focused on expansion stage and middle-market companies in the communications and technology industries. Previously, Mr. Schaeffer worked for two private equity firms, Whitney and One Liberty Ventures, where he worked with and invested in communications, media, technology and services businesses. Mr. Schaeffer also spent several years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a founding member of FTI Consulting’s predecessor Telecommunication Industry practice and where he earned his CPA auditing manufacturing, technology and private equity companies.