Freeman Spogli & Co. is an American private equity firm dedicated to investing with management in middle market companies in the consumer and distribution sectors through leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations.

[1] Co-founder Richard Riordan, who would later go on to serve as Mayor of Los Angeles, had been an attorney and had made substantial personal investments in technology companies.

After joining the firm, Riordan focused primarily on venture capital investments in computer, medical, and semiconductor companies.

Throughout the 1980s, Riordan, Freeman & Spogli also executed leveraged buyouts of several supermarket retailers including Bayless Southwest (Phoenix), Boys Markets (Los Angeles), P&C Foods (Syracuse, NY), Piggly Wiggly (various Southern states), and Tops Markets (New York and Pennsylvania).

[1] Riordan separated from the other two partners in 1988 when they decided to specialize in larger leveraged buyouts of more established companies.