Walter White Buckley III is the chairman and CEO of Actua Corporation, a company that he co-founded along with Ken Fox. In 2000, during the dot-com bubble, the company was valued at over $50 billion and Buckley's 3.5% stake made him a multi-billionaire on paper at the age of 40. In 2017, the company announced the sale of its majority-owned assets and that it would monetize its remaining assets and return capital to shareholders.
Early life and education
Buckley grew up in a prominent Bethlehem area family. His father ran a money management business called Buckley & Meuthing and his grandfather ran Buckley Brothers, also a money management firm. Buckley attended Moravian Academy from Kindergarten through sixth grade, and Episcopal Academy from seventh grade through high school. He then attended University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. While in school, Buckley was motivated more by sports than business and starred on the North Carolinasoccer team. His coach, legendary Anson Dorrance recalled "He played with wonderful, physical, reckless abandon", leaving it all on the field.
Career
In 1983 through 1985, Buckley spent three years working as a Commercial Loan Officer and in the Loan Reclamation Department at Philadelphia National Bank, later called CoreStates Financial Corporation. In 1986, Buckley co-founded a medical supply company called Centralized Management Systems, which was sold in 1987. In 1988, Buckley joined Safeguard Scientifics, a venture capital firm. From 1991 to 1996, Buckley was the Vice President of Acquisitions at Safeguard. There, he oversaw the acquisitions of a number of companies including ChromoVision, Diamond Technology, Video Server, and XL Vision.
Buckley and fellow Safeguard executive Ken Fox noticed an emerging market in e-commercebusiness-to-business and left Safeguard in February 1996 to found a venture capital firm, Internet Capital Group. They asked Safeguard head Pete Musser for $5 million in funding, but he insisted on investing $15 million. Buckley and Fox raised $40 million to start ICG, twice what they wanted. In addition to Safeguard, major investors included Comcast, Compaq, and BancBoston Ventures. Buckley served as the CEO and president of the company from March 1996 to December 2001, at which time he became the company's Chairman, a position he continues to hold. ICG invested $1.4 billion in 61 start-up firms; and an article declared that "Buckley put B2B on the map". In August 1999, the company became a public company via an initial public offering, offering stock for sale at $12 per share. By December 1999, the stock was trading at over $200 per share and Buckley's stake of 10,000,000 shares, or 3.5% of the company, was worth over $2 billion. By November 2000, the stock was down to $11 per share and after the September 11 attacks it traded for 20 cents per share. Buckley sold very little of his stock and remained optimistic. After ICG survived the crash, paid down the debt and changed its business model to move towards an operating model. Instead of taking small stakes in many companies, it invested in a few "core" companies at a time, as a majority owner. This allowed the company to have much greater control over the operations of its investments. Buckley refocused the company to find strategic partnerships with traditional industry leaders such as a joint venture with DuPont called CapSpan in early 2000. In September 2014, when the company changed its name to Actua Corporation, its stock was trading around $6 per share and was worth approximately $200 million. In 2017, the company sold its three majority-owned businesses and in 2018 announced a voluntarily liquidation whereby it would seek to sell its remaining assets while winding down operations. At its' closing, Actua distributed close to $18/share and provided a triple return to investors.
Other affiliations
Buckley is a director of several technology startups including Critical Alert, Diagnostic Bio Chips, Dropps and . He is on the advisory boards of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, the UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School, and the Vetri Foundation and Starfinder Foundation. Previously, he was a director of Breakaway Solutions, Channel Intelligence, Familywyze, ICG Commerce and VerticalNet. Buckley is known for a "coach-like style" of management that encourages teamwork and camaraderie.
Recognition
In 2000, Buckley was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by Price Waterhouse, and received the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award from the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group. Buckley's cash compensation is $450,000 per year. Between 2008 and 2014, he received $12 million in compensation. Buckley is a leader in the venture capital and has worked closely with industry names such as of Dreamit Ventures, Ken Fox of Stripes, Matthew J. Safaii of , Mark Sugarman of .
Personal life
Buckley is an avid runner, often traversing a long, rocky hill near the Actua headquarters at Valley Forge National Historical Park. Early American History and the founding of the country is an important passion, and Buckley is currently working on a documentary film. Buckley has two children, Alexa Buckley, co-founder of women's footwear company Margaux, and Dutch Buckley, co-founder of Healthy Human Teas.
