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Age: 51
Hometown: St. Cloud
Education: High school
First job: Working in his father's fur store, Petters Fur and Fabric
PETTERS GROUP WORLDWIDE
Headquarters: Minnetonka
Founded: 1988
Employees: 3,200
Revenue: $2.3 billion
A privately owned company with ownership or investment in more than 60 companies worldwide.
ACQUISITIONS
June 2002 Petters and former Fingerhut head Ted Deikel buy the Fingerhut name, inventory and facilities from Federated Department Stores Inc.
April 2003 Acquires online auction and e-commerce site uBid.com.
April 2005 Acquires instant camera and film company Polaroid for $426 million. Petters funded the acquisition with $150 million of his own money.
October 2006 Partners with Whitebox Advisors, a Minneapolis investment firm, to buy Sun Country.
February 2007 Acquires marketing software firm Juice Media Worldwide.
November 2007 Becomes sole owner of Sun Country.
January 2008 Buys EducAsian, a New York-based study abroad program.
July 2008 Buys Bloomington-based publisher Metropolitan Media Group.
August 2008 Petters Aviation buys charter carrier Southwest Aviation Inc. (doing business as Charter First) of Marshall, Minn.
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