Founded in 1987, The Carlyle Group began buying firms which were not publicly traded, overhauled them and sold them at a profit. Since then, Carlyle has become one of the biggest, most successful private-equity firms, with annualized returns of 35 percent. It has ownership stakes in 164 companies-investing in everything from bottling companies to natural-food grocers-collectively employs more than 70,000 people and has more than $13.9 billion of committed capital under management.

The Carlyle Group's subsidiary Relizon includes 45 manufacturing and distribution facilities in North America, employs 4,500 people and lists annual revenues of almost $1 billion. Created in August 2000 when Reynolds' Information Solutions Group was sold to The Carlyle Group, Relizon serves more than 12,000 customers across a wide variety of industries to solve business communication problems.

Although printing surveys list Relizon with 300 web and 90 offset units, Relizon does not define itself as a commercial printer but as a forward looking company devoted to finding solutions to customers' needs. You won't find "printing" mentioned on the company's website. Instead, you'll find phrases like "document management for workflow in digital and web" and "billing and marketing solutions" which include strategic consulting, creative services for campaigns and promotions, customer communications, and information logistics.