Traditional banks wouldn't finance a $67B tech LBO. Silver Lake and Dell used $20B of DVMT tracking stock instead — an unusual structure that drew shareholder lawsuits.
Read post →Buying Hilton at peak multiples in October 2007 looked like a disaster by 2009. Inside the 2010 debt restructuring that saved the deal and unlocked the $14B exit.
Read post →PE returns decompose into leverage, multiple expansion, and operating improvement. Inside how Hilton's $26B → $32B journey split across the three drivers and what LP attribution analysts actually look for.
Read post →KKR and Bain extracted ~$470M in management fees and dividend recaps over 12 years while LP equity went to zero. Inside the mechanic that decouples sponsor and LP outcomes.
Read post →Silver Lake backed Michael Dell's $67B acquisition of EMC in 2016 — the largest tech LBO in history. Inside the structure, the DVMT tracking stock, and the 2.0x MOIC exit.
Read post →In 2007 KKR, TPG and Goldman took TXU private for $45B — the biggest LBO in history. Seven years later it filed for bankruptcy with ~$40B of debt and a wiped-out $8B equity check. Inside the natural-gas bet that broke it.
Read post →The 2005 Toys R Us LBO returned a 0.0x MOIC to LPs and ended in 2017 bankruptcy. Inside the $400M-a-year debt spiral that killed an American retail icon.
Read post →Blackstone closed the $26B Hilton acquisition at 21.7x EBITDA weeks before the 2008 collapse. Eleven years later it returned $14B in proceeds at a 2.5x MOIC.
Read post →Walk through a $500M sources & uses table with real tranches, plus three errors every junior PE associate makes — and the Toys R Us case study showing why one of them killed the deal.
Read post →Both numbers show up on every LBO slide. Here's what each actually tells you, and when to trust which — with the Hilton/Blackstone deal as the case study.
Read post →A handful of specialized recruiters control most of the on-cycle hiring at PE funds and hedge funds. Here are the 12 firms you should know, what each specializes in, and how to actually engage them.
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