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ARandumGuy | 5 months ago

Are there any examples where a company was purchased via a leveraged buyout and the company went on to be more profitable afterwards? Because the only examples I know of resulted in the purchased company going bankrupt fairly quickly.

discuss

nashashmi|5 months ago

Gibson Greeting Cards (1982) by Wesray Capital, Bought for $80M (only $1M in equity), sold for $220M within 18 months

Hilton Hotels (2007) by Blackstone Group, Despite the 2008 crisis, refinanced and sold with a $14B profit

Safeway (1986) by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Restructured, sold underperforming stores, returned to profitability

HCA Healthcare (2006) by KKR & Bain Capital, Strong cash flow supported debt; remained stable and profitable

Dell Technologies (2013), Silver Lake Partners, Went private, streamlined operations, and rebounded strongly

RJR Nabisco (1989) by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Iconic LBO; despite controversy, generated $53M profit

stogot|5 months ago

So 50/50 odds on completely destroying the company (and jobs) or generating some minor wealth for a handful of investors?

balderdash|5 months ago

leverage increases the disparity of returns (so some companies are definitely out of business because the of the leverage put on them) but by far the vast majority of LBO’s are at least moderately successful.

This give you some idea of the volume https://www.ropesgray.com/en/insights/alerts/2025/07/us-pe-m...

deanc|5 months ago

Many sports teams come to mind. Pretty much any F1 team that exists is now worth a lot more on paper than it was purchased for. A few EPL teams come to mind too.

tanjtanjtanj|5 months ago

Those are just buyouts not leveraged buyouts.

No EPL team was purchased with an LBO as far as I know.

choilive|5 months ago

Dell did pretty well after going private

ReptileMan|5 months ago

But its buyout was lead by Michael Dell.

jonas21|5 months ago

Heinz, Hilton, Dell.

missedthecue|5 months ago

Hilton's LBO essentially have saved the brand.

Twitter is yet an unfolding story but it seems to be working.

cmdli|5 months ago

Twitter isn’t collapsing, but it’s hardly more profitable. In fact, the last numbers we know about them show >50% drop in revenue.

nemo|5 months ago

Right now Twitter is steadily shedding users and watching ad revenue steadily drop. Looks like it's in a slow death spiral to me.

rwmj|5 months ago

Was Twitter an LBO? I thought the funding came from Musk taking on the debt.