Private equity

The huge sums that private equity firms make on their investments evoke admiration and envy. Typically, these returns are attributed to the firms' aggressive...

A few months back I wrote about micro-decisions and how they can add up to macro money. But as a student of decision-making I would be remiss if I didn't...

A new study of private equity buyouts shows that, on average, U.S. acquisitions made in "red" (Republican) states deliver significantly higher returns...

Higher interest rates and competition have changed the nature of the business. Now the industry must find a new approach to developing leaders.

Deals ultimately succeed or fail because of the people involved.

Here’s how.

It prioritizes short-term profits over patients’ health.

Twelve years ago, in 2010, the private equity firm New Mountain Capital acquired a little-known Wisconsin software company, RedPrairie, for $565 million....

A new paper shows how leveraged buyouts lead to more patents.

As the dust settles on the recent frenzy of private equity deals (including transactions topping $20 billion), what lessons can companies glean? Directors...

They don't use the financial tools they learned in B-school.

They overvalue smarts and urgency.

Private equity fund performance is most often reported in a way that exaggerates the truth. A modified calculation gives a more accurate read of performance...

Private equity investors in Asia are fine-tuning the art of the turnaround using three principal strategies.

When getting a company ready to sell in the short term, it turns out, PE firms employ many of the best strategy practices--use debt aggressively, focus...

If you want to be successful, you have to harness the talent. The top private equity firms have a genius for hiring superior talent. All organizations...

Critics charge that in today's heavily traded capital markets, executives are increasingly incentivized to manage in tiny, short-term windows, with an...

More and more companies today are privately held.

Times change and markets transform themselves overnight. The half-life of common wisdom is shorter than ever. But top private equity firms have distilled a set of institutional habits that boost the likelihood of their success. What’s critical to this success? Attitude. PE leaders take pains to foster a “results-oriented mind-set”. In short, that means creating […]

They do it a lot and have learned what to look for.