Private equity investors get hungrier

What's next? Microsoft? Interesting perspective from a guy down under.

AS leveraged buyouts go, the recently announced $US33 billion deal ($43.42 billion) to buy HCA, the US hospitals group, is rated the biggest ever. Now, NTL, the heavily indebted European cable group, looks set to go the same way for an eye-popping $US20 billion.

With private equity investors gobbling up bigger and bigger chunks of the corporate world, fuddy-duddies worry that quoted equity will shortly become extinct. The usual party-poopers see a bubble and warn that hubris will soon lead to nemesis. For them, over-ambitious private equity folk deserve their status, shared with hedge funds, as the new bogeymen of the western world.

They have, of course, got it all wrong.

Read on.

4 Comments
 
Best Response

microsoft would present many opportunities to increase cashflow, since they are known as a firm that takes on extra expenses just to smooth earnings growth, however:

journalist thinks he can get 15 times EBITDA in debt. jeez, is his background RE or what...

with an equity check at a very minimum of say 10%, maybe 30-35B including takeover premium, you'd need the top 30-40 funds in the world or so to team up for this deal. how likely is this to happen...

with powerful shareholders/management like bill, steve and paul who don't need any money and will very likely oppose a deal, this one will have to go hostile. this alone kills any prospects of this happening...

 

Quo fugit quidem et incidunt et autem. Aut et quis incidunt. Est et quas sapiente qui dolorem ab.

Est non odit et ut nihil repellendus rerum. Sit explicabo quos ut. Ab fugiat laudantium corporis at id esse commodi id. Rem rerum eum blanditiis sapiente nihil blanditiis non tempora.

Molestias dolores odit aliquam rerum neque voluptatem tempore. Enim sint esse commodi dolores. Veritatis ut illum omnis doloremque harum eos quia recusandae.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.3%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.3%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan No 97.3%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (50) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (25) $178
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (75) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”