I hope this becomes the most useful part of the site. It is where you tell us what it is really like working for a private equity owned company. Please tell us what it was like before your company was bought in a leveraged buyout, and afterwards. We will post comments, after editing, so we all can learn from your experiences.
SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE
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4 Comments
PE Thomas H Lee and Bain Capital purchased Clear Channel Communications in July 2008 for $26 Billion. Its been 18months, they have cut staff, consolidated business office operations, consolidated National Sales to one office, therefore cutting the cost of sale by eliminating local National sales teams. Your book said the third year is the worst cuts for PE firms. I don’t see much more to cut in my office. There is no cash leaving the office except in the form of payroll.
We were notified by email Friday that they were taking millions in loans from the Outdoor division of the company to pay down debt coming due in the radio division. Your book has opened my eyes to who the owners of my company are and what the future holds for the business.
It used to be fun, great people, good money, not anymore. The writing is on the wall. It’s unfortunate most people I work with don’t have a clue.
I had worked many years for US-style private equity ‘managed’ companies in Europe. An experience which proved very beneficial. Now, I know how not to run a company or better how to ruin a company.
I read through your book in one single night! I can only stress that the situation in Europe is even worse than what you describe in your book as situation in the USA.
We will see a lot more value destroyed by the looming PE-debt crisis than we ever thought possible by the current financial crisis. The perverse thing is that the PE companies will be able to buy out their way of the crisis once again by gobbling up the loans on the ultra-cheap. PE in its current state should be outlawed at once.
I am an employee of First Data purchased by KKR in September 2007. Reading your book was like watching my own autopsy, but I couldn’t look away. I recognized the dangers of the buyout and began educating myself on KKR’s method of operation. At the time I was only worried about myself and my fellow employees. Now I realizee the entire world’s economy is treatened. Thank you Josh for writting this book. I will encorage everyone I know to read it.
My colleagues and I spent over a decade building a highly successful software firm. In less than 4 years of ownership by a PE consortium including KKR, Bain, Blackstone, TPG and others, we will never be the same. Once loyal customers are so mad they are leaving and we are powerless to stop it as 50% margins are the norm. Positions have been slashed or sent to India irrespective of skills or true capacity. We will be one of the lucky ones to survive w/o bankruptcy; but we are crippled and cannot get back lost time. Thank you so much for the book and for dedicating it to millions of PE employees; we appreciate it !