The buyout of Hertz, the biggest car rental company in the US, by three private-equity players will be the biggest after KKR's purchase of RJR Nabisco for $26 billion in 1989. The buyout of US software company Sungard Data Systems earlier this year by a consortium of seven private-equity firms for $11.4 billion was briefly the second-largest such deal in history. The sale of Hertz by Ford Motor Company to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch's private-equity unit for about $15 billion tops that. The consortium beat a rival bid from another group of private-equity players including Texas Pacific, Blackstone Group, Thomas H Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners.
Innovation
In addition to the huge size of the Hertz buyout, the private-equity...
