Tax snags of a global buyout | Europe is the next frontier | Some examples of recent MBOs | UK buyouts grow in complexity | Managers who succeed as bosses | Spawn of an era: specialist firms | Warnings fail to dim LBO dazzle
Leveraged buyouts have become an established feature of American corporate life. In the first nine months of this year, more than $21 billion of LBOs (about 18% of all mergers and acquisitions) were completed in the US, according to one estimate. This figure compares with less than $1 billion of LBOs in 1980.
During that six-year period, a vast machinery has emerged to generate LBOs, often based on the idea that the corporate whole is worth less than the sum of its parts. Playing a prominent part in it all are ambitious managements eager to run their own show; cash-hungry companies looking to spin off...
