Sky Blog
In leveraged buyouts (LBOs), a private equity (PE) sponsor acquires controlling ownership of a target company, typically by using a significant amount of bank loans. In a new study, we focus on a controversial issue: Many PE sponsors have prior …
Carried interest is a special, or disproportionate-to-ownership, allocation of profits to the managers of a private equity (PE) or hedge fund partnership. While fund managers typically own about 2 percent of a fund, carried interest may allocate about 20 percent …
On May 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly announced a request for members of the public to provide information that the agencies can use “to identify serial acquisitions and …
Over the past several years, sponsors have increasingly relied on add-on acquisitions to increase the value of their portfolio company investments. As EBITDA and revenue multiples on larger platform acquisitions increased through 2021 and into the early part of 2022, …
Since the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, the corporate finance markets have been dramatically transformed. Most notable has been the rise of non-traditional providers of debt finance such as private credit funds, which now aggressively compete with traditional finance providers …
One of the keys of successful private equity investing is properly aligning the economic incentives and interests of the sponsor and its portfolio companies’ management teams as they evolve over time. Unlike a public company, where management may receive higher …
Large-scale private equity buyouts, and the increasingly gargantuan financial firms that spearhead them, are commonly regarded as staples of today’s financialized corporate economy. However, this has not always been the case and, up until recently, private equity firms and funds …
For most of its history, the private equity industry was largely left alone by securities regulators. A basic assumption underlying this approach was that private equity fund investors are sophisticated and should therefore be able to engage in effective private …
On March 5, 2024, the FTC, the DOJ and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that they are seeking public comment on private equity investment in the healthcare sector. The announcement coincided with the FTC’s workshop, Private …
2023 was another record year for False Claims Act enforcement. On February 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the federal government and whistleblowers were party to a record number of FCA settlements and judgments in Fiscal …
The growth of the private equity industry over the past two decades has been nothing short of extraordinary. Yet research on the formation and governance of these funds – including the rights and obligations of general partners and limited partners …
Over the past 30 years, private equity firms and hedge funds have reshaped the landscape of corporate ownership. By 2022, firms under private equity management employed over 11 million people, nearly 10 percent of the U.S. workforce, while, in 2021, …
The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released a draft overhaul of their merger guidelines. The merger guidelines are intended to describe how the agencies evaluate mergers and reach decisions on …
It is de rigueur to label everything as sustainable – including in private equity. In a new working paper, we examine the claims of the top 100 private equity firms in the United States as to their committment to ESG. …
The runs on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in March 2023 created a “very high” risk of contagion in the U.S. banking system, according to Treasury Department officials. The intervention by banking regulators, using tools approved in response …
Private equity sponsors compete ferociously for acquisition targets, with one of their principal tools being the speed with which they can move. A recent decision of the Delaware Court of Chancery (In Re Mindbody, Inc., S’Holder Litig., C.A. …
2022 was a tale of two halves for M&A. The beginning of the year was active, as robust dealmaking carried over from the record-breaking levels of 2021 to drive approximately $2.2 trillion worth of global deals through the first half …
Top practitioners, judges, regulators, and scholars gathered at Columbia Law School on December 2 to offer their unique perspectives and cutting-edge insights on a variety of topics related to M&A and corporate governance. The topics included current M&A market trends, …
Biden-appointed antitrust officials have asserted, unfairly in our view, that private equity firms deserve heightened scrutiny when they engage in corporate transactions. For example, the head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division said in an interview with The Financial Times earlier …
The SEC has long taken a hands-off approach to private markets. Instead of direct regulation, the commission has used investor access restrictions to create high-end contracting environments where investors (in theory) have the resources necessary to fend for themselves. But …