The $24.4 billion buyout of Dell sets a number of private equity records.
The buyout, led by Dell’s founder and the investment firm Silver Lake, is the biggest backed by private equity since the financial crisis, more than twice the size of the next-largest deal, the Blackstone Group‘s $9.4 billion purchase of shopping mall assets of Centro Properties in 2011, according to data from .
It is the largest technology buyout ever, eclipsing the $17.5 billion deal for Freescale Semiconductor in 2006.
And it is the largest deal for Silver Lake, which teamed up with BC Partners in the $16 billion buyout of Intelsat in 2007.
What follows is a look at the private equity boom, bust and recovery, based on data from Thomson Reuters.
Boom
March 2005: Toys “R†Us for $6.1 billion | K.K.R., Bain Ca! pital and the Vornado Realty Trust agreed to buy the toy retailing giant. Although the company has filed to go public, it remains in limbo.
March 2005: SunGard Data Systems for $10.8 billion | A big group of private equity firms - Silver Lake, Bain Capital, the Blackstone Group, GS Capital Partners, TPG Capital, Providence Equity Partners and K.K.R. â€" agreed to buy SunGard Data Systems, a software and I.T. services company.
May 2005: Neiman Marcus for $5.2 billion | TPG Capital and Warburg Pincus agreed to buy Neiman Marcus, the luxury retail chain. Seven years later, in 2012, the owners were contemplating taking the company public.
September 2005: Hertz for $5.6 billion | Te Carlyle Group, Clayton Dubilier & Rice and the private equity unit of Merrill Lynch agreed to buy Hertz. The rental car company was taken public the following year. Hertz recently bought a rival, the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group.
November 2005: TDC for $10.6 billion | Apax Partners, the Blackstone Group, Providence Equity Partners, K.K.R. and Permira backed a deal to buy TDC, a big Danish phone company.
January 2006: Albertsons for $17.8 billion | Cerberus Capita! l Managem! ent, Supervalu and CVS reached a deal to buy the supermarket chain. In 2013, Cerberus agreed to buy Albertsons and other grocery store chains from Supervalu.
June 2006: Univision Communications for $13.4 billion | The Saban Capital Group, Providence Equity Partners, TPG Capital, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Madison Dearborn agreed to buy the Spanish-language broadcaster after a hotly contested auction.
July 2006: HCA for $32.1 billion | Bain Capital, K.K.R. and Merrill Lynch’s buyout arm, along with the family of Senator Bill Frist, agreed to buy the hospital chain HCA in what was at that point the largest leveraged buyout ever.
August 2006: Kinder Morgan for $27.5 billion | The Carlyle Group, Riverstone Holdings, GS Capital Partners and A.I.G. backed a deal by Richard D. Kinder for Kinder Morgan. The oil-and-gas pipeline company later went public in February 2011.
September 2006: Freescale Semiconductor for $17.5 billion | TPG Capital, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and Permira agreed to buy the technology company. After strugg! ling with! a big debt load, Freescale went public in 2011.
October 2006: Caesars Entertainment for $27.6 billion | TPG Capital and Apollo Global Management agreed to buy the casino giant Harrah’s Entertainment, which was later renamed Caesars. After an initial attempt to go public in 2010, Caesars had its I.P.O. in February 2012.
November 2006: Equity Office Properties Trust for $37.7 billion | The Blackstone Group agreed to buy Equity Office Properties Trust, a big owner and manager of office buildings.
February 2007: TXU for $44.4 billion | In a deal that remains the largest buyout ever, K.K.R., TPG Capital, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley agreed to buy the Texas energy giant TXU, which later was renamed Energy Future Holdings. The company has struggled as natural gas prices have fallen, becoming a symbol of the pitfalls of the private equity boom.
April 2007: First Data for $27 billion | K.K.R. agreed to buy First Data, a processor of credit card payments for banks and merchants.
May 2007: Alltel for $27.3 billion | TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners were the buyers of Alltel, in what was the largest leveraged buyout ever in the telecommunications industry.
June 2007: Intelsat for $16 billion | The deal for Intelsat, a provider of satellite services, was Silver Lake’s biggest before the Dell buyout.
July 2007: Hilton Hotels for $26.7 billion | The hotel chain has become a central piece of Blackstone’s real estate business.
Bust
The size of deals fell sharply in 2008, as the credit crisis hit.
The biggest deal of 2008 came in May, when Nordic Capital and Avista Capital agreed to buy the ConvaTec unit of Bristol-Myers Squibb for $4.1 billion.
February 2008: Getty Images for $2 billion | Hellman & Friedman agreed to buy Getty Images, the distributor of pictures and video. The company was sold to the Carlyle Group in 2012.
July 2008: Weather Channel for $3.5 billion | Bain Capital, the Blackstone Group and NBC Universal were the buyers.
September 2009: Skype for $2 billion ! | Silver ! Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought Skype from eBay. The company was later sold to Microsoft for $8.5 billion.
Recovery
Deals began to grow in size as confidence returned after the recession.
May 2010: The Interactive Data Corporation for $3 billion | The deal by Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus seemed to signal a revival in the private equity market.
September 2010: Burger King Holdings for $3.9 billion | The fast-food chain agreed to sell itself to 3G Capital, an investment firm that was backed by wealthy Brazilians. Burger King rejoined the public markets in 2012.
November 2010: Del Monte Foods for $5.3 billion | ..K.R., Vestar Capital Partners and the buyout arm of Centerview Partners agreed to buy Del Monte Foods, a deal that sparked a prominent legal dispute over how it was financed.
March 2011: Centro Properties assets for $9.4 billion | Blackstone was the buyer.
November 2011: Samson Investment for $7.2 billion | K.K.R. teamed up with Itochu, a Japanese conglomerate, and two other buyout firms, Natural Gas Partners and Crestview Partners, to buy Samson, a privately held energy company.
February 2012: Assets of the El Paso Corporation for $7.2 billion | Investors including Apollo Global Management and Riverstone Holdings agreed to buy the exploration and production businesses of the El Paso Corporation.
August 2012: DuPont unit for $4.9 billion | The Carlyle Group agreed to buy DuPont Performance Coatings, in a busy summer for the private equity firm.
Biggest Private Equity-Backed Leveraged Buyouts
| Source: Thomson Reuters *At time of deal, including assumption of debt, not adjusted for inflation. | |||
| $44.3 | TXU | Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs | February 2007 |
| 37.7 | Equity Office Properties Trust | Blackstone Group | November 2006 |
| 32.1 | HCA | Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Merrill Lynch Global Private | July 2006 |
| 30.2 | RJR Nabisco | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | October 1988 |
| 30.1 | BAA | Grupo Ferrovial SA, Caisse de Depot et Placement and GIC Secial Invest | March 2006 |
| 27.6 | Harrah’s Entertainment | Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management | October 2006 |
| 27.4 | Kinder Morgan | GS Capital Partners, The Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings | May 2006 |
| 27.2 | Alltel | TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners | May 2007 |
| 27.0 | First Data | Kohlberg Kravis Roberts | April 2007 |
| 26.7 | Hilton Hotels | Blackstone Group | July 2007 |
