A big Blackstone deal shows how private equity has changed
Mega-deals are not what they were in the glory days
THE financial crisis a decade ago brought the glory days of private equity to a screeching halt. The debt-fuelled megadeals on which the industry had built its fame (or notoriety) seemed over. But on January 30th a group of investors led by Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity firm, announced a $17bn deal to carve out Thomson Reuters’ financial and risk business (F&R), a financial-data provider. The deal would be Blackstone’s largest since the crisis. But if the megadeal is making a comeback, it is in a new guise.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Barbarians inside the gate”
Finance & economics February 3rd 2018
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