@paul The company I work for has been bought and sold by private equity firms 3x since I’ve been here.

The cycle has been:
⁃ Private equity bleeds company dry and sells cheap
⁃ Second, smaller private equity buys cheap, squeezes tighter and sells really cheap
⁃ Actual company buys really cheap and builds company back up
⁃ Private equity offers crazy buy out offer and company is sold
⁃ Repeat

We’re on our 3rd PE and been through two actual companies. It’s an absolute joy…😵

@paul More generally: money people. The moment money people (CFOs, career managers, etc) start running things, everything goes to crap.

See for example Boeing after McDonnell Douglas got acquired and McDD people started running things: managers rather than engineers. Or see modern Apple. There are so many examples.

You need somebody at the top who *cares* about the product.

Private equity running things fits into this worldview.

@paul Amzing how consistent it is.

For the truly rare counterpoint: look up the UK jewelry chain Ratner’s.

It’s a good one.