Private Equity at Work
(Russell Sage Foundation, 2014)
by Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt
Private equity firms have long been at the center of public debates on the impact of the financial sector on Main Street companies. Are these firms financial innovators that save failing businesses or financial predators that bankrupt otherwise healthy companies and destroy jobs? The first comprehensive examination of this topic, Private Equity at Work carefully evaluates the evidence—including original case studies and interviews, legal documents, bankruptcy proceedings, media coverage, and existing academic scholarship—to demonstrate the effects of private equity on American businesses and workers. A groundbreaking analysis of a hotly contested business model, this book provides an unprecedented analysis of the little-understood inner workings of private equity and of the effects of leveraged buyouts on American companies and workers, serving as a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, and the informed public alike.