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Comment by edgefield | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone provide a single case of where a private equity majority owned business thrived, expanded, or at least maintained market share for at least three years? It seems private equity focuses on extracting every bit of value from a business, as quickly as possible, and then walking away via asset divestiture and bankruptcy.

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> Can anyone provide a single case of where a private equity majority owned business thrived, expanded, or at least maintained market share for at least three years?

Most PE-owned companies do well. Do a paper search for median employment N years afterwards [1], net indebtedness 5+ years post, et cetera.

The problem is outcomes are negatively correlated with transaction size, so the more noticeable a deal the more likely it goes wrong. (There are also a few pirates in suits who go shockingly unpunished. But judging the cohort by them would be like judging tech by Chamath.)

[1] https://bfi.uchicago.edu/working-paper/the-economic-effects-...

Yes and no. The hospital in my hometown is owned by PE. The situation is bad but they still exist, and are still the only hospital without driving half an hour to 'the big city'.

I haven't been in that loop since before covid, but last I heard they were running at a loss for years because they couldn't keep staff. The conditions (and pay) were abhorrent. They also really, really liked to buy entire practices from the most experienced doctors. The practice got absorbed and died quietly while the doctor would very understandably retire early or move far away.

So, yes, they've maintained market share. But only by virtue of being a natural monopoly.

> are still the only hospital without driving half an hour to 'the big city'.

By design.

Look up Certificates of Need. They are an application a prospective new hospital needs before breaking ground, to make sure an area isn’t “overserved” by hospitals (i.e. protecting profits).

Certificates of Need were lobbied for by … drumroll … hospital owners.

In my state this mechanism is being used to block expansion of inpatient mental health care services (in particular, we need many more beds for people recovering from TBI because they are drastically underserved). For the past 4 years the two biggest hospitals in the state have blocked all new hospitals simply because they can, and naturally they don't care to give up a slice of their pie.

I used to work for a company that was acquired by a PE firm (now known as Revenera). The software I supported got more expensive, the sales folks more aggressive on the "license compliance shakedown" games, and new features and bugfixes highly de-prioritized.

Sales were already going down and they responded by raising prices every time to make up for the lost revenue. The market itself was shrinking less than market share being lost.

Another product line I was less involved in pivoted direction and I guess is still doing OK.

Ziply Fiber https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziply_Fiber

OnSemi had TPG as a majority shareholder for like 5 years and did very well out of it. Initially TPG ruthlessly focused on costs but eventually that allowed OnSemi to go on an acquisition spree, picking up LSI’s fabs in Gresham and another company I can’t remember.

they are private. thats the whole point. they dont have to tell anyone anything.

What do you think about Dell? PE bought Dell.

Based on the reviews I've seen, the buying experience with Dell is a joke now and their computers are overpriced underperformers

Dell is awful

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