Top 5 Private Business & Investment Articles to Start the Week: Return of the LBO

Top 5 Private Business & Investment Articles of the Week is a weekly series on the Axial blog which highlights the best articles from around the web on buying, selling, and building successful private businesses.

1. Return of the LBO

Sensing a renewed interest on Wall Street in the Leveraged Buyout, Barrons has identified 12 companies which it believes possess the right mix of modest debt and strong cash flow necessary to be viable LBO targets.

But before anyone gets too excited about the return of leverage, Institutional Investor is here to remind us that the last round of mega buyouts didn’t turn out as well as expected.

2. Transaxle Buys New England Transmission

Graham Partners portfolio company Transaxle LLC has bolted on New England Transmission, a light-duty transmissions manufacturer based in Maine.

3. The Great Private Equity Shakeout

Author: David Carey

Having overcommitted to buyout funds during the boom years of 2005-2008, many LPs find themselves unable to write as many checks as they once did.  The end result could be a thinning of the GP herd.

4. How to Tell Your Staff You Plan to Sell

Author: John Warrilow

“Built to Sell” author and entrepreneur John Warrilow still regrets the clumsy, impersonal way he informed his staff of the decision to sell his most recent company, and wishes he had handled it more like Michael Arrington did at TechCrunch.

5. The Triago Quarterly

PEHub offers a good bullet-point synopsis of global placement agent Triago’s latest quarterly report, the full .pdf of which is available at no cost.

Image courtesy of Theseanster93