Imagine you have a lemonade stand, and you’re doing pretty well. A rich person comes along and says, I’ll buy your stand and make it even better!
But instead of using their own money, they borrow a LOT of money in your lemonade stand’s name. Now, your stand has to pay back that big debt.
Then, the rich person takes a bunch of the money your stand makes and gives it to themselves and their friends. But your stand still has to pay the debt, and soon, there’s no money left to buy lemons or cups.
Now your stand is out of business, and the rich person walks away with a big bag of money.
The goal isn't to make the business bankrupt, it's to squeeze it for as much as possible. The ideal case is you run on a skeleton crew for 10 years with much higher margins and pay back your loan while offering far worse services.
This is why private equity also buys hospitals and nursing homes.
161
u/Borntwopk Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25
Imagine you have a lemonade stand, and you’re doing pretty well. A rich person comes along and says, I’ll buy your stand and make it even better!
But instead of using their own money, they borrow a LOT of money in your lemonade stand’s name. Now, your stand has to pay back that big debt.
Then, the rich person takes a bunch of the money your stand makes and gives it to themselves and their friends. But your stand still has to pay the debt, and soon, there’s no money left to buy lemons or cups.
Now your stand is out of business, and the rich person walks away with a big bag of money.