Don't Buy the Present by Paying With Your Future
Why big public companies rarely create new markets
Where shareholders reign, customers suffer.
The stock market can make a company big and its founders wealthy. However, it can destroy a business, too.
So, going public isn’t always a great idea.
Companies that changed their minds
In 2013, Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners took Dell Technologies private through a buyout valued at approximately $24.4 billion. Dell later returned to public trading in 2018.
3G Capital took Burger King private in 2010 for $3.3 billion.
In 2015, BC Partners acquired PetSmart, then a public company, for $8.7 billion.
Seagate Technology went private in 2000 through a management buyout valued at $2 billion.
In December 2024, Nordstrom agreed to go private in a $6.25 billion deal backed by its founding family and Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool.
In October 2024, TechCrunch reported: “There were 136 take-private deals… in 2023, up 15% on the previous year. New data indicates that by the midway point of 2024, there had been 97 suc…