Bain Capital

AthenaHealth

$5.7B → $17B in ~2 years. Veritas/Elliott tripled their money. H&F and Bain are the bag-holders at peak-era price.

Active — H&F/Bain holding at 3x what Veritas paid, peak-era valuation

Toys R Us

The poster child for PE destruction. KKR, Bain, and Vornado took Toys R Us private for $6.6B using $5.3B in debt (80% leverage). Annual interest payments exceeded $400M — more than the company's annual capex. Couldn't invest in stores or e-commerce while Amazon ate the business. Filed Chapter 11 in 2017, attempted restructuring, then liquidated entirely in 2018. 30,000 workers lost jobs. $75M severance fund raised after public outrage (vs $470M in advisory fees PE firms collected). KKR and Bain still made money on fees.

Bankrupt September 2017. Liquidated 2018. 30,000+ jobs lost. $5B in debt at death.

Gymboree

Bain Capital bought Gymboree for $1.8B in 2010, loaded it with over $1B in debt. Annual interest ate all the cash flow. Filed Chapter 11 in 2017, closed 350 stores, emerged with reduced debt. Filed AGAIN in 2019 — just 15 months later — and liquidated entirely. 900+ stores closed, 10,000+ jobs lost. The Children's Place bought the brand name for $76M. Bain extracted fees throughout. The kids' clothing chain never had a chance under that debt load.

Bankrupt TWICE (2017 and 2019). All 900+ stores closed. Brand name sold to The Children's Place for $76M.

iHeartMedia

The worst-timed LBO in history. Bain and THL took Clear Channel private for $24B at the absolute peak in 2008 with $20B+ in debt. Radio advertising immediately cratered. Ten years of interest payments bled the company dry while digital ate the business. Filed the largest radio bankruptcy in history in 2018 with $16B in debt. Emerged as iHeartMedia but the business model was already obsolete. Bain and THL collected $600M+ in advisory and management fees on a deal that destroyed $24B in value.

Public post-bankruptcy. Revenue declining as podcasts and streaming eat radio. Stock down 85% from 2019 re-listing.

Dunkin' Brands

Three PE firms (Bain/Carlyle/THL) bought Dunkin' for $2.4B in 2006, loaded it with debt, extracted dividends, and IPO'd in 2011. The franchise-heavy model (no company-owned stores) meant the debt was more manageable. Roark Capital's Inspire Brands took Dunkin' private again for $11.3B in 2020 at 18x EBITDA. Now part of a mega-restaurant platform. 5x price inflation over 14 years. The current $11.3B bet depends on perpetual franchise growth from a mature brand.

Private under Roark Capital's Inspire Brands at $11.3B. Now combined with Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sonic, Jimmy John's.

HCA Healthcare

The largest LBO in history at the time — $33B. KKR and Bain took HCA private, loaded it with $28B in debt, then re-IPO'd within 5 years. Made ~3x their money. But the 'value creation' was: aggressive Medicare upcoding (DOJ investigated repeatedly), nurse-to-patient ratio cuts, ED wait time gaming, and cherry-picking profitable procedures. HCA paid $2B+ in fraud settlements over two decades. The PE playbook applied to hospitals: same financial engineering, but the 'cost cuts' affect whether patients live or die.

Public. Market cap ~$90B. The PE-backed healthcare mega-deal that actually worked — for PE investors. Medicare overcharges and nurse staffing cuts subsidized the returns.

SunGard Data Systems

SEVEN PE firms needed to buy SunGard for $11.3B. The largest PE club deal by number of sponsors. Loaded with $7.2B in debt. Cloud computing disrupted the on-premise financial software model, and the company couldn't invest in technology under the debt load. Sold piecemeal — FIS acquired the financial services unit for $9.1B (below LBO price), other divisions sold or shuttered. When seven of the world's smartest firms all agree on a deal and still lose money, maybe the model is the problem.

Effectively dismantled. Sold to FIS in 2015 for $9.1B — 20% below LBO price. PE consortium lost billions.