KKR & Co.

Epicor Software

$2B → $3.3B → $4.7B over 9 years. Each PE owner sold at a higher price. Each layer added more debt.

Active — CD&R is the current bag-holder at peak-era price

Envision Healthcare

$9.9B LBO with $7B debt. COVID + No Surprises Act. $40M missed interest payment. KKR lost the $3.5B bet.

Bankrupt May 2023. KKR's $3.5B equity wiped out.

Simon & Schuster

Paramount tried to sell to Penguin Random House for $2.2B but DOJ antitrust suit killed it. Sold to KKR at a $600M discount. KKR loaded debt onto a publishing business with shrinking margins. Classic PE playbook: buy at distressed seller price, lever up, cut costs.

KKR acquired for $1.62B (2023) after DOJ blocked $2.2B Penguin Random House merger. KKR currently holding.

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.

Heartland Dental

Ontario Teachers' sold to KKR at nearly 3x their cost. KKR levered it to 7.9x with a massive unitranche from Blue Owl and Ares — two of the biggest private credit lenders. The dental roll-up model is the same playbook as vet, car wash, and dermatology: acquire, lever, raise prices, acquire more. At 7.9x leverage, there's zero margin for error. Blue Owl and Ares are the real risk-holders here, not KKR.

Active — 7.9x levered. Unitranche financing from Blue Owl and Ares. Dental-roll-up model under pressure.

Energy Future Holdings (TXU)

The single largest leveraged buyout in history at the time — $45B to take TXU private. KKR, TPG, and Goldman bet that natural gas prices would stay high. Instead, the shale revolution cratered gas prices by 70%. With $40B+ in debt, the company couldn't survive even modest commodity declines. Filed the largest PE-backed bankruptcy ever in 2014 with $49.7B in liabilities. KKR and TPG each lost $4B+. Goldman lost $1B+. Advisory banks still collected $300M in fees on the deal. The bet was wrong on day one.

Bankrupt April 2014. Largest PE-backed bankruptcy in HISTORY at $49.7B in liabilities.

Samson Resources

KKR bought Samson Resources for $7.2B in 2011, betting on rising oil and gas prices. Instead, shale oversupply and collapsing commodity prices destroyed the thesis. Filed Chapter 11 in September 2015 with $4.2B in debt. KKR's $4.1B equity check — the largest in fund history at the time — was completely wiped out. The Schusterman family sold at the peak and walked away with $7.2B. KKR was left holding worthless drilling rights in Oklahoma. Same mistake as TXU: betting on commodity prices with borrowed money.

Bankrupt September 2015. KKR lost entire $4.1B equity investment — largest single KKR loss at the time.

Safeway / Albertsons Chain

One of the foundational PE horror stories. KKR bought Safeway in 1986 for $4.2B, one of the first mega-LBOs. To service $3.4B in debt, Safeway laid off 63,000 workers, closed 1,100 stores, and slashed wages for remaining employees. Multiple worker suicides reported. The company eventually re-IPO'd and survived, but the human cost was staggering. 30 years later, Cerberus bought it through the Albertsons merger and ran the same playbook: leverage, cost cuts, dividend recaps. History repeating.

Absorbed into Albertsons. KKR's 1986 LBO led to 63,000 layoffs and wage cuts. One of the original PE horror stories.

Dollar General

KKR took Dollar General private for $7.3B in 2007 and IPO'd in 2009. Market cap later exceeded $50B. KKR made ~5x on their equity. But the 'success' came from expanding aggressively into food deserts and low-income areas, often becoming the only option. OSHA fined Dollar General more than any other US employer for safety violations. Worker pay remained near minimum wage. The PE success metric is IRR, not whether communities are better off. KKR's best deal also happens to be one of the most-fined companies in America.

Public. KKR made 5x their equity. One of the few genuine PE success stories — but at what cost?

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.

First Data Corporation

KKR bought First Data for $29B in 2007 — one of the largest LBOs ever. The payments processing company was loaded with $24B in debt. KKR extracted $4.4B in dividends before selling to Fiserv for $22B — a headline loss. But KKR still made money because the dividend recaps and fees exceeded the equity loss. The company itself generated negative value under PE ownership. This is how the PE fee model works: you can destroy value and still collect your carry.

Acquired by Fiserv for $22B in 2019 — below KKR's $29B purchase price. KKR made money only through dividend recaps and fees, not on the underlying business.

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.

US Foods

CD&R and KKR bought US Foods for $7.1B in 2007. Their exit strategy was a merger with Sysco that would have created a food distribution monopoly. The FTC blocked the Sysco merger in 2015, forcing an IPO instead. After nine years of PE ownership, the returns were modest at best. The leverage added during the PE period constrained the company's ability to invest and compete. This is what happens when the exit plan depends on antitrust approval that never comes. PE's 'plan A' was a monopoly, and there was barely a plan B.

Public. Sysco merger blocked by FTC (2015). CD&R/KKR exited through IPO at flat return. Nine years of PE ownership for modest gains.