A leveraged buyout is simply defined as the purchase of a controlling share in a company by its management using outside capital.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk took billions in leveraged loans to take control of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) with funding from banks such as Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), marking the transaction — $44 billion — as the largest leveraged buyout of all time, by more than $12 billion as compared to TXU Energy.
Interested in learning about the others? Here is a list of the 11 largest leveraged buyouts after Twitter.
1. TXU Energy
- Date: 2007
- Value: $32.1 billion
- Acquired by: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
2. First Data
- Date: 2007
- Value: $25.7 billion
- Acquired by: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
3. Alltel
- Date: 2007
- Value: $25.1 billion
- Acquired by: Atlantis Holdings
4. RJR Nabisco
- Date: 1988
- Value: $25.1 billion
- Acquired by: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
5. Equity Office Properties
- Date: 2006
- Value: $24.7 billion
- Acquired by: Blackstone Group
6. HJ Heinz
- Date: 2013
- Value: $23.5 billion
- Acquired by: Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital Partners
7. Heathrow Airport Holdings
- Date: 2006
- Value: $21.8 billion
- Acquired by: FGP Topco Limited
8. Dell
- Date: 2013
- Value: $21.5 billion
- Acquired by: Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management
9. Hospital Corporation of America Healthcare
- Date: 2006
- Value: $21.2 billion
- Acquired by: Hercules Acquisition
10. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.
- Date: 2007
- Value: $20.2 billion
- Acquired by: Blackstone Group
11. Alliance Boots
- Date: 2007
- Value: $19.6 billion
- Acquired by: AB Acquisitions
