The Buyout Barons

The Despoiler's second ledger counts 335 private equity takeovers of American companies since 1979, worth about $2.6 trillion in today's dollars, and Ohio names turn up throughout.

By Richthrax · Oct. 25, 2026

In a leveraged buyout, investment firms buy a company mostly with borrowed money, and the company itself carries the debt. Since 1979 that formula has bought hotel chains, hospitals, utilities, supermarkets and the burger joint down the road.

Ledger No. 2, The Despoiler's record of private equity's biggest takeovers of U.S. companies, lists 335 buyouts from 1979 through Sept. 26, 2026. Each headline price, usually including debt, is adjusted to August 2026 dollars using the federal Consumer Price Index. Together they total about $2.6 trillion in today's money.

The biggest deals

The top of the list still belongs to the deal that made buyouts famous. KKR's 1989 takeover of RJR Nabisco, the "Barbarians at the Gate" deal, was worth $31.1 billion including debt, or about $84 billion today.

Second is the 2007 buyout of Texas utility TXU by KKR, TPG and Goldman Sachs for $45 billion. The ledger notes it was the largest LBO until 2026 and went bankrupt in 2014.

The newest giant is Electronic Arts. A group led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund with Silver Lake and Affinity Partners closed the $55 billion purchase in August 2026, which the ledger calls the largest LBO ever in dollars at the time.

Source: The Despoiler, Ledger No. 2. Equity Office, Harrah's and Medline are marked "compiled" in the ledger, meaning they were not individually checked.

Three booms

The ledger shows three waves. The first was the late-1980s junk-bond era, which ended with RJR Nabisco. The second was the 2005–2008 credit boom, which ended with the financial crisis. Seven of the top 10 closed in 2006–2008.

The third wave, from 2021 on, was driven by large take-privates of software companies, according to the ledger. Thoma Bravo alone appears repeatedly, with deals including Dayforce for $12.3 billion in 2026.

By decade, the 2000s account for about $1 trillion in 2026 dollars, the most of any decade in the ledger. The 1990s are thin, about $33 billion, because big buyouts mostly stopped after the junk-bond market collapsed.

The brands on Main Street

The ledger deliberately includes household names, even small deals. Roark Capital bought Subway for $9.6 billion in 2024 and Dunkin' Brands for $11.3 billion including debt in 2020. Sycamore Partners took Walgreens private for $23.7 billion including debt in 2025. Bain, KKR and Vornado bought Toys "R" Us for $6.6 billion in 2005.

About 137 of the 335 entries are stores, restaurants and consumer brands.

The Ohio angle

Several Ohio companies passed through buyout firms' hands, according to the ledger.

Cerberus bought MeadWestvaco's paper unit for $2.3 billion in 2005. MeadWestvaco was formed when Westvaco merged with Dayton's Mead Corp. in 2002, according to Ledger No. 1. KKR bought Spalding & Evenflo for $1 billion in 1996; Evenflo was based in Miamisburg, according to Ledger No. 1.

Ohio Mattress, parent of Sealy, was bought by Gibbons Green in 1988 for $1 billion. Sun Capital bought the Ohio-based Bob Evans restaurant chain for $565 million in 2017. Roark bought 81.5% of Arby's from Ohio-based Wendy's in 2011 for $430 million.

Read with care

The ledger grades its own figures. Only 34 deals are marked verified against a news report or company announcement. Another 65 came from buyout firms' Wikipedia pages, and 236 are compiled from general knowledge and not individually checked. The ledger warns readers to "expect some years or amounts to be off."

It is also not a census. Thousands of private equity deals close every year, most without a disclosed price.