Anonymous wrote:If you want to see the damage left being by private equity visit a few African countries. A friend of mine who has an MBA and worked here in private equity for a few years move to Africa and is completely ravaging all small chicken vendors. It's disgusting.

I know it wasn't your intent, but I picture your friend in Africa brutally killing chickens John Wick style.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been using the same company for years for my HVAC. Recently they quoted a ridiculous amount for a small project. I started digging and realized that they were bought by another bigger company which is backed by private equity.

Yep let's keep telling our kids to be plumbers electricians etc because probate equity will surely pay them good wages.

welcome to life? this consolidation has been going on for a very long time.

+1. The big one buying up trade shops around here is F.H. Fuhr. In true PE fashion their pricing model basically forces you into buying an automatically renewing subscription that allows them to upsell you a few times a year.

Actually it’s not FH Furr buying anything. FH started by the Furr family as a small company out of NOVA. They were purchased by a large services company (noted by their annoying AF constant selling of service plans) this services company is backed by PE. They only use the established FH name, the company was gutted and does not bear any resemblance to its roots.

If you want to see the damage left being by private equity visit a few African countries. A friend of mine who has an MBA and worked here in private equity for a few years move to Africa and is completely ravaging all small chicken vendors. It's disgusting.

This is just the start ....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been using the same company for years for my HVAC. Recently they quoted a ridiculous amount for a small project. I started digging and realized that they were bought by another bigger company which is backed by private equity.

Yep let's keep telling our kids to be plumbers electricians etc because probate equity will surely pay them good wages.

welcome to life? this consolidation has been going on for a very long time.

+1. The big one buying up trade shops around here is F.H. Fuhr. In true PE fashion their pricing model basically forces you into buying an automatically renewing subscription that allows them to upsell you a few times a year.

Yup and over here we are all busy bickering about political red herrings while the real enemy of prosperity and security is right under our noses. We are an arrogant uneducated society that lacks intellectually curiosity. we deserve this.

Anonymous wrote:I have been using the same company for years for my HVAC. Recently they quoted a ridiculous amount for a small project. I started digging and realized that they were bought by another bigger company which is backed by private equity.

Yep let's keep telling our kids to be plumbers electricians etc because probate equity will surely pay them good wages.

welcome to life? this consolidation has been going on for a very long time.

Anonymous wrote:This feels so hopeless. What's the answer? Government intervention?

Ironically, I worked engrained within a federal office for a federal contractor that was, you guessed it, sold to private equity.

Anonymous wrote:In fairness…I know many somewhat successful small business owners who don’t really have any exit plan. They thought their kids may take it over, but their kids saw how much work and time away from the family it took (not to mention the physical pain) and are all saying no thanks.

It’s not easy to find a buyer for these companies…their competitors aren’t exactly flush, so PE is one of the few buyers.

A big problem too is that PE often has more cash and is less likely to back out compared to other buyers so their offers look better.

Anonymous wrote:This feels so hopeless. What's the answer? Government intervention?

Yes.

A quarter of emergency rooms in the US are now staffed by private-equity-owned physician groups.

This feels so hopeless. What's the answer? Government intervention?

In fairness…I know many somewhat successful small business owners who don’t really have any exit plan. They thought their kids may take it over, but their kids saw how much work and time away from the family it took (not to mention the physical pain) and are all saying no thanks.

It’s not easy to find a buyer for these companies…their competitors aren’t exactly flush, so PE is one of the few buyers.

They are coming after your pediatricians as well. And probably daycare after that.

The US is now a giant monopoly. Look at the number of commercial banks we have today. Even worse these commerical banks aren't interested in lending to small businesses.

Anyways this is precisely what happens when you are a nation obsessed with worshipping very rich people. These rich people are blood sucking vampires. They will suck every single dollar you have. And then ask you to make sacrifices to lower the nation debt.

Of yeah have you seen what's happening with hospitals as well. Private equity is moving in and telling hospitals to ask insurance companies to pay more. Insurance companies turn around and take your favorite doctors and hospitals from an in network to out of network in the middle of care. And when it's time to renew your premium your HR folks send an email and say oh yeah guys premium are going up 15% this year.

I have been using the same company for years for my HVAC. Recently they quoted a ridiculous amount for a small project. I started digging and realized that they were bought by another bigger company which is backed by private equity.

Yep let's keep telling our kids to be plumbers electricians etc because probate equity will surely pay them good wages.