It isn't always- there are certainly times where a PE company recognizes that a fundamental good company is doing stupid things with its assets. One of the reas

It isn't always- there are certainly times where a PE company recognizes that a fundamental good company is doing stupid things with its assets. One of the reasons why LBOs and "corporate raiding" was such a cultural meme in the 80s is that there really were a ton of companies that weren't allocating capital well, and sometimes were run for management's benefit to the expense of the shareholders. A totally made up example might be a furniture manufacturer that also happened to own a some water parks and a bunch of real estate, because the CEO liked water parks. A corporate raider/PE firm might do the math and conclude the water park segment was dragging down the rest of company and the real estate would fetch a ton if the company actually sold it. So they take over the company with debt, pay off a chunk of the debt by spinning off the water park segment, sell off a bunch more real estate to people who want to use it, and then the core furniture manufacturer actually ends up with more free cash flow because they aren't supporting the dead weight businesses. That's the idealistic case, and it does happen. But then there are the counter examples we all know...