> Could someone explain to a total finance noob how a "leveraged buyout" transaction actually works? Have you ever bought a house using a mortgage? What you've

> Could someone explain to a total finance noob how a "leveraged buyout" transaction actually works? Have you ever bought a house using a mortgage? What you've done was a leveraged buyout of that house. When you do a leveraged buyout of a business, it's the exact same thing! You borrow money from someone, and use that money to purchase the asset (whether its a house, a car or a business), and you use the asset you're purchasing to "back" the loan, essentially saying "If I don't make the payments, you can auction off the house/car/business to pay off the debt". >However, here we're talking about acquisition of private companies - so there are no shareholders. Then who exactly is the "seller" party in the transaction? Shareholders is just the name for "Partial Owner", and every company has one (or more) owners. The owners of the business sell it to the one who is buying. A company being "Private" just means that the company's shares (ie: the partial ownership) is not being traded on any stock exchange. It doesn't mean the ownership of the business can't be sold, any more than the fact that your house not being listed on a stock exchange prevents you from selling it to whoever will buy. >It could be that the hospice was owned by itself There is no such thing as something being "owned by itself". There is always one final owner.