For private equity to take a publicly traded company private, they've got to pay more for it than the public market values it at. For example, in 2016 Softbank

For private equity to take a publicly traded company private, they've got to pay more for it than the public market values it at. For example, in 2016 Softbank was able to buy ARM for US$32 billion, but that was only possible because the stock market priced it below US$32 billion.