The New Face of Capitalism

摘要

Time was, America's largest corporations would fight tooth and nail (and with poison pills) to remain public companies. No longer. Now many of the world's biggest and best-known brands clamor to be taken private by investors they once shunned. A parade of marquee names have sold out-Clear Channel Communications, Cable-vision, Reader's Digest, Dunkin' Donuts, SunGard Data Systems, Freescale Semiconductor, Toys "R" Us, Neiman Marcus, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and hospital giant HCA, to note just a few. And the deal making shows no sign of abating anytime soon, as the private Blackstone Group announced plans last week to buy Equity Office Properties Trust, the nation's largest owner of office buildings, in a record-breaking deal.