“If you consider them together with their portfolio companies, Carlyle, KKR, and Blackstone would be the third-, fourth-, and fifth-largest employers in America.”
Carlyle bought HCR ManorCare, sold the buildings out from under it, borrowed to pay itself a dividend, and cut staff. A resident died after a fall, and Carlyle got the wrongful death case against it dismissed. The debt sits on the company it bought, never on the fund. Toys“R”Us spent as much servicing that debt as it earned. The firms keep control and shed the blame, and the fees arrive whether the business lives or dies.