leveraged buyout

American  

noun

1. the purchase of a company with borrowed money, using the company's assets as collateral, and often discharging the debt and realizing a profit by liquidating the company. LBO

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leveraged buyout British  

/ ˈliːvərɪdʒd /

noun

1.  LBO.  a takeover bid in which a small company makes use of its limited assets, and those of the usually larger target company, to raise the loans required to finance the takeover

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leveraged buyout Cultural  

1. The purchase of a company mainly with borrowed money on the expectation that the purchaser can repay from the company's future profits or by selling its assets. Buyers sometimes raise the money by issuing junk bonds.

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Example Sentences

Also at issue is the Middle Eastern money the Ellison family has been expecting to pull off Paramount’s leveraged buyout of its larger entertainment company rival.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

And those managers fell in love with software; technology now makes up more than a quarter of North American leveraged buyout funds and half of venture capital, according to MSCI.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 2, 2026

Medline was bought in a leveraged buyout in 2021, with Blackstone, The Carlyle Group, and Hellman & Friedman purchasing a majority stake.

From Barron's • Jan. 2, 2026

The family-owned company was acquired by Blackstone, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman in 2021 in a $34 billion leveraged buyout.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 17, 2025

Its sale to the private equity group in 2021 was at the time one of the biggest leveraged buyout transactions since the global financial crisis.

From Barron's • Dec. 16, 2025

Related Words

• hostile takeover