Thoughts on Private Equity

Image: Poodles Rock / Corbis

You can sell it to Berkshire, and we’ll put it in the Metropolitan Museum; it’ll have a wing all by itself; it’ll be there forever. Or you can sell it to some porn shop operator [PE firm], and he’ll take the painting and he’ll make the boobs a little bigger and he’ll stick it up in the window, and some other guy will come along in a raincoat, and he’ll buy it.
Warren Buffet

I consider private equity and venture capital as opposites.  In private equity, you start with the numbers, and then you try to fit everything into the numbers. In venture capital, you start with people, and then you try to figure out what numbers you can make.
Mark Kachur

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
Gordon Gekko

My name is Bob. I’m a PE whore and I’m looking for £25 million.
Bob Geldof

Invest in a business not a company.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala

When buying shares, ask yourself, would you buy the whole company?
Rene Rivkin

Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.
Paul Samuelson

The four most dangerous words in investing are: This time it’s different.
Sir John Templeton

This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing.
David Tepper