King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone
by David Carey, John E. Morris · Crown Business
History of Blackstone from a two-person 1985 startup to a listed asset manager, tracing how buyout shops became permanent institutions: raising first funds, the 2006-07 credit boom, the crash, and the pivot from deals to fee-earning assets. Covers what Barbarians cannot: how the fund model, LP relationships and firm economics evolved from the 1980s to the present.
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More resources on Private Equity
OCC Comptroller's Handbook – Leveraged Lending
The US bank regulator's examination manual for leveraged lending, setting out how supervisors define a leveraged transaction, assess repayment capacity and enterprise valuation, judge covenant quality and underwriting standards, and classify credits that fail those tests.
Leveraged Finance 101: A Covenant Handbook
Law firm handbook on high-yield bond and leveraged loan covenants, contrasting incurrence with maintenance tests and working through restricted subsidiaries, ratio debt, builder baskets, restricted payments, and liens, the drafting mechanics behind credit agreement flexibility.
Wall Street Prep – Ultimate Guide to Leveraged Finance
A practitioner-oriented reference on the debt used in leveraged buyouts, comparing first and second lien term loans, revolvers, high yield bonds, mezzanine, and unitranche on pricing, security, and covenant terms, with worked capital structure examples.
Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street
Academic study of what happens to companies after they are bought: debt loads, sale-leasebacks, dividend recapitalisations, employment and bankruptcy outcomes, and the limited-liability structures that insulate funds from portfolio company failure. This covers what buyouts do to the operating businesses and their workers. Evidence-based and industry-literate rather than polemical.
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Reported account of the 1988 bidding war for RJR Nabisco, the defining leveraged buyout of its era. Shows how LBO financing, management buyouts, junk bonds, bankers and boards actually behave when a deal is live.
Bain & Company Global Private Equity Report
Bain's annual industry review, published free and without registration: deal, exit and fundraising volumes, dry powder, holding periods, fund returns and value-creation chapters. The reference practitioners and journalists cite for current private equity numbers.