ABSTRACT
An leveraged buyout (LBO) is a corporate acquisition technique with debt. LBOs occur when investors purchase a target company using a combination of debt and equity and attempt to improve its profitability before selling it again after three-to-five years. This chapter argues that the LBO field is dual in nature. It identifies two main groups of organizations: organizations that belong to "large-scale capitalism" and organizations that belong to "small-scale capitalism". LBOs are therefore a three-way game between bankers, investors and top managers, who are all implicated to varying degrees in the structuring and monitoring of the deal. The different analyses carried out show that the LBO field is highly stratified: target companies are relatively marginalized, while a small number of banks dominate the market. The chapter analyses the manner in which financial professions are structured by using the LBO field as an example.
