... The acquiring firm holds the company for a few years to avoid the watchful eyes of shareholders. ...
The Repackaging Plan
The repackaging plan usually involves a private equity company using leveraged loans from the outside to take a currently public company private by buying all of its outstanding stock. The buying firm's goal is to repackage the company and return it to the marketplace in an initial public offering (IPO).
The acquiring firm holds the company for a few years to avoid the watchful eyes of shareholders. This allows the acquiring company to repackage the company behind closed doors, making adjustments here and there and dressing it up. When this is done on a large scale, private firms can buy many companies at once in an attempt to diversify their risk among various industries. Once the acquired company is dressed up, it is offered back to the market as an IPO with some fanfare.
Those who stand to benefit from a deal like this are the original shareholders (if the offer price is greater than the market price), the company's employees (if the deal saves the company from failure) and the private equity firm that generates fees from the day the buyout process starts and holds a portion of the stock until it goes public again. Unfortunately, if no major changes are made to the company, it's a zero-sum game and the new shareholders get the same financials the old company had.
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