What is the benefit to society of Private Equity Romney style?

Or because the new owners offered huge bonuses to management in order to buy their cooperation.

Is this just your opinion? Or do you have a link you'd like to share?

Romney and Bain avoided the hostile approach, preferring to secure the cooperation of their takeover targets by buying off a company's management with lucrative bonuses.

Read more:

Nic, its a lot easier to give a child some candy before dragging him to the doctor for surgery lol.

Hostile takeover = no mgmt help because they are all pissed = bad.
Softer takeover = more mgmt help because they join your team = still bad?

Still bad if "joining their team" means they agree to huge payouts to the new owners before the company has even turned around.

Can you ever get off from ranting about their pay, and focus more on whether or not those companies were saved and/or are doing better today?

Considering that most of the businesses they went into are doing better today, does it really matter how much the bonuses were?

http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKess.../id/424112

At the time, office supplies were sold by small stores, and the stationery business was fragmented. The personal computer was a novelty, and self-employment was not common.

“Stemberg said office supplies were being delivered very inefficiently,” White said. “Small businesses were getting their office supplies through a distribution network that was very, very costly, and therefore the supplies had to be marked up two, three, four times.”

“Stemberg told Bain, ‘If I could create a mega-store of office supplies, and I could get small business owners to drive to the store, we could substantially reduce the costs, and I could sell the office supplies at half price,’” White recalled.

Bain employees actually helped stock Staples’ first store in Brighton, Mass., in 1986.

Great story.

So why is paper usually cheaper at the independent supplies? OK, it's even cheaper at Wal-mart.

So why is paper usually cheaper at the independent supplies? OK, it's even cheaper at Wal-mart.

Independent suppliers can also offer bulk discounts, which work for businesses who need paper in bulk. But they'll likely cost much more if you just want 1 or 2 reams of paper, and getting it delivered will probably not be worth it either.

Might the paper cost more at an office supply store? Possibly, but the convenience of knowing a brick-and-mortar store is open ~80 hours a week and you can walk in at any time is priceless, or at least worth a few bucks.

Wal-Mart is cheaper since they're hoping they make enough profit off the paper, bread, motor oil, detergent, and 12 other things you'll pick up at the same time, instead of you just buying 1 or 2 items.

So why is paper usually cheaper at the independent supplies? OK, it's even cheaper at Wal-mart.

So why is paper usually cheaper at the independent supplies? OK, it's even cheaper at Wal-mart.

Proof?

Staples multipurpose paper is $5.49

http://www.staples.com/product_513099

How much did paper cost in the 1980s before staples and other big marketers made the supply chain more efficient?

Where's your proof? The paper store near where I used lived, a few years ago, was regularly $22/2500 for small orders, and they weren't very cheap.

Proof?

Staples multipurpose paper is $5.49

http://www.staples.com/product_513099


How much did paper cost in the 1980s before staples and other big marketers made the supply chain more efficient?

Walmart is $2.90/ream [walmart.com]