11 Largest Leveraged Buyouts Of All Time

A leveraged buyout is simply defined as the purchase of a controlling share in a company by its management using outside capital.

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk took billions in leveraged loans to take control of Twitter Inc TWTR with funding from banks such as Barclays PLC BCS and Bank of America Corp BAC, marking the transaction — $44 billion — as the largest leveraged buyout of all time, by more than $12 billion as compared to TXU Energy.

Interested in learning about the others? Here is a list of the 11 largest leveraged buyouts after Twitter. 

1. TXU Energy

• Date: 2007
• Value: $32.1 billion
• Acquired by: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

2. First Data

• Date: 2007
• Value: $25.7 billion
• Acquired by: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

3. Alltel

• Date: 2007
• Value: $25.1 billion
• Acquired by: Atlantis Holdings

4. RJR Nabisco

• Date: 1988
• Value: $25.1 billion
• Acquired by: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

5. Equity Office Properties

• Date: 2006
• Value: $24.7 billion
• Acquired by: Blackstone Group

6. HJ Heinz

• Date: 2013
• Value: $23.5 billion
• Acquired by: Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital Partners

7. Heathrow Airport Holdings

• Date: 2006
• Value: $21.8 billion
• Acquired by: FGP Topco Limited

8. Dell

• Date: 2013
• Value: $21.5 billion
• Acquired by: Michael Dell and Silver Lake Management

9. Hospital Corporation of America Healthcare

• Date: 2006
• Value: $21.2 billion
• Acquired by: Hercules Acquisition

10. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

• Date: 2007
• Value: $20.2 billion
• Acquired by: Blackstone Group

11. Alliance Boots

• Date: 2007
• Value: $19.6 billion
• Acquired by: AB Acquisitions