The severe turmoil in the credit markets last week has raised serious questions about the future of the buyout craze that gave rise to the biggest deals in U.S. corporate history.For the past few years, a group of elite Wall Street players have been buying up major American icons and taking them private. These massive acquisitions have depended on access to cheap credit, which is supplied by a complex relationship between investment banks and hedge funds.
But with credit markets tightening, the pace of these deals, at least in the short run, is expected to dramatically slow. Already-announced multibillion-dollar buyouts, like Tribune Co., Sallie Mae and Hilton Hotels, are likely to be far more complicated to close, analysts said.
If one or two of these big deals were to collapse, it might not send the economy into a downturn. But it would profoundly shake investors' confidence in a financial system already under siege from billions of dollars in losses from home mortgage defaults. That could make it even more difficult for companies and home buyers to get loans.
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