One of the Montessori schools in SF (across the street from blue bird hq) was bought by some Miami PE fund… that and some other data points informed our decision to pass on it.
Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
161–170 of 362 posts
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A doctor knows what his practice is worth and wants every cent he can get out of it - but the next generation of doctor is not going to be able to compete with debt financing what a PE cash-buyer can get. In my opinion, the physician in this example is a monster. Profit maximization is a choice, not some kind of moral imperative. Am I supposed to have any respect for somebody selling out their employees and patient…
> Am I supposed to have any respect for somebody selling out their employees and patients to vampires so they can retire to a beach Nobody else will buy it. The alternatives are shutting down the practice or forcing oneself to keep working. Particularly in medicine, the latter is dangerous. > solution I'd want to see for situations like this is to find a way to sell to the people who have a continuing interest in how…
> Nobody else will buy it. The alternatives are shutting down the practice or forcing oneself to keep working. Particularly in medicine, the latter is dangerous.
Can't you just hire a "CEO" who will take over all management responsibilities?
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#163Instant Pot just got knifed by PE.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/12/23758602/instant-pot-bank...
> The other reason it’s absolutely got to keep growing is that there are expectations placed upon it by Cornell Capital, the private equity firm that acquired the Instant from its founder in 2019 and merged it with Corelle Brands, which makes all the Pyrex and CorningWare products you probably heat up leftovers in. … > Sometimes you don’t have to grow at all costs. You can just be very good at one thing
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#164Despite the directions the interviewer tried steering this conversation into, this is a really interesting interview. But when it comes to the private equity roll-ups, I think everyone is missing the forest for the trees. If you are a doctor looking to retire and sell your business there is no one else right now who would buy it . The same goes for every category of "mom and pop" business in the US. Even if you could…
"In addition, there is a problem specific to medical practices - you can't just hand them over to your kid!" - Doctors partner with the person that will take over their practice for years before retiring. PE is destroying this system and the latest crop of doctors will lose out on mentorship and the opportunity to run a practice. Everything will become big corporate offices and everyone will suffer
> Doctors partner with the person that will take over their practice for years before retiring. PE is destroying this system and the latest crop of doctors will lose out on mentorship and the opportunity to run a practice. Everything will become big corporate offices and everyone will suffer
Of all the doctors I personally know, only one was interested in working in such a practice (let alone owning one). Where is the existing doctor going to find other doctors to partner with? Especially when they can get paid more to work elsewhere?
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#165Well, to be fair, doctors sold themselves out. In New Jersey and New York City, I have to explicitly state that I only want to meet with an MD and not an assistant physician or nurse practitioner. As to how this is even legal is probably explained by insurance company lobbying efforts for cost control.
Well, there is a nationwide (potentially global) doctor shortage. It's not like doctors are sitting in a room twiddling their thumbs because insurance companies in the US are cheap. Residency programs are kept artificially low through successful efforts of the AMA to intentionally limit the number of doctors in the US.
Doctors are a cartel. Every organization that artificially controls the number of doctors is run by doctors.
Ofc, no individual doctor is malicious, but their continued support of what's effectively a 5-10 year hazing is at the core of the issue.
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#166Despite the directions the interviewer tried steering this conversation into, this is a really interesting interview. But when it comes to the private equity roll-ups, I think everyone is missing the forest for the trees. If you are a doctor looking to retire and sell your business there is no one else right now who would buy it . The same goes for every category of "mom and pop" business in the US. Even if you could…
I don't know where you get the idea that private medical practices are unsellable... It is very common for retiring doctors to sell their client base/practice to other doctors in the same field.
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
My firm supports 100's of PE acquisitions every year and I can tell you that your experience is far more the norm than what the parent comment has suggested.
The idea that PE comes in and sets eight figures of their own money on fire and ruins a business, shooting themselves in the foot makes no sense, yet every other story online is about them doing exactly that. Of course there are LBO scams going on (more historically rather than currently) but these billion dollar firms don't come in and lose a ton of their own money along with money of their outside investors on a re…
> The idea that PE comes in and sets eight figures of their own money on fire and ruins a business, shooting themselves in the foot makes no sense, yet every other story online is about them doing exactly that.
On How I Built This, they frequently talk to companies that were bought out by PE. Some had negative experiences, but the majority were positive.
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#168There’s an effective tactic for dealing with Wall St control: unionize.
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#169A friend of mine is a Vet at a place recently sold to a PE firm. If your wait times are crazy long, if you can't get through on a phone, if you realize your vet's office has parted ways with the great vet you used to see -- that's the PE firm counting beans and destroying the service for customers in an effort to squeeze every dollar out of the system. As a specific obviously bad example -- Vet services in California…
Why wouldn't your friend just open up a practice and compete with this dysfunctional company?
Re: Private equity is buying everything from vet offices to tech conglomerates
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife is a vet for a corporate owned hospital and our circle of friends are naturally very vet centric. They run the gamut from PE vets, corp vets, and private owners. We know GPS, specialists, dogs and cats only, large animal, exotics. What you are describing is not PE specific. Staffing issues, primarily technicians, have hit everyone across the board. It’s a combination of wages, training, quality of life. Moreo…
I dated a vet tech several years before COVID and it sounded like a horrendous job. $20/hr was considered good pay, you're constantly bending over, pickup up things (sometimes things that definitively do not to get picked up), and you're literally dealing with some of the shittiest parts of animal care.
Better than doing the same work with heavier patients in nursing homes for $12/hr.