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It was once the mightiest enterprise in the world. The creator of everything from laser beams to nuclear power stations. Founded by the great inventor Thomas Edison, General Electric expanded beyond light bulbs and dynamos by acquiring hundreds of cutting-edge companies.
By the 1990s it had become a $500bn corporate empire, but in November 2021 GE decided to break itself apart. To many this symbolised the demise of the American conglomerate, but the real story is not so simple. The idea of bringing hundreds of unrelated companies together under a common roof hasn't died. It has a new name, 'private equity'.
And the biggest names in private equity are Henry Kravis and George Roberts, two businessmen who became billionaires by dismantling other people's corporate empires in order to build their own. They started in the 1980s with the $25bn conquest of RJR Nabisco, the giant conglomerate that made everything from Ritz crackers to Camel Cigarettes.
That was the deal that earned them the nickname 'barbarians at the gate'. Since then their firm has been so successful at raising money to buy companies that it now indirectly employs more workers in more countries, engaged in more disparate activities than even RJR.
It's quite a turn for the founders of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co., or KKR for short. Along with rivals such as Blackstone and Apollo Global Management, KKR now ranks among the biggest private equity firms in America.
It alone has 200 portfolio companies, including a shampoo brand in Switzerland, a garage door factory in Illinois, and an animal feed producer in Vietnam. It's even bought companies from the once mighty General Electric. Together, those companies owned by KKR employ more than 800,000 people, and that shows how buyout firms have become the foremost institutional owners of diverse businesses, almost like the conglomerates the barbarians once broke up.