Who created that preoccupation with share prices and quarterly earnings from which companies were now being rescued? Ironically, many LBO specialists were being transferred over from merger work, where they suddenly had to adopt a long-term perspective. This defense also sounded odd coming from a firm that had managed the initial public offering of several companies in the 1980s. Finally, it ignored the simple fact that the objective of taking companies private was to take them public at a later date and reap a quick killing. Presumably, the firms would then tout the benefits of public
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