Mike Wright

John Gilligan

This book deals with risk capital provided for established firms outside the stock market, private equity, which has grown rapidly over the last three decades, yet is largely poorly understood. Although it has often been criticized in the public mind as being short termist and having adverse consequences for employment, in reality this is far from the case. Here, John Gilligan and Mike Wright dispel some of the biggest myths and misconceptions about private equity. The book provides a unique and authoritative source from a leading practitioner and academic for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers that explains in detail what private equity involves and reviews systematic evidence of what the impact of private equity has been. Written in a highly accessible style, the book takes the reader through what private equity means, the different actors involved, and issues concerning sourcing, checking out, valuing, and structuring deals. The various themes from the systematic academic evidence are highlighted in numerous summary vignettes placed alongside the text that discuss the practical aspects. The main part of the work concludes with an up-to-date discussion by the authors, informed commentators on the key issues in the lively debate about private equity. The book further contains summary tables of the academic research carried out over the past three decades across the private equity landscape including: the returns to investors, economic performance, impact on R&D and employees, and the longevity and life-cycle of private equity backed deals.

An Explanatory Guide

Private Equity Demystified

Private equity has grown rapidly over the last three decades, yet largely remains poorly understood. Written in a highly accessible style, the book takes the reader through what private equity means, the different actors involved, and issues concerning sourcing, checking out, valuing, and structuring deals.

The major proposition of the Soul of America is that America consists in a set of beliefstruthsthat bind us together. Its what makes us Americans. And without that belief, no Constitution, no laws, no whatever, except the point of a sword, can keep us together. Truth has moral implications. But truth in American culture has become negotiable. Herein lies the real cultural crisis of America. Gilligan's Book Is Required Reading For Everyone Who Cares About America's Future John Gilligan has given us a book for the ages. This work is a compilation of essays he authored over several decades that were published in his local newspaper the Peoria Journal Star. The essays are reader-friendly, packed with historical facts and insights, and written by someone who clearly has great love for his country. The essays progress in three sections from the founding of our country, to our current cultural and political problems, to what it means to be a patriot in our country today. Gilligan is concerned that the American people have lost sight of the beliefs and principles that animate our Declaration of Independence. He discusses civic virtue and the common good. He notes that America is the first people in history to form a nation from a diversity of racial, ethnic, and religious groups under the motto, E Pluribus Unum, unity in diversity, and with the underlying fundamental belief that all men are created equal. But can this nation so conceived endure? In the second section of his book, Gilligan maps out the philosophical, cultural, and political changes that challenge Americas survival: cultural relativism, spiritual cynicism, political apathy, self-indulgence, personal violence, racial and ethnic hatreds, and a general blurring of the distinction between right and wrong. He questions whether there is any longer a unity in the diversity and wonders whether we, as a country, have veered so far from our founders lofty and noble precepts that we have passed the point of no return. He rejects this notion, however, and in the last section of his book Gilligan discusses what it means to be patriotic in todays society. He writes about the American project, and argues that if Americas problems are to be solved, the heavy lifting must start in the local communities. Each citizen must take responsibility for his or her actions if America is to thrive and continue to fulfill the goals and dreams of her founders. This is a wonderful little book that encourages us to reflect on the essence of America, the great experiment all of us are blessed to be a part of, and what we might do to keep America great. It is required reading for everyone who cares about the soul of America.

John Gilligan

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