[sonick]

Originally Posted by donk.

What's the difference between a company that is, or isn't traded on the stonk exchange?

Aren't all companies "private" when they start, and then open the doors to the stonk world, so they can have 1000000 "investors" that buy their stonk for the low price of x-xxx$/share?

Unless I'm completely missing what your trying to say

Private Equity firms buy / invest into private businesses with funding for a share of profits.

So if a company needs cash to grow their business, they can go to a PE firm to get that money, but then the PE firm will get a piece of the action if they grow or if they sell/get acquired.

Because of how its setup, typically once a company gets investment from a PE firm, the PE firm tries to squeeze the company for all of its worth to maximize the returns, regardless of long term health, stability, quality of product/service, etc. all about maximizing the return of their initial investment then selling it back out.