Private Equity: Transforming Public Stock Into Private Equity to Create Value
Harold Bierman Jr.
I bought this book hoping that it would, through a good mix of principles and case studies, help me understand the private equity industry betther. The book does not live up to these expectations.
First, it is written badly, and seems more a series of preliminary notes than a well thought out book. Discussions are short and often repetitive. The analytics are extremely simplistic and are essentially a regurgitation of elementary finance theory (things like valuing a company with a fixed dividend growth rate). There is very little in them that is specific to private equity.
The book gives the reader absolutely no sense of what makes private equity different from other forms of finance, or the history and prospects of the industry. A quick review of the bibliography suggests that most of what the author has to say is already outdated and irrelevant.
I haven't the heart to sells my (wothless) copy: I wouldn't want someone else to waste his or her time with it (let alone his/her money)! A much better book is Venture Capital & Private Equity by Lerner and Hardymon.
