Buy-outs represent an important and growing segment in the private equity industry.

In a buy-out, the private equity player takes over the control and the ownership of a company.

There exist different types of buyouts.  We differentiate between:

- Management Buy-Outs ("MBO") which are buy-outs that enable the existing management and investors to acquire existing product line or business.
- Management Buy-Ins ("MBI") which are buy-outs where a manager or group of managers from outside the company  buy-in into the company with the support of private equity investors.

A lot of buy-outs are so-called Leveraged Buy-Outs ("LBO").  In LBO's, the financing of the acquisition cost of the buy-out is characterised by using a significant amount of debt financing.