Top executives at buyout firms including Blackstone Group LP, KKR & Co., Bain Capital Partners LLC and Carlyle Group LP assured each other in e-mails that they wouldn't compete on deals to avoid driving up prices and angering competitors, according to a now public court complaint.
The correspondence was cited as evidence that the firms rigged bids in 19 leveraged buyouts and eight other transactions, including the biggest deals of the leveraged buyout boom, according to the amended complaint unsealed yesterday by a federal judge in Boston.
"We would much rather work with you guys than against you," Blackstone President Tony James wrote in an e-mail to KKR co-founder George Roberts in reference to the Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. buyout, according to the complaint. "Together we can be unstoppable but in opposition we can cost each other a lot of money." According to the complaint, Roberts replied, "Agreed."
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