Equity Deals Attract Eye of Justice

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the Carlyle Group, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and Silver Lake Partners are among the firms that have received letters from the Justice Department as part of its preliminary inquiry into possible anticompetitive behavior in the private equity industry. The requests were broad and without mention of any specific transaction or auction, The New York Times reported. The Financial Times's Lex column says that the U.S. is right to look into the question of collusion in the buyout industry, and Breakingviews writes that such an inquiry was "probably inevitable."