What is a "Private Equity Firm"?

I am seeing more and more article of these types of firms buying publicly traded companies and taking them private. Please explain in laymens terms.

A private equity firm is any investment company that is not publicly traded. If a company receives funds to invest from individuals or groups and does not have common shareholders or trade publicly on an exchange, then it is a private equity firm.

Think of it like a mutual fund, where the fund manager invests the money is stocks, real estate, buying companies, or anything else he sees fit. The only people that are allowed to buy in to this "mutual fund" would be people that the manager allows.

The benefit to the manager is there is no public regulation. The disadvantage is it is harder to attract investors.

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　　Property Investment 　　Profitable Investments 　　Private Investment 　　Private Equity 　　Private Capital 　　Personal Investment 　　Pension Fund 　　Pecunix

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