We had always thought that the leveraged buyout and takeover trends would self-destruct as soon as stock prices got so high that it no longer paid to substitute debt for equity.

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The only difference between the original hostile takeover- and leveraged buyout-predators of the 1980s and the current band of Internet dealmakers is that the new generation is using stock certificates instead of junk bonds to snap up rivals.

FORBES: The buyout frenzy

The New York Times had a big scoop recently on a lawsuit in Boston that accuses some of the biggest private-equity firms including Bain Capital, TPG and KKR of conspiring to keep takeover prices low during the leveraged-buyout boom from 2003 to 2007.

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Many retailers became "highly leveraged" - taking on big debts to keep trading, thus exposing them to takeover bids by rivals.

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