In 1991, defense contractor General Dynamics (GD) adopted an objective of creating shareholder value through downsizing, restructuring, and exit. Facilitating GD's strategy were a new management team and compensation plans that tied executive pay to shareholder wealth creation. The plans became...

<title/> Agency theory, the predominant theoretical lens employed to examine leveraged buyouts, focuses on buyouts principally as a governance and control device. This view is especially useful in evaluating mature firms where discipline, incentives and limits to managerial discretion serve to mitigate...