Forbes - USA (2019-06-30)

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JUNE 30, 20 19 FORBES.COM

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@FLUXMULDER:

“It’ll get released once

they run out of money.

And it’ll be in the

same state it’s been

for the past six years:

unfinished and utterly

broken.”

all Street’s Huns overran the 1980s, pursuing megadeal

after megadeal until they met their match with RJR

Nabisco. Now KKR’s Henry Kravis and George Roberts—

the other “K,” Jerome Kohlberg, left the firm in 1987 and

died in 2015—say they’ve changed their ways (May 31).

They’ve eschewed boardroom battles in favor of investing in people,

not just extracting value. Consider: Some 20,000 employees have been

given $500 million in equity through eight of the firm’s recent deals.

Will the new mood hurt KKR’s performance? Eric Adamson—formerly

of Capital Safety, a construction-equipment company KKR sold to 3M in

2015—doesn’t think so. “[Antoine Gara’s article] perfectly captures what

I experienced with KKR at Capital Safety,” he wrote. “Grateful I could be

a part of this model.”

A KINDER KKR

The original barbarians see the virtue in being virtuous.

Conversation

W

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56,850 Small Giants: The Best Small Companies of 2019

52,569 Meet Matt Calkins: Billionaire, Board Game God and Tech’s Hidden Disruptor

33,639 The Golden Goose: How Dani Reiss Became a Billionaire Turning Canada Goose Into a Luxury Brand Powerhouse

29,158 Tempest in a Tea Bottle: Billionaire GT Dave Brewed a Fortune (and Plenty of Bitterness) from Kombucha

28,315 Gentlemen at the Gate: With Trillions Pouring In, KKR and Its Peers Must Build Up Rather Than Break Up

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THE INTEREST GRAPH

“Box CEO Aaron Levie,

a customer, tweeted

that Zoom could start

a second business

selling its ‘beautiful’

financial numbers as

a coffee-table book.”

@THA_RAMI: “Having business in

charge of creative is bad. Having

creative in charge of business? Also

bad. Games need a super-odd kind

of balance to be made at all.”

ACHILLE VIGGO

CALEGARI: “I don’t

think this article

represents a fair im-

age. Anybody who’s

played the game

will tell you the

amount of detail,

care and graphics

surpasses anything

ever attempted.”

@FUD_BUDDY:

“It’s about time a

reputable source

investigated this bor-

derline scam before it

completely collapses.

Well done, Forbes.”

GETTING PLAYED

Unfinished video game or $300 million

money pit? Our investigation into the

lavishly crowdfunded Star Citizen

set social media aflame.

RUACH: “I don’t under -

stand all the hate.... Sure,

it’s taking time, and yes,

they’ve missed deadlines,

but they are developing

amazing tech that hasn’t

been done before.”

HALSGOLDENRING:

“Star Citizen has

a cult following...

emphasis on the

cult part.”

“This is not fraud,

but it is incompetence

and mismanagement

on a galactic scale.”