So who could buy it? Who has $100b of equity capital available (and the credibility to get the debt financing and spin-offs underwritten?) Clearly there are the usual suspects – the giant private equity players: Blackstone, KKR, Goldman Sachs, Silver Lake, TPG, etc. and the enormous sovereign wealth funds. (You want China to get serious about protecting software licences – give them a stake in Windows/Office…) And what about Cascade (Bill’s private investment management firm)? They might be interested (both financially and emotionally) in recycling $20b of the proceeds back into the deal. (Not to mention all the other MSFT billionaires.) Also you have to think alot of the big institutional holders of MSFT would much rather hold a lean and efficient Windows/Office company and so might well be interested in recycling their payouts into a sidecar or 144a structure to participate in the deal. And then of course there is Warren. A lean, run-for-cash Windows/Office is a company that would be right down Berkshire Hathaway’s alley, no? Basically – and even if my maths/numbers above are a bit shaky, my gut feeling is that it would stack up. It’s fundable. And the banks will fall over themselves to get it done. Think of the fees!!! (In this instance, the ‘absolute’ numbers matter more than the ratios!)

how microsoft could be taken private