private equity

noun

plural private equities

1

: investment in a company that does not trade on a public stock exchange : interest in a private company

… the proportion of the pension fund parked in private equity grew from nearly 21% of the portfolio in 2014 to about 28% earlier this year.

—Alex Baumhardt

—often used before a noun

private equity investments

2

: investment groups that pool the money of investors in order to acquire ownership shares in private companies

Private equity likes to acquire firms with debt, merge some of them together, find efficiencies, expand and then sell the company or go public on the stock market—in hopes of making a profit for investors.

—Kelly Yamanouchi

Examples of private equity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Black’s lawyers have denounced the Oversight Committee’s pursuit of the former head of a private equity firm as an abuse of congressional power. — Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026

Blackstone is Tropical Smoothie's third private equity firm owner. — Amelia Lucas, CNBC, 16 Sep. 2026

Like Portillo, who ended up selling to a private equity firm, Smith brought in a sponsor, Vestar Capital Partners, to scale the business and later exited to Flowers Foods for $795 million in January 2025. — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2026

The company emerged from bankruptcy, sold to private equity firm Ames Watson, and is altering the way its 900 remaining standalone stores, from a peak 3,400 in 2012, reach the Alphas. — Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 15 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for private equity

• inequity