My issue with most PE deals is that the PE firm doesn’t have enough skin in the deal. Look at, say, the EA deal where almost all of the purchase price is coming from debt on EA. This to me is wrong because the new owners have almost no incentive to build the business for the long term—EA is a strong operator but face layoffs and LOB closures just to service the new debt.
I remember the ‘90s fondly in this regard. 1000 pages issue of Computer Shopper, the early days of Wired, and so much variety of publications. But especially because after work I wrote dozens of articles for Software Development Magazine and even judged the Jolt Awards a few years.