Private Equity-owned Companies in Times Square 

252 W 40th St.

Private equity owner: Cerberus (just sold to Enterprise Car Rental in April 2007)

Owned by private equity since: 2003

Deal value: $2.4 billion

Employees: 11,000

Remember the Alamo deal? In 2003 the parent company of Alamo and National car rental had filed for bankruptcy when Cerberus came on the scene. The private equity firm brought $240 million in equity and agreed to take on the struggling car rental companies. But in 2006, Cerberus paid itself a $126 million dividend, and then sold European operations for $862 million; a fourfold return on its initial investment. Among Cerberus’ cost-cutting measures were relocating the company’s headquarters from Boca Raton to Tulsa, laying off 850 workers, loading the company with $2.2 billion in debt upon purchase, and increasing its total debt to nearly $6 billion by 2006.