peHUB Reader Poll: Whither the Collusion Lawsuit?

And then there were seven.

With the dismissal in August of Thomas H. Lee Partners LP from an antitrust lawsuit accusing major buyout firms of improperly colluding on take-private deals, seven firms remain as defendants, including Bain Capital LLC, Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP, Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s private equity arm, KKR & Co, Silver Lake and TPG Capital LP.

Two other firms, Apollo Global Management LLC and Providence Equity Partners Inc, won dismissal in July in the case, Dahl et al v. Bain Capital Partners LLC et al, a private antitrust lawsuit that was brought in 2007.

U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington in Boston has progressively narrowed the scope of the complaint and the number of defendants but has consistently refused to grant the buyout shops’ repeated requests to dismiss the case.

And there, gentle reader, is our question for you. Where do you think the case ends up? This survey is now closed. Click here for results.

Steve Bills is a senior editor at Buyouts Magazine. Any opinions expressed here are entirely his own. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Bills. Follow Buyouts tweets @Buyouts. For information on how to subscribe, contact Greg Winterton at greg.winterton@thomsonreuters.com.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.com