“I said we shouldn’t have invited the DoJ over for a game!”

We’ve all enjoyed a family evening playing Monopoly at least once in our lives, and it often ends with squabbles and vows of ‘I’m never speaking to you again!’ US buyout groups might find themselves in a similar situation as the Department of Justice’s antitrust division looks to end the high-stakes game of acquiring large corporations that have even the slightest whiff of ‘anti-competition’. The DoJ is rolling the dice on this, as it will be far from easy to enforce. But the fact it is training its sights on buyout deals could be enough to induce a PE community chest pain.