Financially speaking, the billionaire’s buyout of the social media network breaks all the usual rules. : Financially speaking, the billionaire’s buyout of the social media network breaks all the usual rules. At the peak of the buyout boom in 2007, private equity firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought the Texas energy giant TXU for $45 billion. It was — and remains — the largest deal of its kind in American history. Now, a single billionaire is inching toward that record.