Predator

The shark from Jaws. The velociraptors from Jurassic Park. The Predator from...Predator. They prey on...whoever.

Now take this exciting, dynamic, dangerous, edgy imagery and place it on...a bank. With accountants. And lawyers. Yes, bankers love the wild and crazy imagery to make their otherwise oh-so-civil jobs seem a bit more thrilling.

A predator in this sense is a takeover artist: someone who seeks out companies vulnerable to an LBO, hostile or otherwise. What kind of company makes for a good, um...dinner? Well, those that have stumbled and trade today for 6x earnings instead of the 20x they used to trade for. An offer of 8x probably wins enough votes to sell the company to the takeover predator who will hopefully fix it and then bring it public again at 20x.

That's how the predation works. Stalk. Buy. Takeover. Fix. And crap out a new, lovely company worthy of a high earnings multiple.

Wish Darwin were still around to frame what this all means.