Here's how you make money, Romney style:

You start with a little seed money, and a company you're going to buy for collateral,
...you get a company sized loan,
...pay the old CEO some hush money (get the $ from the loan)
...and pocket a big chunk of the money (34% is what they like).

The company you see is responsible for the loan: they have the new loan payments to make.

Then for a while, you get to play CEO, do some firing, close some plants, see if you can make it go!

The company meanwhile has taken all the risk, and it's a body blow. They have a $100 loan to service, and $50 worth of capital.  (or maybe it's $100 million: the numbers are just representative.) Suppose they just try to pay it off: they're $50 short! Thus the net outcome is a new debt for the company to make payments on, all of which was essentially awarded as a bonus to the new owners.

It's so immoral, it's almost psychopathic.

This was the plot of the 80's movie, "Pretty Woman."