What is this acquisition strategy called?

A leveraged buyout, or LBO, acquires a company using mostly borrowed money. The buyer puts down relatively little equity, borrows the rest against the target's own assets and future cash flow, then uses the acquired company's profits to pay down that debt, effectively making it fund its own takeover.

A stock swap trades shares rather than piling on debt, and a reverse merger lets a private company go public by merging into an existing public shell, both entirely different mechanisms from debt-financed acquisition.

LBOs became famous in the 1980s buyout boom, and while they can generate huge returns for private equity firms, the added debt can strain a company, sometimes leading to layoffs or bankruptcy if the business underperforms.