You can't load someone else with debt. That's obviously illegal. When you buy a company it isn't "them" anymore. And the new owners have exactly the same rights to borrow money as the old ones.
That's true when the debt is taken it is taken by the company (at the direction of the acquiring firm)... and maybe the bigger issue is that banks should be a whole lot more judicious in extending that debt. But some firms have found a heck of a loophole in buying a company, running an extremely high debt line, paying the acquiring firm (themselves) handsomely and then innocently whistling when the business collapses and a bunch of real economic value is erased.
Doing that to a company isn't an activity that should be rewarded since you're destroying, rather than creating, economic value. It is absolutely an exploit or flaw in our system and no more than one person should have been able to get away with it.
It isn't rewarded. If a business you buy collapses, you lose money. You seem to be falling for the conspiracy theory that private equity wants to collapse businesses.
Doing that to a company isn't an activity that should be rewarded since you're destroying, rather than creating, economic value. It is absolutely an exploit or flaw in our system and no more than one person should have been able to get away with it.