This happens a lot with mature enterprise software companies. They are bought and R&D is cut to the bone and existing customers that have too high of switching costs are milked for revenue. I’m not sure that model would work for ad revenue companies but you never know.
A lot of the companies that get bought in LBOs aren't R&D heavy. For instance, you'll rarely see a pharma company LBO'd.
Even in tech, the type of companies you see bought out are ones like Rackspace. Not exactly cutting edge scientific research firms. LBO firms typically want a lot of physical assets and stable cash flow, i.e old economy firms like utilities and manufacturers and retailers.
