The TXU has been seen a symbol of a lot of things. Some saw it as a sign of a golden era in private equity (private equity news). The industry tried hard to portray it as symbol of a new kind of cooperation between extreme capitalists and environmentalists. And now it seems to be a symbol of the excesses of a bubble that was destined to burst.

The New York Times offers an interesting retrospective on the deal that makes clear that just about everyone lost. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR news) and TPG (TPG news) and Goldman Sachs (Goldman Sachs news), the main private equity investors, have seen their investments shrink to just about nothing. The bondholders (bondholders news) have been hit every which way. And the banks burned some major relationships; things got really testy between Jamie Dimon and the private equity guys apparently.

For all the pain, the deal still strikes many as one big mess. There have been some concessions all around, but there is still a lot of work to be done to salvage the deal. The firm, renamed Energy Future Holdings, faces a $20 billion balloon payment in 2014. Which is time enough for something dramatic, like asset sales or infusion of more capital. 

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