A giant of the private equity industry just got smoked on a big energy bet

It's official: Samson Resources, the Oklahoma-based oil and gas exploration company, has gone bust.

The company filed for Chapter 11 late on September 16.

That means private equity firm KKR, which bought the company for $7.2 billion, is out a whole lot of money, once again, on a busted energy deal.

This isn't the first time KKR has been hit by a bad investment in the energy sector.

Electric utility company Energy Future Holdings Corp. filed for bankruptcy in April 2014.

Other private equity firms to take a hit recently include energy investor First Reserve, which took a loss when its investment in Sabine Oil & Gas went south amid plunging commodity prices in July.

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