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Blackstone Group
Type	Public NYSE: BX
Founded	1985
Headquarters	New York, NY, U.S.
Key people	Peter G. Peterson Stephen A. Schwarzman
Industry	Financial Services
Products	Private Equity Investment Banking Investment management
Revenue	NA
Net income	NA
Employees	NA
Website	The Blackstone Group

Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) is a company that provides private equity, financial advisory, and investment management services. The company is based in New York City, with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Hamburg, Paris, Mumbai, Tokyo and Hong Kong. One of the world's largest private equity firms,^[1] it is part of the migration of companies from public to private hands — a total of some US$370 billion in deals in the United States in 2006.

History

Blackstone Group L.P. was founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman with $400,000 in seed capital.^[2] "Blackstone" is a wordplay on the founders' names, Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson. Schwarz is German for black. Peter, or Petra in Greek, means stone or rock.

Blackstone ventures into hotels include acquiring Prime Hospitality (Wellesley Inns & Suites) and Extended Stay America in 2004, La Quinta Inns & Suites in 2005 and Hilton Hotels Corporation in 2007.^[3]

Blackstone filed for an initial public offering to raise $4 billion on March 22, 2007.^[4] Blackstone offered 133.3 million shares priced at $31.00 per unit. The stock began trading on the NYSE on July 22, 2007.

Business segments

Corporate private equity

Blackstone manages or owns holdings in Allied Waste, Graham Packaging, Celanese, Nalco, HealthMarkets, Houghton Mifflin, American Axle, Prime Hospitality, Legoland, Universal Studios Parks, La Quinta, Luxury Resorts (LXR), Pinnacle Foods, Hilton Hotels Corporation and Travelport.^{citation needed} The private equity purchase of The Weather Channel is currently pending^[5].

Real estate

Blackstone holds more than 13,000,000 square feet (1,200,000 m²) of real estate in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC.^{citation needed}

Marketable alternative asset management

Blackstone offers private equity, real estate, and hedge funds, first used only for internal investments, but now open to clients.^{citation needed}

• Funds of hedge funds
• Mezzanine funds
• Senior debt vehicles
• Proprietary hedge funds
• Closed-end mutual funds

Financial advisory services

• Corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory - clients include Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, Comcast, and Sony.^{citation needed}
• Restructuring and reorganization advisory - clients include Xerox, Enron, Bally Total Fitness and Global Crossing.^{citation needed}
• Fund placement advisory group

References

External links

• The Blackstone Group website

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