Profile of the Blackstone Group
In 1985, former Lehman Brothers employees Steve Schwarzman and Peter Peterson established Blackstone Group. It is an asset management and a financial service corporation with four major cores specializing in real estate, fund placement advisory, private equity assets, and marketable alternative assets management. Its real estate business became highly active since its creation in 1992. Their asset management segment was created two years earlier, while the private equity operations and financial advisory started in 1987.
Since then, The Blackstone Group has become one of the largest private equity investment firms in the world. Founders Steve Schwarzman and Peter Peterson were the heads of the mergers and acquisitions team and the CEO and Chairman of Lehman Brothers, respectively. The name “Blackstone” was derived from the founders’ cryptogram names; Schwarz means black in German, while Peter means stone in Greek. In 2008, both Steven Schwarzman and Peter Peterson were ranked in Forbes 400 Richest Americans annual list.
Steve Schwarzman and Peter Peterson only had a seed capital of $400,000 for the establishment of the group. Over the years though, the firm has completed a number of big deals with companies such as CBS Corporation, Prudential Insurance Company, Nikko Securities, and the CNW Corporation.
During and between 2006 and 2007, the company founded by Steve Schwarzman and Peter Peterson completed some of the largest leveraged buyouts. Among their billions worth of transactions were the Hilton Hotels Corporation, Michaels Stores, Freescale Semiconductor, and Equity Office Properties.
