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Blackstone Group

Profile

A publicly-owned alternative asset management firm primarily known for private equity but also provides an array of services including fund of M&A, hedge funds and real estate funds. The company went public on June 22, 2007, led by Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter.

Co-founded by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman in 1985 with $400,000 in seed capital, Blackstone is named after its founders (”Schwarz” is black in German and “Peter” is stone in Greek). At the time of the IPO, Peterson (retiring Dec 2008) owned about 4 percent of the firm and Schwarzman 24 percent.

The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Making up the firm’s ranks include 64 senior managing directors (as of August 2007) and 340 other professionals. June ‘07 filings revealed that the firm’s SMDs on average received about $2.3MM in performance compensation (assuming 60 SMDs at the time).

Recruiting

Blackstone’s recruiting process for Analysts begins in the fall at target schools. Interested applicants not attending the target schools should apply directly in early August. Hires start in early July. Analyst intern recruiting begins in early January.

The process is similar for MBAs interested in Associate positions — non-target school 2nd years are encouraged to apply in early September via the website while target school 2nd years should apply through the career services in their school. Hires begin in early August.

Associate internship recruiting begins in January at target schools; non-target 1st years should send their resumes in December. The 10-week Associate internship begins in early June.

Sources:
SEC filings
Blackstone company website
Washington Post, “Private-Equity King Blackstone To Test Roiling Public Waters”
NYTimes, Blackstone Group Goes Public