Its business divisions include:
- Private Equity Group (manages holdings in Allied Waste , Graham Packaging , Celanese , Nalco , Houghton Mifflin , Premcor , American Axle , Prime Hospitality , and Universal Studios Florida ).
- Real Estate Group (holds more than 13 million square feet (1.2 km²) of real estate in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.)
- Corporate Debt Group
- Marketable Alternative Investments (Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, or BAAM), a Hedge Fund , first used only by internal investments, now open to clients.
- Relative Value Fixed Income Investments
- Corporate Advisory Services
- Restructuring & Reorganization Advisory (clients have included XEROX , Enron , Bally Total Fitness , and Global Crossing ).
In recent years Blackstone has made significant investments in the hotel and commercial real estate industries by buying and taking private seven large publicly-traded firms:
- In March, 2004 affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors paid $1.9B to acquire Extended StayAmerica (ESA). ESA has since been combined with Blackstone's previously-owned Homestead Village brand and rechristened Extended Stay Hotels.
- In August, 2004 Blackstone paid $800M to acquire Prime Hospitality . Prime's AmeriSuites brand was quickly sold to Global Hyatt and has since been reborn as Hyatt Place . Thirty seven Wellesley Inns were converted to the Extended StayAmerica brand and the Prime Hotel Saratoga Springs was transitioned to the emerging LXR Luxury Resorts brand.
- In October, 2004 Boca Resorts, Inc. agreed to be sold to Blackstone for $1.25B. Boca Resorts owned and operated five resort properties in Florida that were all transitioned to the LXR Luxury Resorts brand.
- In June, 2005 Blackstone acquired Wyndham International for $3.2B. The Wyndham brand and management business was sold to Cendant Corp and 14 full-service Wyndham hotels located primarily in urban locations were sold to Columbia Sussex, a private hotel ownership and management business based outside Cincinnati, KY. The 21 hotels that remained consisted of Wyndham's prized resort assets and included such properties as El Conquistador Resort & Spa in Puerto Rico, The Reach Resort in Key West, FL, and Carmel Valley Ranch in Carmel, CA. These assets were converted to the LXR brand. Summerfield Suites , Wyndham's extended stay offering was sold to Global Hyatt and will be renamed Hyatt Summerfield Suites.
- In January, 2006 Blackstone closed on its $3.4B previously announced acquisition of La Quinta Corporation, an owner, manager, and franchisor of limited service hotels under the La Quinta Inns, La Quinta Inn & Suites, and Baymont Inn brands. It is anticipated La Quinta's midscale assets will be closely linked with Extended Stay Hotels. In March, 2006 Blackstone announced it would sell the Baymont Inn brand to the Cendant Hotel Group and re-brand Baymont's existing hotels as La Quintas.
- In February, 2006 Blackstone announced it would purchase Meristar Hospitality Corporation and its 57 hotel assets for $2.6B. It is anticipated Meristar's additional 10 Florida resorts (which Blackstone announced it would acquire separately several weeks before buying the entire company) will be relaunched as members of the LXR brand.
- In March, 2006, Blackstone announced its largest REIT purchase, intending to acquire CarrAmerica Realty Trust for $5.6B. CarrAmerica owns stakes in 285 upscale office properties throughout the US.
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