The Blackstone Group, L.P. (NYSE: BX) is an alternative asset management and financial services company. In 1985, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Peter G. Peterson, who retired from the firm in 2008, co-founded The Blackstone Group with a shared secretary and a balance sheet of $400,000.
In 2007, Blackstone completed a $4 billion initial public offering to become one of the first major private equity firms to list shares in its management company on a public exchange.
Today Blackstone is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol BX) with total fee-earnings assets under management of $96.3 billion as of September 30, 2009.