Blackstone. IPO. It's here.

Just a few moments ago Blackstone filed the prospectus for its much anticipated initial public offering!

Update: You can read it here.

Update: Offering as much as $4 billion of equity to the public.

Update: It's not a stock offering. It's limited partnership shares, following the model established by the Fortress IPO.

Update: While Blackstone does not reveal what Steve Schwarzman or other top executives made last year, it does give us Schwarzman's future salary--$350,000.

Update: Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Citigroup Global Markets Inc are the lead underwriters. No mention of Goldman Sachs. When news that Blackstone was planning a public offering broke, there were reports that the prospectus was being worked on at Goldman Sachs. As both DealBreaker and CNBC's Charlie Gasparino reported, such reports appear to have been baseless. Which is a nice way of saying "wrong."

Update: The other banks Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse Group, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG. So, yep, no Goldman Sachs.

Update: As one of our commenters pointed out, Blackstone trumpets the fact that none of its professional employees have severance agreements. "We have no severance arrangements with any of our professionals. Accordingly, unlike in the case of many public companies, the departure of an executive officer or other senior managing director would not trigger any contractual obligation on our part to make any special payments to the departing professional," the prospectus states (emphasis added, of course). That's a little private equity chest thumping.

Update: DealBook's instant reaction serves up two good tidbits: "Blackstone’s private equity business reported income before taxes of $1 billion last year, and its real estate business had pretax income of $903 million," DealBook says.

Update:The prospectus discloses that Pete Peterson still intends to retire from Blackstone "by no later than December 31, 2008." It goes on the lay out an almost chain of succession for the "powers and authorities" of Blackstone's founders, which apparently will continue even when the founders are gone. "When Mr. Peterson relinquishes his role as a founder, all of the powers and authorities of our founders will be vested in Mr. Schwarzman alone. Mr. Schwarzman has informed us that when he decides to relinquish his role as a founder, it is his current intention to recommend that Hamilton E. James be provided with the authority of the founders in his place," the prospectus says.