Lots of us speculated at the time that Blackstone’s IPO was rather talented timing. Others claimed the IPO of a LBO firm was a bit of tricky hypocrisy. (If public markets are so awful, why are you gleefully availing yourself of their capital, hmmm?) We never bought that bit of rhetorical spin, though.
For the top timing to have been the perfection we have come to expect from the top of the capitalist pig food chain, enough time to drain large hunks of the equity off into cash (Mark Cuban, we are glaring at you) and substantially diversify before the slow but steady slide eats away so much unrealized wealth that you might as well have stayed private. Sure, restricted shares and lock-ins make that tougher now than it was in Cuban’s day, but you see the point, surely.
Blackstone has been bleeding away value effectively since the IPO. To such an extent, in fact, that the regularity of their price slide defies the conventional wisdom that there are no straight lines in nature.
The only real surprise is that anyone bought their “break even” estimates. Hope springs eternal.
Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, posted the biggest quarterly loss in 18 months as a public company as the financial crisis eroded the value of the businesses and real estate it has acquired.
The loss was $502.5 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with a profit of $234 million, or 21 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Blackstone had been expected to break even, based on the average estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
Blackstone Has Quarterly Loss on Asset Writedowns [Bloomberg]
Memo to that tool this morning that said PE firms rarely let people go. This is a ticking timebomb, cant wait till it goes boom on your as*.
First!
owners are already cashed in. this would have been gravy. don’t know if you read the prospectus.
Too Ponzi, didn’t read
“the regularity of their price slide defies the conventional wisdom that there are no straight lines in nature”
Piece of art, EP
Uh…. EP Cuban was paid in yahoo shares when he sold Broadcast.com. He hedged his position, and the vast majority of his wealth comes from profits on those hedges.
Cuban 1, Yang 0.
“Posted by VOL IS KING, Nov 06, 2008 11:09AM
Uh…. EP Cuban was paid in yahoo shares when he sold Broadcast.com. He hedged his position, and the vast majority of his wealth comes from profits on those hedges.
Cuban 1, Yang 0.”
I believe that was my point.
@2 – Actually, only Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson cashed in material amounts on the offering. Peterson sold most of his position (and gave it to charity), and Stevie sold a bit.
At this writing, Crab hands’ paper loss on BX from the offer price is around $5.7 billion. That’ll leave a mark on anyone.
BLACKSTONE CUT CARRYING VALUE OF PRIVATE EQUITY BY 8%
i called my broker and repriced my carrying values to 8%.
@1 hey dildo, be careful what you wish for, if i get fired i have even more time for banging your girlfriend..
Yoooooooooo
@9, nice try. She doesnt want to hang with a tool with no job. Good luck knob. By the way, thats the kind of talk from a guy who never gets laid. Whats next mother jokes?
@ep
OK, one can not be faulted for thinking your point was that Cuban received cash from Yahoo. Which would imply luck and no recognitions of the top by Cuban. But Cuban’s story is one of foresight rather than luck and I wasn’t sure you recognized that.
I’m not sure how selling calls and buying puts is anymore difficult today than it was in 1999, i’m quite sure in fact its easier.
Why sin’t anyone fired up that Franken almost won Minn?
I recall something about a $700M payday for Schwartzman and a few others right after the IPO.
Also, when is Blackstone going to start laying off some of their not-so-best and not-so-brightest? You know, take your pick from these clowns…
http://www.blackstone.com/team/default.asp
The Guy from Delaware
15
“OK, one can not be faulted for thinking your point was that Cuban received cash from Yahoo. Which would imply luck and no recognitions of the top by Cuban. But Cuban’s story is one of foresight rather than luck and I wasn’t sure you recognized that.
I’m not sure how selling calls and buying puts is anymore difficult today than it was in 1999, i’m quite sure in fact its easier.”
My point was that he squeezed cash from equity quickly enough to be covered when things fell apart. BX? Not so much.
Also, I don’t think Cuban is the genius that many do. Timing. Luck. Good financial adviser. Woke up on third base, told mom he hit a triple.
haaaaah-hahahahahahahahahha!
“EP” boiling Cuban down to timing, luck etc., is funny…
given that EP herself sounds like a ‘diversity hire’- certainly timing, luck, and a good reco. did her well!
why the f do we know so much about other DB writers, yet you are cocoon’ed in a Pahlin-esque bubble?
So ep, the IPO its self was cash out? The units they sold were worthless in the first place, any penny they get above zero should be viewed as a Cuban sized payout.
So ep,
the issue is the IPO itself was the cash out. The units they sold were worthless in the first place, any penny they get above zero should be viewed as a Cuban sized payout.