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Blackstone Makes Biggest Acquisition Ever

The Blackstone Group, a private investment and advisory firm founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, had agreed to pay $48.50 a share for Equity Office Properties Trust, the nation?s largest office-building owner and manager. Blackstone will pay $20 billion and will assume Equity Office`s debt of $16 billion, making this deal the largest leveraged buyout in history, totaling at $36 billion, $3 billion more then Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity paid for the Hospital Corporation of America earlier this year. The $48.50 a share price represents an 8.5 percent premium to the company`s closing price on Friday - $44.72.

Equity office owns 590 building in major metropolitan markets, operating over 105 million square feet of office space. The company was founded in 1976 by Sam Zell, who has through the years acquired more then $17 billion worth of real-estate including last year`s acquisition of the Verizon Building in Manhattan for a whapping $515 million.

Equity Office who has for years been buying more and more companies was forced to reduce its holdings in less profitable markets in recent years. Buildings in markets such as Dallas and New Orleans were sold while the company straightened its hold on the real estate markets, cities such as New York and Washington. This trend peaked in 2005 when the company sold $2.7 billion worth of real estate property. On the other hand, Blackstone has purchased more large building then any other company in the US 5- years-in-a-row, totaling at $32 billion.