Sign up today and take advantage of member-only content — the kind of timely, cutting edge industry insight that only IDD can deliver.
  • Investment Dealers' Digest one-month trial subscription
  • IDDMagazine.com one-month trial subscription
  • Free e-newsletters
  • Free whitepapers

Private Equity Briefcase

By Kelly Holman, IDD Magazine

February 2, 2009

Defendant Blackstone

Defendant Blackstone.

That’s how The Blackstone Group is being labeled in the new lawsuit filed by the publisher of the Financial Times against the New York private equity firm its newspaper has covered in the press, according to the New York Observer. The FT is suing Blackstone for copyright infringement because the investment firm allegedly allowed its staffers to access thousands of online articles via one account.

Oh goodness. Is it really much of a surprise that a private equity firm with 93 senior managing directors and more than 780 other investment professionals spread around the globe as of last year (Blackstone is in the midst of layoffs) would seek to minimize its subscription costs?

Of course, it’s not. Private equity firms are notorious for enacting cost-cutting measures. That doesn’t mean taking advantage of the FT was fair or that the firm is above reproach given its stature in the leveraged buyout world. Buyout firms, after all, are paid substantial management fees on capital committed to their funds.

As one veteran New York investment banker told this reporter: “Private equity firms are still viewed as having a fair amount of capital for expenses.”

The suit, however, took Blackstone by surprise, said a source close to the firm. After the FT alerted Blackstone about it concerns that the private equity firm's employees were taking advantage of one password, the firm investigated the matter, the source said.

The private equity firm, which has 63 subscribers to the FT, found that eight employees were using one password to access the newspaper. It then sought to settle the matter with the newspaper and all seemed to be heading towards happy-ending land as settlements go. That is, until Blackstone discovered last Wednesday that the newspaper had filed suit.

The buyout firm has retained Simpson Thacher & Bartlett to defend itself.

Recent Posts

PE's Forecast

If the clouds would just go away for more than a day, perhaps the summer will arrive in time to give dealmakers a break from the M&A industry’s perfect storm.

A Day For The Ages

A Dow Jones Industrial Average with no Citi and no GM? No surprise, but somehow it still hurts.

Starting Small May Lead To Something Big

Despite the ever-mushrooming number of independent M&A advisory boutiques, it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the middle-market dealmaking landscape has changed.

It's A Joke, Right?

How can the consortium offer for GM's Saturn Distribution Corp., announced by a mysterious private equity firm named Black Oak Partners, be taken seriously?

Index of Posts

4 Comments

eKwXD2

Posted by: lymanknap l | August 4, 2010 9:22 PM

IKoBQr

Posted by: lymanknap l | August 4, 2010 7:31 AM

YHMjCK

Posted by: folcklord f | July 20, 2010 1:19 AM

hLUaxj

Posted by: folcklord f | July 19, 2010 3:35 PM

Add Your Comments...

Already Registered?

If you have already registered to Money Management Executive, please use the form below to login. When completed you will immeditely be directed to post a comment.

Forgot your password?

Not Registered?

You must be registered to post a comment. Click here to register.

Kelly Holman

Kelly Holman is the assistant managing editor at Investment Dealers' Digest, where he writes about private equity and leveraged finance. Prior to joining IDD, he reported on leveraged buyout transactions, private equity fundraising activity, corporate auctions, the middle market and credit markets as a senior writer for The Deal. Before joining The Deal in 2000, Holman was a reporter for PRWeek magazine, where he reported on financial services PR and investor relation activities, as well as international PR developments. He also assisted with Haymarket Media Group's US launch of the public relations trade magazine. Previous to PRWeek, Holman wrote about private equity for Private Equity Week and Buyouts and served as a contributor to IDD in the late 1990's. A Colorado transplant, Holman has called New York home for more than a decade. He received his B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of Colorado at Denver..

Related Items