From this article by William D. Cohan in Bloomberg Businessweek:
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“Revenue’s running down 20 percent,” Gray recalls. “Cash flow is down around 30 percent. We get a huge suit. The DOJ opens up an investigation. It was definitely a low moment in the deal.” Blackstone was in serious danger of losing the bulk of its $5.6 billion. “I promise you this is the absolute bottom,” Nassetta recalls Gray telling him that summer, bucking himself up, too. “How can it get any worse than this?” Four years later, when Blackstone took the company public in December 2013, its timing proved impeccable. And this July, when Hilton’s stock closed at $24.80, Gray and Nassetta had officially transformed Hilton into the most lucrative private equity deal ever, with a paper profit of $12 billion. One key to this good fortune is obvious... |