Private equity has a new place to stay

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Scott Jagow: Private equity is getting its hands on just about every single industry. The latest acquisition: Hilton Hotels. Blackstone Group has agreed to buy Hilton for $20 billion, plus some debt.

Berkeley Law Professor Eric Talley says hotels are hot right now.

Eric Talley: This is a big deal in what has been sort of a series of hotel acquisitions over the last few months, but the other ones are sort of little potatoes compared to this one. One of Blackstone’s big competitors, KKR, is about to go public itself. It has shown interest in this market as well, and it wouldn’t be surprising if it continued to play in the hotel acquisition game.

Hilton’s stock shot up 6 percent on the Blackstone news.

As you just heard, the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is going public. KKR is following Blackstone’s lead. Blackstone just made $4 billion with its IPO. KKR is expected to raise $1.25 billion.