Tuesday night two of America's biggest stars -- Napoleon -- a.k.a. Blackstone Group LP's (NYSE: BX) CEO Steve Schwarzman and Paris Hilton collided. The reason? The Wall Street Journal reports that Blackstone won a $20 billion bid to acquire Hilton Hotels Corp. (NYSE: HLT).
How much of this $20 billion will go to Paris? Nobody knows. However, the Conrad N. Hilton Fund, controls about 5.3% of Hilton's shares outstanding. If the Blackstone deal goes through, that stake will be worth about $990 million. Conrad has 8 children, including Paris's dad. Assuming that all the kids get an equal share, Paris's dad would get about $125 million -- if that figure was eventually split between Paris, and her sister, Nicky, Paris would receive over $60 million.
This spring a group of students in one of my classes delivered a presentation on the hotel industry. One of the students in that group predicted that Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR) and Hilton could get taken over by private equity. Another student commented, with apologies to Paris Hilton, "That's Hot!"
Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.
