Visual Map: Blackstone Acquisition of Hilton Hotels

Senior leadership likely led the merger discussions of Private Equity giant Blackstone and Hilton Hotels - the largest hotel group in the world by number of rooms.  After running several Common Connection analyses with IntellectSpace FN ( www.intellectspace.com), it became clear that it couldn't have been difficult to get the two of these leadership teams in a serious merger discussion.

Below is the first Knowledge Map in our analysis - visually mapping the common connections between the two firms:

http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=6dc8bcc6-61a3-493c-be9d-9fa8ea9d6005

Viewing the Knowledge Map quickly shows that John Notter (Hilton Hotel's Board Member) and Hamilton James (Vice-Chairman of Blackstone) shared board seats at Credit Suise First Boston, and could have helped to spur discussions.  To take a closer look at their connection with one another, we created another Knowledge Map to identify all of the connections of these two individuals:

http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=2647706e-d839-45dc-bef8-2f508ff6e202

Having a feeling that Hamilton James (the imminent leader of Blackstone) was intimately involved in these discussions, we then mapped his common connections with Hilton Hotel's CEO and Co-Chairman - Stephen Bollenbach. 

Below is the IntellectSpace Knowledge Map that visually maps the common connections between these two powerful individuals:

http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=167b5e8d-be4e-40e5-8984-87a8180ded1d

Viewing this Knowledge Map shows that Bollenbach and James both share board seats with Flagstar Companies Inc / FCI Chairman - James Adamson; Bollenbach sits on K-Mart's board with Adamson and James sits on FCI's Board with Adamson.  Adamson could have played a key role in bringing these powerhouses together.

Just another example of how relationships drive deal flow.