he Carlyle Group is a Washington, D.C. based private investment firm. It is a private equity firm that employs numerous high-ranking government officials with ties to both political parties. A private equity is a form of investing in which companies such as Carlyle invest in private companies and real estate. The Group was established in 1987 pioneering investing in the defense and national security markets. It is now one of the world's largest private equity firms with more than $18.9 billion under management.
William E. Conway, Jr., Daniel A. D'Aniello, and David M. Rubenstein founded Carlyle. They named the firm after the Upper East Side hotel in New York City, "The Carlyle". The current chairman is Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM. The firm employs more than 300 investment professionals in 14 countries. The firm has multiple offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. It operates four investment disciplines, which include management-led buyouts, real estate, leveraged finance, and venture capital. Carlyle specializes in a list of industries: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Customer & Industrial, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology & Business Services, Telecom & Media, and Transportation. Unlike other well-known defense firms like Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co., Carlyle itself is not a manufacturer. It manages investments. 60 percent of Carlyle's defense business is brought in by United Defense Inc., which manufactures combat vehicles, artillery, naval guns, missile launchers, and precision munitions.
The Carlyle Group was ranked 9th largest Pentagon contractor from 1998 to 2003. The Company's "edge is its ability to leverage local insight of its investment professionals, collaborating across the firm's inves ...