Leitner, who became CEO in 1994, teamed up with a group of private equity companies including Carlyle Group to lead a management buyout in 1999.

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The offer, capping six months of negotiations between the Department of Economic and Community Development and Freedom Group, was dropped after private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced it would sell Freedom Group, manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15.

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Publicly traded alternative investment and capital management firm (formerly a private equity shop) Blackstone Group (BX) has been leading the charge.

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Most of the other big private equity firms, like the Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group, Apollo Global Management, KKR and Oaktree Capital Management, now trade publicly.

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The management buy-out bought MFI from its previous owner, private equity group Merchant Equity Partners (MEP).

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The heads of private equity giants KKR ( KKR), Apollo Global Management ( APO) and The Blackstone Group ( BX) all earned their stripes and built buyout skills working in the investment banking units of Wall Street mainstays before breaking out to master the art of the buyout.

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Now he chairs Pamplona Capital Management, a British private equity firm he founded in 2005, whose clients include Alfa Group.

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In December the group created a new asset management unit, China Merchants Capital, to oversee private equity and alternative investments (Fu is its chairman and CEO).

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Note: there is no connection between the for-profit education concern, the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix, and Apollo Global Management, the private-equity business that is purchasing the McGraw-Hill education division.

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