Way back when, it seemed that The Blackstone Group got the best of rival Kohlberg Kravis Roberts when it managed to go public first. That was a year and a half ago. KKR of course still hasn't gone public--and they must be feeling a bit lucky. It has hardly been a picnic for Blackstone, who just reported the biggest loss as a public company, a massive $500 million loss. Its stock has fallen 70 percent since the offering, which occurred at the peak of the private equity boom. Of course, the market has been tough on KKR too. A KKR fund trades publicly in Amsterdam and it has been under pressure as well, this month it marked down the value of some big deals, notably TXU. 

For more:
- here's a Forbes article

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