There was a day when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. was the unquestioned king of the private equity hill. These days, it's much harder to make the claim. It's still a powerhouse, but as it eyes the future, there's a bit irony in this: its future may depend on businesses other than leveraged buyout.

It is bent on becoming anything but the "one-trick pony" that Blackstone Group's Steve Schwarzman once derided it as. The company's push to diversify is taking it into uncharted waters, "a campaign of reinvention," notes TheDeal.

The firm is "incubating new investment vehicles with the pluck of a Silicon Valley startup. KKR has spawned more than eight new businesses since 2004, three just in the last year, as it sheds old constraints and embraces a freer, more assertive business style."

KKR's first stab at new markets came in with the 2004 startup of KKR Financial, now a part of KKR Asset Management. Since then, it has launched an infrastructure and energy investing group, a mezzanine debt business, and a distressed-debt/special-situations unit, notes the magazine.

The bank has perhaps drawn the most acclaim for its capital markets unit, which ranks as the most active private equity-owned investment banking unit on Wall Street. Its first bond deal was a $1 billion financing for SunGard in September 2008.

These diversification moves are necessary and all of the big private equity firms are moving in a similar direction, just as most are seeking to go public.

All told, it's unlikely that any new endeavor will emerge as truly transformative for these firms. None will generate the kind of revenue that LBOs did back in the day.

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