Private equity fund reportedly would raise $4 billion Blackstone Group, a large private equity group whose shareholdings include some major IT names, is planning an initial public offering.The group’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission didn’t disclose the proposed value of the offering and a member of staff in the group’s London office refused to discuss the matter. U.S. media reported the issue will raise about US$4 billion.The New York-based investment group most recently made headlines in the IT sector when it led a US$17.6 billion acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. Blackstone and three other private equity firms bought the chip-maker and took the company private in December 2006. Last year Blackstone also became a major shareholder in Deutsche Telekom AG. It acquired a 4.5 percent stake in the major European telecommunications carrier from the German state-owned bank KfW for €2.7 billion (US$3.6 billion).Earlier in 2006 the company was reported to be in talks to acquire IT services outsourcing company Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) but the deal fell through when ACS took itself off the market. Blackstone was also linked with Hewlett-Packard Co. in talks to acquire Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC).Blackstone had $78.7 billion of funds under investment as of March 1 of which $31.1 billion was in equities, it said in the SEC filing. It turned a net profit of $2.3 billion in 2006 and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange. SecurityTechnology IndustryCareers