The Carlyle Group is an American multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation. As one of the largest private equity and alternative investment firms in the world, Carlyle specializes in four key business areas: corporate private equity, real assets, global market strategies, and investment solutions.

Carlyle's corporate private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyout transactions over the decade 2004–2014 (or perhaps 2000–2010), while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate. Since its inception, Carlyle has at various times had investments in companies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Dex Media, Dunkin' Brands, Freescale Semiconductor, Getty Images, HCR Manor Care, Hertz, Kinder Morgan, Nielsen, and United Defense.

Carlyle was founded in 1987 in Washington D.C. by William E. Conway Jr., Daniel A. D'Aniello, and David Rubenstein and currently operates with more than 1,550 employees across 31 offices in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia. In 2012, Carlyle completed a $700 million initial public offering and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange on May 3, 2012.

According to a 2015 ranking called the PEI 300 based on capital raised over the last five years, Carlyle was ranked No. 1 as the largest private equity firm in the world.

The firm is organized into four business segments:

Carlyle's Corporate Private Equity division manages a series of leveraged buyout and growth capital investment funds with specific geographic or industry focuses. Carlyle invests primarily in the following industries: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, health care, industrial, real estate, technology and business services, telecommunications & media, and transportation.

Carlyle’s Corporate Private Equity segment advises 21 buyout and 10 growth capital funds, with more than $56 billion in AUM as of September 30, 2017.

Carlyle's Real Assets segment advises 11 U.S. and internationally- focused real estate funds, two infrastructure funds, two power funds, an international energy fund, and four Legacy Energy funds (funds that Carlyle jointly advises with Riverstone). The segment also includes five NGP management fee funds and four carry funds advised by NGP. The Real Assets segment had approximately $40 billion in AUM as of September 30, 2017.

Carlyle’s Global Market Strategies segment advises 56 funds that pursue investment opportunitites across structured credit, distressed debt, corporate and energy mezzanine debt, and middle-market and senior debt. The Global Market Strategies segment had approximately $40 billion in AUM as of September 30, 2017.

Carlyle’s Investment Solutions segment advises global private equity (AlpInvest Partners) and real estate (Metropolitan) fund of funds programs and related co-investment and secondary activities across 190 fund vehicles. The Investment Solutions segment had approximately $47 billion AUM as of September 30, 2017.

AlpInvest Partners is one of the largest private equity investment managers globally with over €39 billion under management as of June 30, 2017, invested alongside more than 250 private equity firms. Founded in 1999, AlpInvest has historically been the exclusive manager of private equity investments for the investment managers of two of the world's largest pension funds Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP (ABP) and Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), both based in the Netherlands. In 2011, Carlyle acquired AlpInvest and has integrated the business, including its leading fund-of-funds and secondary platforms, significantly expanding Carlyle's global asset management business.

AlpInvest pursues investment opportunities across the entire spectrum of private equity including: large buyout, middle-market buyout, venture capital, growth capital, mezzanine, distressed and sustainable energy investments. AlpInvest has offices in New York City, Amsterdam and Hong Kong with approximately 150 people, of whom more than 80 are investment professionals.

Carlyle's real estate fund of funds group is called Metropolitan, which provides investors with access to multi-manager real estate funds and solutions with more than 85 fund managers in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Metropolitan constructs and manages U.S., non-U.S. and global real estate portfolios, which include primary and secondary fund interests as well as co-investments.

Carlyle was founded in 1987 as an investment banking boutique by five original partners with backgrounds in finance and government: William E. Conway, Jr., Stephen L. Norris, David M. Rubenstein, Daniel A. D'Aniello and Greg Rosenbaum. The founding partners named the firm after the Carlyle Hotel in New York City where Norris and Rubenstein had often met to discuss the formation of their new investment business. Rubenstein, who was a Washington-based lawyer, had worked in the Carter Administration. Norris and D'Aneillo had previously worked together at Marriott Corporation while Conway was a finance executive at MCI Communications. Of the founding five partners Rubenstein, Conway and D'Aneillo remain active in the business while Rosenbaum left in the first year and Norris departed in 1995. Carlyle was founded with $5 million of financial backing from T. Rowe Price, Alex. Brown & Sons, First Interstate Equities, and the Richard King Mellon family.

In the late 1980s, Carlyle raised capital on a deal-by-deal basis to pursue leveraged buyout investments including a failed takeover battle for Chi-Chi's. The firm raised its first dedicated buyout fund with $100 million of investor commitments in 1990. In its early years, Carlyle also advised in transactions including a $500 million investment by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family, in Citigroup in 1991.

Carlyle initially developed a reputation for acquiring businesses related to the defense industry. In 1992, Carlyle completed the acquisition of the Electronics division of General Dynamics Corporation, renamed GDE Systems, a producer of military electronics systems. Carlyle would later sell the business to Tracor in October 1994. Carlyle acquired Magnavox Electronic Systems, the military communications and electronic-warfare systems segment of Magnavox, from Philips Electronics in 1993. Carlyle sold Magnavox for approximately $370 million to Hughes Aircraft Company in 1995. Carlyle also invested in Vought Aircraft through a partnership with Northrop Grumman. Carlyle's most notable defense industry investment came in October 1997 with its acquisition of United Defense Industries. The $850 million acquisition of United Defense represented Carlyle's largest investment to that point. Carlyle was able to complete an IPO of United Defense on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2001 selling a significant portion of its interest in the company. Carlyle completed a sale of its remaining United Defense stock and exited the investment in April 2004. In more recent years, Carlyle has deemphasized its focus on defense industry investments.

Carlyle's 2001 investor conference took place on September 11, 2001. In the weeks following the meeting, it was reported that Shafiq bin Laden, a member of the Bin Laden family, had been the "guest of honor", and that they were investors in Carlyle managed funds. Later reports confirmed that the Bin Laden family had invested $2 million into Carlyle's $1.3 billion Carlyle Partners II Fund in 1995, making the family relatively small investors with the firm. However, their overall investment might have been considerably larger, with the $2 million committed in 1995 only being an initial contribution that grew over time. These connections would later be profiled in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911. The Bin Laden family liquidated its holdings in Carlyle's funds in October 2001, just after the September 11th attacks, when the connection of their family name to the Carlyle Group's name became impolitic.

Following the collapse of the Dot-com bubble in 2000 and 2001, buyout activity declined significantly. Marked by the two-stage buyout of Dex Media at the end of 2002 and 2003, large multibillion-dollar U.S. buyouts could once again obtain significant high yield debt financing and larger transactions could be completed. Carlyle, together with Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, led a $7.5 billion buyout of QwestDex. The buyout was the third largest corporate buyout since 1989. QwestDex's purchase occurred in two stages: a $2.75 billion acquisition of assets known as Dex Media East in November 2002 and a $4.30 billion acquisition of assets known as Dex Media West in 2003. R. H. Donnelley Corporation acquired Dex Media in 2006. Shortly after Dex Media, other larger buyouts would be completed signaling the resurgence in private equity was underway.

Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM and Nabisco, was appointed chairman of Carlyle in January 2003, replacing Frank Carlucci. Gerstner would serve in that position through October 2008. The hiring of Gerstner, was intended to reduce the perception of Carlyle as a politically dominated firm. At the time, Carlyle, which had been founded 15 years earlier had accumulated $13.9 billion of assets under management and had generated annualized returns for investors of 36%.

Carlyle also announced the $1.6 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Telcom from Verizon in May 2004. Carlyle's investment was immediately challenged when Hawaii regulators delayed the closing of the buyout. The company also suffered billing and customer-service issues as it had to recreate its back-office systems. Hawaiian Telcom ultimately filed for bankruptcy in December 2008, costing Carlyle the $425 million it had invested in the company.

As the activity of the large private equity firms increased in the mid-2000s, Carlyle kept pace with such competitors as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Blackstone Group, and TPG Capital. In 2005, Carlyle, together with Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Merrill Lynch completed the $15.0 billion leveraged buyout of The Hertz Corporation, the largest car rental agency from Ford.

The following year, in August 2006, Carlyle and its Riverstone Holdings affiliate partnered with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in the $27.5 billion (including assumed debt) acquisition of Kinder Morgan, one of the largest pipeline operators in the US. The buyout was backed by Richard Kinder, the company's co-founder and a former president of Enron.

In September 2006, Carlyle led a consortium, comprising Blackstone Group, Permira and TPG Capital, in the $17.6 billion takeover of Freescale Semiconductor. At the time of its announcement, Freescale would be the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company ever, surpassing the 2005 buyout of SunGard. The buyers were forced to pay an extra $800 million because KKR made a last-minute bid as the original deal was about to be signed. Shortly after the deal closed in late 2006, cell phone sales at Motorola Corp., Freescale's former corporate parent and a major customer, began dropping sharply. In addition, in the recession of 2008–2009, Freescale's chip sales to automakers fell off, and the company came under great financial strain.

Earlier that year, in January 2006, Carlyle together with Blackstone Group, AlpInvest Partners, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Thomas H. Lee Partners acquired Nielsen Company, the global information and media company formerly known as VNU in an $8.9 billion buyout. Also in 2006, Carlyle acquired Oriental Trading Company which ultimately declared bankruptcy in August 2010 as well as Forba Dental Management, the owner of Small Smiles Dental Centers, the largest US chain of dental clinics for children.

On January 28, 2007, the Carlyle group purchased Synagro Technologies, a municipal sludge hauler and spreader, for $5.76 per share.

Carlyle continued to make large investments into 2007 as the buyout market reached its peak. In June 2007, Carlyle agrees to acquire HD Supply for $10.3 billion, along with Bain Capital and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division). Home Depot sold their wholesale construction supply business to fund a stock repurchase estimated at $40 billion. Also in June 2007, Carlyle announced that it would partner with Onex Corporation to buy the Allison Transmission unit from General Motors for $5.6 billion.

On May 16, 2008, Booz Allen Hamilton announced that it would sell a majority stake in the US government business to The Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion. The transaction was expected to be complete July 31, 2008.

In November 2008, The Carlyle Group was named Private Equity firm of the year in the U.S. at the Financial Times-Mergermarket 2008 M&A Awards.

In March 2009, New York State and federal authorities began an investigation into payments made by Carlyle's Riverstone Holdings subsidiary to placement agents allegedly made in exchange for investments from the New York State Common Retirement System, the state's pension fund. In 2000, Carlyle had entered into a joint venture with Riverstone Holdings, an energy and power focused private equity firm founded by Pierre F. Lapeyre, Jr. and David M. Leuschen. It was alleged that these payments were in fact bribes or kickbacks, made to pension officials who have been under investigation by New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. In May 2009, Carlyle agreed to pay $20 million in a settlement with Cuomo and accepted changes to its fundraising practices.

On October 16, 2009, Carlyle Group bought Metaldyne – a global automotive components supplier.

On November 30, 2009, David Rosendall, a Synagro executive was sentenced for conspiring to commit bribery, in the corruption scandal which eventually brought down the mayor of the City of Detroit. The executive for the Carlyle portfolio company was caught giving cash to Detroit city leadership.

On September 30, 2010, Carlyle Group announced the completed acquisition of nutritional supplement manufacturer NBTY for $4 Billion.

On September 4, 2011, the carpet manufacturer Brintons announced that it had been acquired by the Carlyle Group.

On October 3, 2011, the pharmaceutical contract research organisation PPD announced that it had been acquired by the Carlyle Group.

In August 2012, Carlyle Group announced that it would purchase DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC) for $4.9 billion in cash. DPC is a global supplier of vehicle and industrial coating systems. The transaction closed in the first quarter of 2013 and the new company was named Axalta Coating Systems.

In October 2012, Carlyle Group sold its remaining 3.7% stake in Housing Development Finance Corporation for around $841 million.

In November 2012, the Carlyle Group unveiled the first investment of its new Sub-Saharan African Fund. Carlyle is part of a small group of investors that will inject $210 million into Export Trading Group, a Tanzania-based agricultural company that sources commodities from Africa's small farmers and sells those goods to China, India and elsewhere.

January 2013, Carlyle Group began talks to sell Synagro after plowing over $500,000 in 2012 to keep the entity afloat.

April 23, 2013, Carlyle Groups subsidiary, Synagro Technologies, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and in lieu of sale, a reorganization and sale of the company to an affiliate of Swedish private-equity firm EQT. The offer price was set at $460 million, over $300 million less than what Carlyle group originally purchased the entity for in 2007.

In September 2013, it was announced that Carlyle Group has purchased a minority stake in Beats Music for $500m. This came as technology firm, HTC, liquidated their 24.84% stake in Beats for $265m.

In February 2014, The Carlyle Group acquired Diversified Global Asset Management (DGAM), a manager of hedge funds with more than USD6.7bn in managed and advised assets. Equity for the transaction came from Carlyle’s balance sheet. DGAM became Carlyle’s fund of hedge funds platform, and George Main and Warren Wright continued in their roles as CEO and CIO, respectively, managing investments and the day-to-day operations of DGAM

In February 2014, Carlyle entered into exclusive talks with Tyco International to acquire its South Korean security systems unit, valued at around $2 billion. On March 3, 2014, Carlyle announced it had reached a deal with Tyco to purchase its South Korean security business for approximately $1.9 billion in cash.

In March 2014, Carlyle acquired ECi Software Solutions, a business management and e-commerce software company.

In June 2014, Carlyle announced that it had raised $1 billion for financial company investing.

In July 2014, Carlyle Group LP sold a London property to Blackstone Group for $514 million.

In September 2014, Carlyle Group closed its fourth Asia fund at $3.9 billion. it is the second-largest private equity fund ever raised for Asia investments.

In October 2014, Carlyle announced it would acquire a controlling stake in six power plants in the south eastern US state of Georgia worth $2 billion.

In December 2014, Carlyle Group announced its chief accounting officer Curtis Buser would become the company's next chief financial officer.

In August 2015, Carlyle announced it would acquire Symantec's data storage business, Veritas Technologies, for $8 billion. On January 30, 2016, Carlyle Group purchased Veritas.

In September 2015, Carlyle Group, along with the Chertoff Group acquired a majority stake in Coalfire Systems, a global cybersecurity and technology services provider specializing in cyber risk advisory, compliance assessments, technical testing and software services for private enterprises and government organizations.

In September 2015, Carlyle acquired a 51% stake in PA Consulting.

In November 2015, Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake in Brazilian specialised assistance provider Tempo Participações for an undisclosed sum.

In January 2016, Carlyle and Revolution Growth acquired LDiscovery, a technology-enabled eDiscovery services provider.

In March 2016, Carlyle and Vinci Partners acquired Brazil education company Uniasselvi.

In March 2016, Carlyle acquired insurance broker JenCap Holdings LLC.

In June 2016, Carlyle and Vogue International agreed to sell Vogue International to Johnson & Johnson Consumer for $3.3 billion.

In July 2016, Carlyle acquired Akari Care, a healthcare and residential care group based in the UK.

In August 2016, Carlyle acquired WellDyneRx, Inc., a U.S.-based pharmacy benefit manager.

In September 2016, Carlyle acquired Amrod, a South African supplier of promotional products and clothing.

In October 2016, Carlyle acquired Cupa Group, a global manufacturer of roofing slate.

In January 2017, Carlyle acquired Claritas from Nielsen.

In October 2017, Carlyle purchased a stake in the skater-inflected clothing label and international retail chain Supreme (brand).

For the first 25 years of its existence, Carlyle operated as a private partnership controlled by its investment partners. In 2001, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), which had been an investor in Carlyle managed funds since 1996, acquired a 5.5% holding in Carlyle's management company for $175 million. The investment was valued at approximately $1 billion by 2007 at the height of the 2000s buyout boom.

In September 2007, Mubadala Development Company, an investment vehicle for the government of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates, purchased a 7.5% stake for $1.35 billion.

In February 2008, California legislators targeted Carlyle and Mubdala, proposing a bill that would have barred CalPERS from investing money "with private-equity firms that are partly owned by countries with poor records on human rights." The bill, which was intended to draw attention to the connection between Carlyle and Mubadala Development was later withdrawn.

In May 2012, Carlyle completed an initial public offering of the company, listing under the symbol CG on the NASDAQ. The firm, which at the time managed approximately $147 billion of assets, raised $671 million in the offering. Following the IPO, Carlyle's three remaining founding partners, Rubenstein, D'Aniello and Conway retained the position as the company's largest shareholders.

In June 2017, Carlyle took its non-traded BDC, TCG BDC, Inc., public in the first business development company IPO since 2014.

Carlyle has been actively expanding its investment activities and assets under management through a series of acquisitions and joint-ventures.

In March 2008, Carlyle Capital Corporation, established in August 2006 for the purpose of making investments in U.S. mortgage-backed securities, defaulted on about $16.6 billion of debt as the global credit crunch brought about by the subprime mortgage crisis worsened for leveraged investors. The Guernsey-based affiliate of Carlyle was very heavily leveraged, up to 32 times by some accounts, and it expects its creditors to seize its remaining assets. Tremors in the mortgage markets induced several of Carlyle's 13 lenders to make margin calls or to declare Carlyle in default on its loans. In response to the forced liquidation of mortgage-backed assets caused by the Carlyle margin calls and other similar developments in credit markets, on March 11, 2008, the Federal Reserve gave Wall Street's primary dealers the right to post mortgaged-back securities as collateral for loans of up to $200 billion in higher-grade, U.S. government-backed securities.

On 12 March 2008, BBC News Online reported that "instead of underpinning the mortgage-backed securities market, it seems to have had the opposite effect, giving lenders an opportunity to dump the risky asset" and that Carlyle Capital Corp. "will collapse if, as expected, its lenders seize its remaining assets." On March 16, 2008, Carlyle Capital announced that its Class A Shareholders had voted unanimously in favor of the Corporation filing a petition under Part XVI, Sec. 96, of the Companies Law (1994) of Guernsey for a "compulsory winding up proceeding" to permit all its remaining assets to be liquidated by a court-appointed liquidator.

The losses to the Carlyle Group due to the collapse of Carlyle Capital are reported to be "minimal from a financial standpoint".

In September 2017 the court ruled that Carlyle had no liability in the lawsuit.

Carlyle has been profiled in two notable documentaries: Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and William Karel's The World According to Bush.

In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore makes nine allegations concerning the Carlyle Group. Moore focused on Carlyle's connections with George H. W. Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker, both of whom had at times served as advisers to the firm. The movie quotes author Dan Briody, who claimed that the Carlyle Group "gained" from the September 11 attacks because it owned United Defense, a military contractor, although the firm’s $11 billion Crusader artillery rocket system developed for the United States Army is one of the few weapons systems cancelled by the Bush administration. A Carlyle spokesman noted in 2003 that its 7% interest in defense industries was far less than several other Private equity firms. Carlyle also has provided detail on its links with the Bin Laden family, specifically the relatively minor investments by an estranged half brother.

In The World According to Bush, William Karel interviewed Frank Carlucci to discuss the presence of Shafiq bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's estranged brother, at Carlyle's annual investor conference while the September 11 attacks were occurring.

The following is a list of both current and former employees and advisors.