Blackstone urges court to throw out IPO appeal

Blackstone Group (BX) urged a federal appeals court not to revive an investor lawsuit accusing it of hiding bad investments before raising $4.7 billion in its 2007 initial public offering.

By Gerry Sullivan: The Facebook (FB) initial public offering has been filed and, according to the prospectus, the company plans to sell 337.4 million shares in a range between $28 and $35. At the $31.50 midpoint, the offering will be $10.6 billion. The Morgan Stanley-managed offering is expected to be priced Thursday, May 17, and begin trading Friday, May 18.

By Abe Garver:As an investment banker focused on the web-only e-commerce sector, and creator of the Web-only Retail Index, a diverse group of constituents have asked me to comment on Facebook's (FB) IPO and the outlook for the company. Busted IPO Whenever a newly public stock falls quickly below its offering price, it's known in Wall Street speak as a broken or busted IPO.

By Suman Chatterjee:That's pretty awkward. In this global economic meltdown, one of the most popular names in the private equity and investment industry is ready to launch an initial public offering.

Renaissance Capital IPO Research submits: Vanguard Health Systems, Inc., which operates 26 acute care and specialty hospitals in five US states, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $600 million in an initial public offering. The Nashville, TN-based company was founded in 1997 and booked $3.6 billion in sales and $337 million in adjusted EBITDA for the 12 months ended December 31, 2010.