AHG shareholders approved this transaction on October 13, 2008. The companies have offered only a broad "fourth quarter 2008" closing projection for this deal, which has generated a fair amount of concern regarding BX's intentions with respect to completing the transaction.

It will be noted that Blackstone remains somewhat of an enigma in these situations and its behavior is therefore highly unpredictable regardless of specific, or general, circumstances. However, in this particular case there appears to be no reason to expect Blackstone to simply drop this acquisition due to the broader market problems. This is not technically a major transaction from Blackstone's perspective, nor is it one that the company would have considered if it did not intend to complete the deal regardless of external issues.

Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that Blackstone may be negotiating a revised offer with reduced terms simply because it can do so fairly easily in this situation. If this deal does not close within the next week or so, it should be assumed that Blackstone has given AHG an ultimatum of an offer in the $17-18 range or facing termination of the deal.