Blackstone, Apollo, KKR Probed on Overlapping Board Seats (1)

Blackstone Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc. and KKR & Co. are among private equity firms that are facing a Justice Department investigation into whether they influence boards across corporate America in ways that violate antitrust laws, according to people familiar with the matter.

Federal investigators are examining whether private equity firms’ practice of placing executives on boards of companies in the same sector harms competition, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential inquiry.

Antitrust enforcers are concerned that board directors with seats on rivals in the same sector could influence those companies to act ...