Blackstone Pays $300 Million for Minority Stake in Salas O’Brien

Blackstone Inc. paid $300 million to take a minority stake in engineering and technical-services firm Salas O’Brien Inc., beating out other potential investors including Ares Management Corp., according to people with knowledge of the deal.

The proceeds of the investment — in exchange for which Blackstone received convertible preferred stock — were used to make a dividend payment to all staff of the employee-owned business, who will maintain super-majority ownership of the company, Darin Anderson, chairman and chief executive officer of Salas O’Brien, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Blackstone, the $1 trillion asset manager, now owns ...