Harris cofounded New York-based Apollo Global Management L.L.C. in 1990. The company went public April 4, and its executives told investors last month that the firm had $70 billion in total assets under management, up from $56 billion a year earlier.
Harris is senior managing director of Apollo, which invests heavily in distressed properties, including real estate and the stranded assets of European banks, such as corporations, real estate, and consumer loans.
Before launching Apollo, he worked at the former Philadelphia firm Drexel Burnham Lambert. He remains active with Wharton as a member of its Undergraduate Executive Board. In Forbes' 2010 billionaire rankings, he was reported to have a net worth of $1.2 billion.
Blitzer created the London-based European office of the Blackstone Group, one of the largest private-investment groups in the world.
After joining Blackstone in 1991, Blitzer worked on several projects, including one that involved the massive shopping-mall real estate holdings of former Pittsburgh Penguins and San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Sr. and his family.
Blitzer was in charge of executing Blackstone's investments in Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. In 1994, the mall developer took his company public in a deal that, at the time, was to have converted $121 million in Blackstone debt into an 8 percent stake in the DeBartolo empire.
Today, Blitzer is senior managing director and cochair of Blackstone's private-equity group.
Messages left for Harris in New York (he was traveling overseas Tuesday) and for Blitzer at his Blackstone Group International Partners L.L.P. office in London were not returned.
Why would Harris, Blitzer, and an investor group that also includes former NBA player agent and Sacramento Kings executive Jason Levien want to buy the Sixers?
