The hits keep coming at Blackstone (BX). The private equity firm said in its annual report this week that CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman took home $350 million in cash distributions last year. Schwarzman’s big paycheck is lower than his 2006 take of $398 million, the company said in a 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fortunately, the cash distribution - reflecting Schwarzman’s stake in the firm’s profits and its funds’ carried interest and incentive fees  - wasn’t all he got. The exec also received $729 million worth of Blackstone partnership units, as well as other compensation valued at $179,482. News of Schwarzman’s hefty take comes just days after Blackstone, whose shares have dropped 57% from their peak last summer after the firm’s IPO, posted a $170 million fourth-quarter loss.

On a happier note, Schwarzman agreed earlier this week to donate $100 million to the New York Public Library, which will put his name on the side of its landmark Fifth Avenue building. “We hope to incise the name of the building in stone in a subtle, discreet way on either side of the main entrance about three feet off the ground,” the president of the library’s board of trustees told The New York Times Tuesday. “It’s in keeping with the dignity of the building.”

Tuesday was a rare good day for stocks in the alternative-investment business. As the private equity industry’s wheelers and dealers met in Munich to talk about the next huge thing, shares of Blackstone (BX), Fortress (FIG) and Och-Ziff (OZM) staged a sharp rally, rising at least 6% each. Och-Ziff, a hedge fund firm that went public back in November and has since seen its shares lose a third of their value, posted a better-than-expected adjusted profit for the fourth quarter, due in part to a lower-than-expected tax rate. It’s not clear that the earnings explain the rise in these stocks, though, which makes it at least plausible that a big institution was buying shares to build a position. Meanwhile, it has been more than three months since another private equity titan, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, last amended its IPO filing. Sure, the markets are choppy, and yes, the company is dealing with headaches tied to its KKR Financial (KFN) affiliate, which has been trying to refinance some short-term debt. But on a day like today, a rush to feed at the public trough must surely seem tempting to the rich guys who run KKR.

Private equity firms are hunkering down in the face of a slowing economy and unfriendly debt markets. But Blackstone (BX) sees an opportunity to benefit from the troubles of the Wall Street banks that have made hundreds of millions of dollars arranging buyouts in past years. The firm is hoping to cut out the middleman in future buyouts by borrowing money directly from hedge funds, mutual funds and other institutions, Bloomberg reports. “We’re bypassing the banks,” Blackstone chief Tony James said at the Super Return conference in Munich.

The comments come as banks ranging from Citi (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) to Merrill Lynch (MER) and Goldman Sachs (GS) struggle to rid themselves of a huge backlog of so-called leveraged loans taken on to fund earlier buyouts. Their efforts won’t be made easier if they lose out on fees tied to buyout deals, though it’s hard to imagine many deals happening soon anyway. “I think we are seeing a meltdown in the credit markets that has some life in terms of the downside left to it,” Scott Sperling of Thomas H. Lee Partners told Reuters. Downside is a concept Blackstone shareholders are all too familiar with, having seen their stock drop 55% from its highs since last year’s big IPO. But they’re on the right side of the ledger today, with Blackstone stock up 7%.

Maybe the Alliance Data (ADS)-Blackstone (BX) deal isn’t dead yet. Alliance Data said Friday it dropped a lawsuit it filed last month seeking to force Blackstone to complete a $6.8 billion purchase of the credit card transaction processor. Alliance Data said it dismissed the suit after reading Blackstone filings indicating the private equity firm remains committed to closing the deal.

Shares in the Dallas-based company lost more than a third of their value back on Jan. 28, when Blackstone said it couldn’t satisfy conditions being imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Shares have since recovered from that plunge but recently fetched just $55.10 apiece - some 32% below the $81.75-a-share buyout price the sides agreed to last spring.

Despite the snub and the plunge in its stock, Alliance Data is looking at the bright side. The company said Friday it has now “identified various potential solutions” to the regulatory hurdles Blackstone had cited in backing away from the acquisition. Skeptics wondered about the OCC excuse and whether Blackstone wasn’t just trying to avoid paying top-of-the-boom prices for Alliance Data in a market where leveraged buyout loans are finding few takers, but no matter. Alliance Data said Friday that it “looks forward to working together with Blackstone to effect an acceptable solution to these issues,” even as it cautioned that it can’t be sure “that an acceptable solution will be obtained or that the merger will be completed.” Let alone what price Blackstone might be willing to pay.

Looks like the skeptics were right to doubt Alliance Data’s (ADS) private equity buyout. The Dallas-based computer services company said Monday morning that its prospective buyer, Blackstone (BX), won’t complete the $6.4 billion deal. Blackstone agreed in May to buy Alliance Data for $81.75 a share in cash. But in recent months, as tight debt markets and a slowing economy scuttled a number of private equity buyouts, Alliance Data shares fell as much as 33 percent below the agreed-upon price - a sign that investors didn’t expect the deal to close. Alliance Data certainly fought the good fight, putting out at least three statements over the last two months reaffirming its belief that the deal would be completed. But on Monday, Alliance Data said it received word that Blackstone won’t close the buyout because it believes satisfying certain regulatory conditions would be onerous. Alliance Data replied it is “evaluating the company’s possible courses of action and will pursue those that best protect the interests of the company and its stockholders,” but stockholders don’t appear to be hopeful. Alliance Data shares plunged 41 percent in pre-market trading to $36.

Alliance Data (ADS) says its private equity buyout is still on, but no one seems to believe it. The Dallas-based computer company issued a press release late Thursday saying it believes its agreement to sell itself to Blackstone (BX) for $81.75 a share, or $6.4 billion, is intact. “The company believes that the transaction financing remains fully committed by the banking group,” Alliance Data said. “The company and Blackstone are continuing to work together to close the deal as quickly as possible.”

Of course, it’s understandable that investors might believe the deal is in jeopardy, given that the buyout price is half again as much as Alliance Data’s closing stock price Thursday of $52.82. Indeed, Alliance Data’s shares have continued to plunge over the past month even as the company has repeatedly issued statements standing by the deal, which was reached in May. But DealBook at The New York Times reported earlier Thursday that the deal is on track, according to people briefed on the situation. Maybe investors just can’t bring themselves to believe Blackstone would get such a lousy deal for itself.