Blackstone, a global private equity heavyweight, signed on to buy BioMed Realty for $8 billion, picking up one of the life sciences industry's largest leasers of lab and office space. Blackstone expects the all-cash deal to close in the first quarter of 2016, and the purchase price presents a 24% premium over BioMed's prespeculation share price. For its money, the firm gets a realtor with 18.8 million rentable square feet for biotech companies in the global hubs of Cambridge, MA; San Francisco; San Diego and Seattle. Release