Blackstone reported that the trillion-dollar investment firm's Wall Street deal engine is revving back to life as it sees a pickup in initial public offerings and merger and acquisition transactions. "We are preparing a number of other companies for public offerings over the coming quarters," Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone's CEO, said during the company's second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, after pointing to the investment firm's July IPO of Cirsa, a gambling company in Spain.Jon Gray, Blackstone's p ...