The WSJ is reporting that The Carlyle Group is shuttering its Menlo Park office and cutting back on its global workforce by laying off 10% of its 1,000 employees.  The announcement states that the cuts are a reflection of reduced m&a activity but more specifically, reduced activity in terms of large going private transactions which have all but disappeared.

The Carlyle Group is certainly one of the larger private equity firms out there in terms of assets under management with the latest tally at $91.5 billion spread across four different disciplines.  However, with a total of 1,000 employees operating out of 33 global offices (eight in the US alone), it’s no wonder they all can’t be busy.  Similar sized Blackstone also has approximately 1,000 employees, however roughly 200 of these work outside of direct investing, and in their financial advisory group.

What’s interesting is that despite the cuts, Carlye’s career page is still up.