East Coast private equity giant Blackstone Group is opening an outpost in Silicon Valley.

The company, which advised Microsoft in its failed courtship of Yahoo, plans to open an office in Menlo Park, California. Heading the office will be Ivan Brockman, an investment banking veteran and Blackstone’s new senior managing director in the firm’s corporate advisory unit.

New York City-based Blackstone and Morgan Stanley advised Microsoft in its months-long effort to acquire No. 2 search company Yahoo. They faced off against Yahoo advisors Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Moelis & Company. That headline-grabbing soap opera stretched from February 1, when Microsoft made its $44.6 billion bid public, to mid-June, when it dropped plans for a full acquisition in favor of a deal for Yahoo’s search business, which also was not consummated.

A Blackstone spokesman said the office will extend the reach of the company’s advisory unit, which is headquartered in New York. Mr. Brockman joined Blackstone from Citigroup, where he was co-head of West Coast Technology Investment Banking. He also served as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, a law firm with deep roots in Silicon Valley.

Blackstone, led by Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman, made headlines in 2007, the heyday of private equity, with splashy buyouts, its own initial public offering and the lavish 60th birthday party of its leader. Mr. Schwarzman’s picture was a staple of New York tabloids, which dubbed him “king of Wall Street,” but some critics blamed Blackstone’s high profile for legislation introduced in Congress that would have taxed carried interest, the share of profits (usually about 20 percent) that general partners of private equity and venture funds receive.

Shares of Blackstone slipped $.20, or 1.1 percent, to $17.26 early Wednesday afternoon.

Tightened credit amid the subprime crisis has sliced into the profits of private equity firms, which borrow heavily to finance acquisitions. In the second quarter, Balckstone reported a net loss of $156.5 million, or $.60 per share versus profits of $774.4 million, or $.20 per share in the year-earlier period.