What's in a name?

If nothing else the Carlyle Capital debacle is a good lesson in where to draw the line in extending your brand.  The Carlyle Group's partners owned only 15% of the fund, and yet they had lent it their prestigious name.  As a result the hedge fund's collapse has become a PR nightmare for Carlyle, when it could have been the disappearance of just another over-leveraged hedge fund, and little more than a (painful) personal investment loss for Carlyle's partners.  A lesson to remember for the next cycle.