Its stock at an 8-year low, O.C.'s Apria Healthcare agrees to a $1.6-billion buyout by Blackstone Group June 19, 2008 | 11:14 am Apria Healthcare Group Inc., unable as a public company to turn its home healthcare services business into a consistent earnings-growth story, now will try that trick as a private company. Lake Forest, Calif.-based Apria said this morning it agreed to a $1.6-billion buyout by private-equity giant Blackstone Group.