BLACKROCK

'BlackRock Inc.' () is a major American investment management firm. As of June 30, 2007, BlackRock’s assets under management totaled $1.230 trillion across fixed income, liquidity, equity, alternative investment and real estate strategies.

Contents

History

Key people

Footnotes and References

External links

History

In 1988, BlackRock was founded as the Financial Management Group within the private equity firm Blackstone Group. Larry Fink, BlackRock’s founder and CEO, had joined Blackstone in 1988 as a partner, along with Ralph Schlosstein, former White House aide under the Carter administration. Before joining Blackstone, Laurence D. Fink was a Managing Director at First Boston where he pioneered the mortgage-backed securities market in the United States. In 1992, Fink and Schlosstein separated from the Blackstone Group under the name BlackRock and aggressively re-invented itself as an independent asset management company. In 1999, assets under management had grown to $165 billion and the firm decided to go public.
Much of BlackRock's recent growth can be attributed to its acquisitions. On January 28, 2005, BlackRock purchased State Street Research Management, a mutual fund business that had previously been owned by MetLife. This acquisition added a sizable equity business to BlackRock's funds, which had previously consisted almost exclusively of fixed income securities. On September 29, 2006, BlackRock completed its merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM). On June 26, 2007, BlackRock entered into an agreement to acquire the Fund of Funds business from Quellos Capital Management^[2]
Presently, headquartered in New York City, BlackRock operates 35 offices in 18 different countries, maintaining a major presence in most key markets including the United States, the United Kingdom, Asia, Australia and Europe.

Key people

★ Laurence D. Fink — Chairman & CEO

★ Robert S. Kapito — Vice Chairman

★ Charles Hallac — Head of BlackRock Solutions (Vice Chairman)

★ Paul L. Audet — Acting CFO & Managing Director

Footnotes and References

1. BlackRock Fourth Quarter 2006 Earnings press release
2. BlackRock to Acquire Fund of Funds Business from Quellos Group, LLC

External links

★ BlackRock - official site

★ Yahoo! - BlackRock Company Profile