BlackRock

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BlackRock Inc

Slogan	"Opportunity favors the prepared mind."
Type	Public
Founded	1988
Headquarters	New York, USA
Key people	Laurence D. Fink, CEO
Industry	Investment management
Products	Asset management
Revenue	$ 900 mil (as of 2004)
Employees	4,000
Website	www.blackrock.com

BlackRock Inc. NYSE: BLK is a major American investment management firm. As of June 30, 2006, BlackRock’s assets under management totaled $1.046 trillion across fixed income, liquidity, equity, alternative investment and real estate strategies.

[edit] 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 aid 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.

On September 29, 2006, Merrill Lynch and Co., Inc. completed the merger of the firm's investment management business, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), with BlackRock, creating one of the world's largest independent investment management firms. Merrill Lynch received a total of 65 million common and preferred shares in the combined company and has a 45 percent voting interest. The new company will operate primarily under the BlackRock name (under BlackRock-Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in EMEA Asia Pacific due to the lack of BlackRock brand awareness). Merrill Lynch owns just under half of BlackRock, one of the world's largest publicly traded investment management companies with approximately $1 trillion in assets under management.

Headquartered in New York, today 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, the Middle East and Europe.