Company Overview

Founded in 1988, BlackRock expanded quickly from a boutique advisory firm known for its bond products to a diversified asset manager and risk advisor. Its expansion included the January 2005 acquisition of MetLife’s State Street Research and Management and State Street Realty, which boosted its equity, alternative investments, and hedge fund capabilities. Its merger with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers that closed October 1, 2006 has solidified BlackRock’s global reach. As of September 30, 2006, it had over 4000 employees—including 500 investment professionals—and $1.075 trillion in assets under management. BlackRock remains independent in ownership and management. Merrill Lynch’s stake is just under 50%, while 34 percent is held by PNC Financial Services Group. The remaining shares are held by BlackRock employees and the public. All of BlackRock’s founding partners remain affiliated with the firm. BlackRock prides itself on being a technological innovator, using software to analyze securities, assess portfolio risk, and move information. Its success in portfolio analytics has been such that it’s started to sell the analysis to other financial institutions. Employees usually work in one of five areas: asset management, which includes its private client and pension plan teams, portfolio management, global operations, portfolio administration, and BlackRock Solutions, which sells financial portfolio risk-management technology solutions. The company offers an annual four-week training course for incoming professionals, designed to give them an overview of the firm as well as in-depth classes for the particular departments they'll be assigned to.