BlackRock's megamerger with BGI closed today, creating the world's biggest money management firm with roughly $3.2 trillion in institutional and retail client assets under management.
Final terms were not disclosed.
BlackRock will be retained as the combined firm's name, while keeping the iShares brand for BGI's market-leading exchange-traded funds business, according to a news release.
Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, said in the release that the combined firm offers “truly differentiated capabilities — active, enhanced and index products — and the most talented professionals, able to identify investment opportunities, develop innovative investment solutions and capture the benefits of scale for clients.”
BlackRock will have more than 1,500 employees based in San Francisco, with a number of BlackRock executives — including Andrew Dyson, head of global institutional business — slated to relocate there, said BlackRock spokeswoman Bobbie Collins.
Prior to the merger, a total of 89 employees from both firms were terminated out of a global work force of 9,000, Ms. Collins confirmed.
