SCOOP: More bad news for @BlackRock; @FoxBusiness has learned that the world's largest money manager is planning a significant round of layoffs as early as next week. Said to be less than 1,000 of the firm's 19,000 employees. Move comes as its once high-flying ESG biz has faced…
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) January 6, 2024
https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1743664399489860091
BlackRock layoffs coming as firm matures, ESG pullback and Bitcoin ETF approval
Coming layoffs at BlackRock could put as many as 600 employees out of work
By
BlackRock, the world’s largest money management firm, plans to announce layoffs in the coming days of about 3 percent of its global workforce, Fox Business has learned.
The job cuts of around 600 employees, which have yet to be reported, are being described internally as routine, according to a source familiar. Last year, BlackRock did a similar round of layoffs gauged on employee performance metrics, the source added.
Shares of BlackRock rebounded in 2023, up 6 percent after falling 21 percent in 2022. New customer money into BlackRock’s solid Exchange Traded Fund business exploded last year with $187 billion of inflows into the products that follow a basket of securities and trade like stocks on major exchanges.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLK | BLACKROCK INC. | 794.52 | -2.67 | -0.33% |
On Wednesday, BlackRock is expecting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its new Bitcoin “spot” ETF — the first time a crypto investment product tracking the daily price of the world’s most popular digital coin will be approved by securities regulators to trade on a public stock market. Other asset managers are also expecting approval for their ETFs.
BLACKROCK, STATE STREET FACE SUBPOENAS IN HOUSE ESG PROBE
A BlackRock spokesman would not comment on the layoffs. BlackRock is scheduled to announce fourth quarter earnings on Friday.
One possible impetus for the layoffs is that BlackRock, after years of wild growth in assets under management or AUM, is settling into a more mature phase in its business. Analyst consensus for earnings in its fourth quarter projects a 2.46 percent decline year-over-year to $8.71 a share.
BlackRock finished the third quarter of 2023 with $9 trillion in AUM though the firm has seen significant asset declines since it reached a peak of more than $10 trillion in 2022 amid wobbly financial markets. The decline in assets also came as BlackRock became a political lightning rod over its embrace of Environmental Social Governance investing, or ESG, which directs investment dollars into public companies in the sustainable energy space, or those that are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint and advocate corporate governance measures such as boardroom diversity.
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Communist China-loving @BlackRock CEO Larry Fink attacks national security as a reason to domesticate vital industries:
"We are building new chip factories in the United States. At what cost?"
Yes, Larry, much better to sole source chips from Taiwan, which China is poised… https://t.co/Mpeo59HQg9
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) January 3, 2024
