- Peak Oil Closer Than IEA Forecasts Show: Report
- Yahoo Is in Expanding Mode, Hiring: CEO
- Tyco International Profit Falls Less Than Expected
- Justices Poke Fun at Patents for the Abstract
- UK Most at Risk of Losing Top Credit Rating: Fitch
- New Lows for Stocks Next Year: Equities Bear
- GM CEO Starts Charm Tour at Opel in Germany
- Vodafone Extends Cost-Cutting Scheme, Hits Targets
- Bad Debt Weighs on Barclays Earnings
- Is 10% Unemployment Good for Stocks?
- Moon Hopes To Complete Amazing Story
- Why Google is Paying $750 Million for Ad Mob
- Warren Buffett to Sell Stakes In Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern
- Nov. 9: Unusual Volume Leaders
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Modern Warfare 2's Record-Breaking Launch
- Merck’s Mega-Monday Morning
- Why are Traders Bullish on This Food Company?
MOST SHARED
- Obama Sees Strains Unless US, China Balance Growth
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- European Commission Objects to Sun Micro-Oracle Deal
- Mad Mail: Buy the Berkshire Hathaway Split?
- GM CEO Starts Opel Charm Tour in Germany
- Future of Marketing
- A Year on, China's Stimulus Postpones its Problems
- Israel: Leader of Business Innovation
- JPMorgan Lifts Salary Freeze Amid Recovery
Text Size 
Merrill Lynch will decide whether it will sell its stake in BlackRock early this week, CNBC has learned.
 |
], but that situation could change depending on the size of Merrill's writedowns, according to people inside BlackRock.Merrill [MER
Loading...
()
] agreed to sell its investment management business to BlackRock in February 2006, taking a 49.8 percent stake in the asset manager.
Merrill has also held preliminary talks with Bloomberg about selling its 20 percent stake in the financial data and news provider. Thain recently told analysts that Bloomberg "is just an investment" while BlackRock is "more strategic", though he said Merrill may have to sell both particularly if the writedown is large enough.
People at the meeting said Thain had indicated Bloomberg would be sold first followed by BlackRock. He also said he wanted $6 billion for the Bloomberg stake, a value some Wall Street executives have said is overly optimistic. Bloomberg initially offered $3 billion.
The sale will likely be done somewhere in the middle, but with the downturn in Wall Street Bloomberg may be facing cash constraints and unable to come up with $6 billion.
But at the moment the situation is fluid and Thain could decide against selling either stake or both.
The possible sale of stakes is bittersweet for Merrill insiders and investors, who said the company is lucky to be in a position to raise cash, but that Merrill is throwing away diversified investments and future performance.
As the sales are progressing, Thian is also working to deleverage Merrill's balance sheet.
-- Reuters contributed to this report
Print
Email
- Do free market libertarians really believe what they say about ethics and shareholder value? The Big Money takes a look.
- Cramer did the research and found eight stocks that lead the pack. Read on to get his top picks.
- On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, many in the former Eastern Bloc recall communism fondly.
- With prices well below peak, gems could add some sparkle to you investments.
- From politicians to CEOs to companies, here's your chance to vote for the winners and losers of 2009.
- The health care reform bill that passed the House on Saturday will have a much harder time in the Senate.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes