Blackstone or BlackRock, confused? CEOs Steve Schwarzman and Larry Fink actually did it on purpose (2024)

FAQs

What is the relationship between Blackstone and BlackRock? ›

It's not just the name: BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has its roots in Blackstone, the world's largest alternative investment manager. On the back of a multiyear boom in private equity and credit, it would make sense that the former wants to move closer to the business of the latter.

However, the two companies aren't really comparable by numbers alone, as they provide services to different sectors of the market and are both strong investment firms in their own rights. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager and Blackstone Group is the world's largest private equity firm.

Fink wanted to share equity with new hires, to lure talent from banks, unlike Schwarzman, who did not want to further lower Blackstone's stake. They agreed to part ways, and Schwarzman sold BlackRock, a decision he later called a "heroic mistake."

In 1988, under the corporate umbrella of The Blackstone Group, Fink co-founded BlackRock and became its director and CEO. When BlackRock split from Blackstone in 1994, Fink retained his positions, becoming chairman in 1998 after BlackRock became independent.

Imagine BlackRock, which grew into the world's biggest money manager with $5.4 trillion of assets under management, being called “BlackPebble?” BlackRock has far surpassed Blackstone in assets under management.

BlackRock is not owned by a single individual or company. Instead, its shares are owned by a large number of individual and institutional investors. The biggest institutional shareholders such as The Vanguard Group and State Street are merely custodians of the stock for their clients.

Blackstone is the world's largest alternative asset manager with $1.04 trillion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, up 7% in 2023 to a record high.

BlackRock is the world's largest investment manager, with $10 trillion of assets under management. There's a lot of misunderstanding about the companies BlackRock owns and what it does. The company owns several investment management and technology platforms.

1.2 billion USD (2024)

Larry Fink / Net worth

BlackRock, as the largest global investment management company, and a leading voice in the investment community on climate and energy transition-related investment themes, has found itself at the center of a vocal anti-ESG movement by Republican politicians in the U.S., who have accused the firm of following a social ...

Who is BlackRock biggest rival? ›

Top Competitors and Alternatives of Blackrock Investors

The top three of Blackrock Investors's competitors in the Investment And Finance Services category are Q4 with 26.30%, Coinbase with 15.94%, Orion Advisor with 9.64% market share.

Blackstone posted lower quarterly earnings, with profit hit by a decline in the value of its real-estate investments. Still, the private-equity giant reported its highest distributable earnings and fund inflows since the second quarter of 2022.

BlackRock's CEO took home $26.9m for fiscal year 2023.

He also received a bonus of $7.9m, a base annual salary of $1.5m and 'all other compensation,' which included security and other contributions, of $1m. Overall, the compensation committee assessed the executive to a meets/exceeds standard.

Blackstone Inc Chief Executive Steve Schwarzman took home $896.7 million in pay and dividends last year, a 29% decline from his record take in 2022, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

Larry Fink

Larry Fink, one of the original eight Blackrock owners and founders, currently holds the positions of CEO and Chairman and is the largest individual shareholder of the company. As of 6 November 2023, he held 435,260 shares of the asset management firm.

The partnership's first acquisition was a $295 million buyout of Prime Succession from GTCR. In 1995, Blackstone sold its stake in BlackRock to PNC Financial Services for $250 million. Between 1995 and 2014, PNC reported $12 billion in pretax revenues and capital gains from BlackRock.

BlackRock was founded in 1988 by Larry Fink, Robert Kapito, Susan Wagner, Barbara Novick, Keith Anderson, and Ben Golub. The company started as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager called Blackstone Financial Management. It was a spin-off from the private equity firm Blackstone Group.

BlackRock works largely with traditional market vehicles like stocks, bonds and ETFs. Blackstone focuses on alternative investments that aren't widely available to the public but could generate huge profits in the future.

According to the latest TipRanks data, approximately 34.23% of the company's stock is held by institutional investors, 12.86% is held by insiders, and 26.85% is held by retail investors. Vanguard owns the most shares of Blackstone Group (BX).