BLK

Blackrock, Inc.

One of the world's largest investment managers, BlackRock looks after money for pensions, governments, and everyday savers through funds and its famous iShares exchange-traded products, and also sells its Aladdin software to other financial firms. It began in 1988 as a risk-focused offshoot of Blackstone, founded by Larry Fink and partners. When the two split in 1994, Fink considered calling the new firm "Black Pebble," but a Blackstone leader thought that sounded too puny — so they settled on BlackRock instead.