Merrill Lynch was serious about BlackRock sale

The Financial Times reports that Merrill Lynch was serious about selling its 49 percent stake in BlackRock back to the asset manager, revealing that Merrill CEO John Thain and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink held extensive talks on the issue over several weeks. Both sides hoped to reach an agreement before earnings were released. That didn't happen, as the talks snagged on price. But Merrill obviously was able to ink a deal to sell its Bloomberg stake. Interestingly, Merrill was apparently also in talks to sell some or all of its BlackRock stake to sovereign wealth funds Temasek and the Kuwait Investment Authority. Both funds have taken huge paper losses on their Merrill investments. It's unclear how those talks developed. This raises an interesting point. Suppose Merrill needs to raise more capital. We may seem them go right back to the three potential buyers and bargain from a weaker position.   

For more:
- here's the Financial Times article

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