BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink, Merrill Lynch’s #1 pick for CEO, is said to be taking the next two weeks to decide if he wants the job nobody else will have, including Stan O’Neal, who the board supposedly tried and failed to rehire over the weekend, according to sources familiar with the situation (Carney’s uppers). Fink’s strengths apparently include the ability to stay up late, his proven track record at a pretty successful asset manager, and his mortgage market expertise, which, though it has never been a prereq for the job before, the board was like “eh, could be a good idea to look for” when it created the listing for the position on Monster.com. According to CNBC, one minor issue issue is Fink’s stake in Blackrock, because Merrill sells BLK funds, and which would be a conflict of interest if such things existed. Given what is rumored to be a huge propensity for $5 billion to $10 billion writedowns, Enron accounting practices, and the WNBA, Fink is expected to accept the job, though is still holding on to the pipe dream that he’ll be offered the stop slot at Bear (which would explain why the seriously uncool move of leaking the weed story to the Journal last week).
Fink Considers Merrill Lynch CEO Position [CNBC]
BlackRock CEO not aware of Merrill CEO candidacy [Reuters]