BlackRock layoffs coming as firm matures, ESG pullback and Bitcoin ETF approval

foxbusiness.com:

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BlackRock, the world's largest money management firm, plans to announce layoffs in the coming days of about 3 percent of its global workforce, Fox Business has learned.

The job cuts of around 600 employees, which have yet to be reported, are being described internally as routine, according to a source familiar. Last year, BlackRock did a similar round of layoffs gauged on employee performance metrics, the source added.

Shares of BlackRock rebounded in 2023, up 6 percent after falling 21 percent in 2022. New customer money into BlackRock's solid Exchange Traded Fund business exploded last year with $187 billion of inflows into the products that follow a basket of securities and trade like stocks on major exchanges.

On Wednesday, BlackRock is expecting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its new Bitcoin «spot» ETF — the first time a crypto investment product tracking the daily price of the world's most popular digital coin will be approved by securities regulators to trade on a public stock market. Other asset managers are also expecting approval for their EFTs.

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Money management firm BlackRock will announce job cuts of about 3 percent of its global workforce in the coming days, Fox Business has learned.  (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

A BlackRock spokesman would not comment on the layoffs. BlackRock is scheduled to announce fourth quarter earnings on Friday. 

One possible impetus for the layoffs is that BlackRock, after years of wild growth in assets under management or AUM, is settling into a more mature