RJ and Makay

Bank of America is selling its remaining 7% stake of Blackrock to Blackrock for $2.5 billion.  Blackrock is buying the stake, 13.6 million shares, at 187.65 a share, a 3.6% discount on the average closing price of the shares over the past 15 trading days.

The deal should make it easier for Blackrock to double its mutual fund business over the next three years, analysts say.  The firm is financing the purchase through available cash and $2 billion of medium and long-term commercial paper debt.

Lately, there has been a great amount of news about the upswing in hiring on the Street. While unemployment and job creation continue to remain sluggish nationwide, the financial services sector is starting to feel “bullish” about hiring again. At RJ & Makay we’re seeing cautious optimism throughout the industry regarding human capital hiring trends. We’re seeing first hand a steady increase in job orders this year, and a substantial jump in Q2 quantity over Q1.

News abounds in recent months regarding financial services hiring. Securities firms added almost 7,000 jobs in June according to BrokerHunter.com’s latest Employment Trends report. The finance and insurance industry added 15,200 new employees in June, the first increase since December. The New York State Department of Labor shows that New York just had the largest three-month increase in financial industry jobs (6,800) since 2008.