BlackRock-BGI integration challenges

As it so often does, technology integration just might determine the success or failure of BlackRock's $13.5 billion deal for BGI. The deal will make BlackRock the largest asset manager in the world, but with that heft comes some big decisions.

How will BlackRock integrate BGI's technology, including the market-leading iShares platform for ETFs, with its own trading operations? Will BlackRock migrate BGI's trading desk and its vast transaction-processing infrastructure onto Aladdin, the enterprise investment platform that BlackRock uses for portfolio management, operations and risk management? These are questions posed by Advanced Trading, which speculates that the integration effort may depend heavily on BlackRock Solutions.

The firm's IT unit, operates Aladdin--which by the way stands for Asset Liability and Debt and Derivatives Investment Network--its ERM platform, and its analytics and investment systems. Aladdin was slated for a big build out prior to the deal. 

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