- Preqin employees are still receiving their salaries after BlackRock acquired the company for $3.2 billion.
- The staff will split about $650 million, making some of them billionaires.
- Preqin founder Mark O'Hare and his wife stand to receive roughly $2 billion after taxes.
BlackRock's $3.2 billion acquisition of data firm Preqin means some of the firm's employees are poised to receive huge paydays.
The acquisition, announced June 30, made Preqin founder Mark O'Hare and his wife billionaires.
O'Hare, who owns about 80% of Preqin through Valhalla Ventures, is set to realize about $2.6 billion from the acquisition, according to Fortune, with after-tax profits shrinking to about $2 billion.
The remaining assets, about $653 million, will be split among Preqin's management and 1,500 employees, some of whom will become billionaires.
Preqin is a financial data and analytics provider specializing in alternative investments. O'Hare founded the company in 2002. Preqin said in a press release that the company has 30,000 private market investors, 60,000 fund managers and 190,000 funds registered. The company expects revenue of approximately $240 million in 2024.
The deal makes O'Hare wealthier than BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who has a net worth of $1.7 billion. As part of the deal, O'Hare will also become vice chairman of BlackRock.
“BlackRock has a strong track record in both investment management and financial technology, and together we will accelerate our efforts to better deliver private markets data and analytics to all of our clients,” O'Hare said in a press release. “I look forward to joining BlackRock and continuing to contribute to the continued growth and success of Preqin and our clients.”
This marks O'Hare's second major sale since Reuters bought his stock ownership database, CityWatch, in 1998.
